Memórias do garimpo: vida e trabalho de garimpeiros clandestinos no ciclo do ouro na Amazônia brasileira (1960-2000)

Abstract

This thesis has as object of study the world of work in the manual exploitation of gold in the Brazilian Amazon in the period from 1960 to 2000. It was with the discovery of mineral reserves and the implementation of large projects for the exploitation of Amazonian wealth, that a big contingent of miners. Coming from the most varied economic activities and regions of the country, many of them from the countryside and unemployed, these garimpeiros bear on their bodies the marks of a way of working the most rustic and brutal of man with nature. After four decades, with the closure of the garimpos, we searched the memory of these garimpeiros for their work histories, their living conditions, their defeats, their bamburros, their family relationships, the parties, their hopes and disappointments, their forms of organizations alternatives in the absence of the State, your tactics and strategies of struggles and survivals. Many are already old and many others mature, but they bring the memory of their experiences. These facets of the garimpeiros daily lives were studied with the methodological resources of oral and socio-cultural history. In the mold of free interviews, we capture the reality of their experiences, kept in their memories and brought to light by the memories of these workers who helped to build the contemporary Amazon.