Cartografias Ribeirinhas: território e territorialidade das comunidades do Porto do Capim no estuário do rio Paraíba do Norte

Abstract

The study of traditional peoples and communities, by their daily material and/or symbolic practices, is a very effective way of understanding of their particularities, in relation to urban-industrial societies. In this line of argument, these studies allow the understanding of territory necessary for the daily cultural practice of traditional peoples and communities to exist and perpetuate themselves, using myths, beliefs, festivals, religious manifestations, dances, social and Family relations and various form so obtaining and using natural resources, of the same. The present study aims to understand the relations between the Riverside community of Porto do Capim, with the estuary of Paraíba do Norte river, under the symbolic approach, in other words, it seeks to understand how the daily practices of Porto do Capim are spatialized in the estuary, and how such practices shape the cultural and territorial identity of the mentioned community, configuring its "feeling belonging to the territory", its territoriality, thus enabling, under the approach of Social Cartography, such territory to be delimited and allowing the cartographic visibility of its inhabitants. Among the cultural practices studied, there are: fishing, extractivism (mollusks and crustaceans), religious manifestations, and relations with the beings Pai do Mangue and Comadre Fulozinha, aiming it’s understanding, through them, about the sense of belonging, and symbolic, that the community maintains with the estuary, rivers and mangroves. In conclusion, it links between the many ways of 'being-knowing-living', identified there, with the concept of Intangible Cultural Heritage, thus how the legal and normative instruments, national and international, that seek to protect and safeguard the Culture and the territories in which it is rooted and manifested. It’s a qualitative research, in which nonprobabilistics sampling of the intentionalty type was used, with the application of semistructured interviews, besides the photographic records and collections of coordinates. Data analysis was done through transcriptions of the interviews' discourse and the treatment of the coordinates in geoprocessing software. The research established that, besides setting up a recognized traditional community, gifted with great cultural diversity, Porto do Capim lays its roots beyond the Varadouro, dilating territoriality by a considerable part of the estuary and thus radiating its culture. Therefore, it’s obligatory nature that Public Authority, specially the Municipal Authority, recognize the incalculable value of traditional knowledge and practices presente at Community of Porto do Capim, for João Pessoa city and its culture.