"Batear a memória": histórias e trajetórias de vida de ex-trabalhadores da garimpagem de ouro na Amazônia

Abstract

This research constitutes an ethnography of the memory of garimpeiros, now residents in Santarém-PA, who worked in the gold fields of the Amazon region. Between the 1960s and 1980s, the Brazilian Amazon lived the largest gold rush in the country's history, there was intense migratory movement of workers from all regions of Brazil to the Amazon region. In general, this phenomenon produced territorial and demographic rearrangements, promoting deep transformations in the social, cultural and economic relations of the region. In the present research, the analysis of the memories occurs from the records of the biographical narratives of the former garimpeiros with the objective to understand the social and cultural dynamics inherent to the garimpagem, as well as, to reflect the emotions and the senses attributed by the subjects on the elaborated life experiences in the garimpo. It was perceived in the process of analysis the garimpo as an ambivalent place to the narrators, because hour they narrated nostalgia of the good, happy life and at the same time they denoted to a violent space and of heavy work, suffered susceptible to lose the life at any moment.