From Landscape to Territory: the art of colored sand bottles and experiences of social mapping in Majorlândia/CE, Brazil.
ISBN 978-85-88783-11-9
Authors
1de Sá Freire Ferreira, T.; 2Lima Daou, A.M.; 3Leal de Menezes, P.M.
1PPGG/UFRJ Email: tatidesa@hotmail.com
2PPGG/UFRJ Email: anadaou@gmail.com
3PPGG/UFRJ Email: pmenezes@acd.ufrj.br
Abstract
This paper focuses on the use of social mapping tools in a geography research, on fieldwork conducted with the participation of groups of artisans, working with colored sand bottles, in Majorlândia/CE, Brazil. Located in the touristic region of Canoa Quebrada, the village hosts a tradition of handicraft that goes back six decades. The technique of clear glass bottles filled with colored sands of fine particles size, involves the extraction, the preparation, the art on the bottles and the sale of objects, which is the main source of income to about thirty families. Ties of kinship and friendship involve families who are dedicated to work with the bottles of sand in the village. The research used social mapping techniques, applied with an ethnographic bias, valuing the traditional spatial knowledge and privileging the role of social actors as authors of their own maps. In social mapping, three different methodologies were used: workshops of mental maps and ethnomapping and also hiking reconnaissance. The different experiments showed the existence of social markers of shared space, in other words, for convergence in spatial references made by those who produce and sell bottles of colored sand. A compilation of the social markers from the space was transformed into vectorized data of points, lines and polygons, georeferenced in ArcGIS 10.1 software. It were created several thematic maps, where the territory of the involved artisans can be glimpsed on a georeferenced base map. Belonging to the self-affirmation process of the group, on the authorship of their own maps, the legend making was supported on selected icons choose from a repertoire created by themselves. The mapping process also revealed both internal conflicts, divisions between those who were involved in the experiments, as stimulated the development of a common history linked to the production of the bottles, the record of the landscape and to control access to the deposits of sand, as part of its territory. The research indicates that the use of participatory mapping methodologies favored the sharing of traditional knowledge and spatial tensions and interests that permeate the group of artisans. The work to preparing the social mapping may show a risk mobilization by ensuring access to environmental resources, for the preservation of the landscape and the recognition of its territory as part of a way of life.
Keywords
SOCIAL CARTOGRAPHY; PARTICIPATORY MAPPING; CEARÁ