RESEARCH IN THE AMAZON AND THE CHALLENGES OF BUILDING SYMMETRICAL RELATIONSHIPS IN SITUATIONS OF SOCIO-CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONFLICT

Abstract

Research in communities, whether made up of indigenous peoples or traditional populations, demands theoretical-methodological paths that promote symmetries, dialogical relationships and, mainly, recognize the value of the different knowledge of social agents, removing them from the condition of “informants”, to recognize them as collaborators. In this article we aim to reflect on the experiences in field research and the adoption of methodological triangulation in a socio-anthropological study carried out with four indigenous communities located in the Tupé and Puranga Conquista Sustainable Development Reserves, in the state of Amazonas. The emergence of these communities is related to conflicts involving distinct social agents and agencies around the tourist activities carried out by them. The analysis of the paths taken leads us to conclude that the perception of social reality is better understood when we make use of different methodological strategies and when we consider, as Latour (2012) advises us, that social relationships and plots are compositions of a network formed by human and non-human agents, through which it is possible to understand the context, in the specific case of communities, understand the origin of conflicts and their permanence.