Strategies of struggles and resistance of the Jambuca and Batista communities, Maranhão, Brazil

Abstract

This article publicizes the struggle and resistance of the Jambuca and Batista communities, located in Campo de Perizes, in the municipality of Bacabeira, Maranhão, in the face of capital's territorialization of their traditional living spaces and sources of supply. It presents the offensives that, over the years, have interfered in the daily reproduction of local residents, in the use of their spaces and in social relations, and the community counter-offensives, articulated through multiple forms of resistance to defend the territory and their ways of life. The methodological body of the research consisted of bibliographical, documentary and empirical studies, carried out through fieldwork, where the socio-spatial characterization of the communities was carried out, based on the identification of the territory by the residents themselves, with photographic records and interviews, including social agents and public managers involved directly or indirectly in the conflict over the territory. It can be seen that the dynamics of the struggle lie in the very internal organization of the communities, whose militancy brings together residents and different social groups in defence of the territoriality built up over more than forty years in Campo de Perizes.