Territórios sobrepostos, histórias entrelazadasAcre; correrias entre fronteiras étnicas e nacionais

Abstract

Since the middle of the 19th century and for more than a hundred years, rubber plantations have dominated the cultural scene in the Amazon. In Acre the rubber tree was the model of territorial occupation, political and socioeconomic transformation, it was within its limits, its rules, its traditions and customs, that the lives of thousands of people, most of them indigenous people of different ethnicities, passed and cultures. The justification for this thesis is that until a few decades ago, a rubber tree represented not only an immense property, but a whole gear with roots in a historical process of conquest and colonization in the region. The occupation, conquest and productive exploitation of the rubber plantation, was carried out by external migrant actors from different regions of Brazil and even from other countries, with bellicose communication strategies. The violent expeditions led to the death and capture of thousands of indigenous people, men, women and children. To think today that the frictions between Indians and non-Indians in Brazil were episodes of the past, is to be inattentive to the news that are frequently presented in the media. Occasionally, we see that Indians took over the headquarters of FUNAI, took hostages, manifestations in a public square, “whites” invade indigenous lands, illegally remove wood from the reserves, in turn, nonindigenous farmers, are expropriated from their rice plantations. Garimpeiros looking for gold or precious stones enter the forests confronting integrated or withdrawn Indians. The applied methodology is the exploratory history that seeks subsidies to foster these perspectives. In conclusion, the quarrels are many and the most varied, supporting the thesis that much still needs to be done to contain this violence in most Brazilian states. In Acre it is no different, far from over with indigenous woes, the extraction of rubber, wood, Brazil nuts, agricultural exploitation, and more recently oil exploration in search of natural gas and oil in the heart of the forest and the enticement of drug traffickers, continues to expel traditional peoples from their habitat, when they offer resistance, they are still eliminated. Jagunços, henchmen or professional killers, were hired in the near past, to be in charge of "cleaning" the forest areas that were of interest to the "white" man. What is frightening is that the "near past" has not yet passed, and the friction, however, exists in high incidence, and it is not just fries of little importance, as they continue to produce deaths on both sides that the actions of the authorities escape