Para além das fronteiras: as construções identitárias nas relações com os “outros” (um estudo de caso das relações entre colonos e assentados no oeste paranaense).

Abstract

The present study aimed to discuss the issue of identities and differences, taking the rural district of São Salvador / Cascavel – PR as the research local. We seek to understand the interactions among the members of the community Linha São Roque and their nteractions with the neighboring settlement Colônia Esperança, with the cultural studies about identity (HALL, 2005); (WOODWARD, 2007; SILVA, 2007) as theoretical base, paying attention to the fact that the interactions occur at the borders between groups (Barth [1969] 1998), where are established the contrasting identities of "we" before the "others". However, and based on such theoretical frameworks, we seek to investigate the process, emphasizing that the opposition of identity is not rigid, being necessary the observation of the social flowsthat cross these boundaries (HANNERZ, 1997). This perspective is consistent with the understanding that the countryside is not homogeneous, but multifaceted WANDERLEY, 2000b), and that’s what could be observed through the utilization of the participant observation technique and of the oral history methodology. Research exercise that was made, taking as universe the colonos (colonists) and assentados (landless people which got settled in a land), and that lead us to realize that in order to understand such actors in the present, we needed to look over the history of that region, the one they emerge from and acted on before themselves in the past, moving the set of identities. Initially, the colonos classify different as the indigenous, the caboclo. In a second time, the squatter in the midst of processes of (de) territorialization (HAESBART, 1997) and of legitimation of himself and illegitimacy of the “other” in the re-occupation in the West of Paraná. In the current context, while analyzing the relationship of identities between colonos and assentados, it was noticed that the ethos of work is a main reference to guide the ideal models of people from that place, this way, the understanding of that heterogeneous rural world, with specific identities, does not remove the reference to a familiar farm work ethic in a relatively autonomous way, which constitutes itself as an ideal model of person, having as parameters the strong colonos. The social inclusion of those who struggle for land, that scenario involves not only the rise in social status as assentados, but the desire to remain on lots and be recognized as "strong”. Such social constructions revealed in this case study brought the perception of that during the search for land, or for establishing in one, the social relationships occurred in there not only involve reciprocity, solidarity, but also conflicts, disputes over public resources and legitimacy toward the State and society. We emphasize, finally, that the settlements generate impacts on local communities and are impacted by them, once they socially interact and daily (re) produce identities and differences.