A AGRICULTURA FAMILIAR E O DESENVOLVIMENTO SUSTENTÁVEL: PROBLEMAS CONCEITUAIS E METODOLÓGICOS NO CONTEXTO HISTÓRICO DA AMAZÔNIA

Abstract

The article presents a critical review of theoretical and methodological concepts on which analytical works about Amazon peasantries since the 1960s are based. The vision of Amazon peasants as shifting cultivators with low productivity who destroy their ecological habitat and are condemned to disappear due to the advance of large properties (the model of the frontier cycle) is contrasted with the tendency of consolidation of family agriculture based on more complex production systems including permanent cultures, small animals and cattle. This tendency has been detected more clearly in the Northeast of Pará, but has been statistically confirmed also for the State of Pará and the Northern Region of Brazil. This means that the hypothesis of the frontier cycle has limited validity for older colonization regions. However, research on recent frontiers showed production systems which concentrate on cattle in the South of Pará and on permanent cultures at the Transamazônica. These systems cannot be simply classified as shifting cultivation but they represent different trajectories from the Northeast of Pará.