Mulheres e conflitos socioambientais: saberes e olhares das camponesas sobre os impactos da soja na Serra do Centro, Campos Lindos/TO

Abstract

The study of women and socioenvironmental conflicts, looks and knowledge of peasants on the impacts of soyabeans on the “Serra do Centro”, seek to give visibility to peasant women and their lifestyles. Because the life of peasant women on areas of social and environmental conflicts is permeated by diverse inequalities, in addition to the violence intrinsic to the patriarchal model of society, women with leadership experience in cases of extreme violence, such as murder and the loss of common goods, which are sources of their livelihoods. In “Serra do Centro”, the socio-environmental conflict came together with soyabeans farmers in “Campos Lindos” Agricultural Project on 1997, which is the major project of private economic and political interests, with a regional and national dimension. There are already more than twenty years of conflict, and the traditional territory on the lifestyle of peasant women have undergone great transformations. Therefore, the objective of the study was to identify and reflect on the socio-environmental impacts generated by the Project on the life of peasant women based on their looks and understandings. And to build the plot of this story, a social mapping of the knowledge and looks on the peasants of “Raposa / Ribeirão D'anta” was carried out, reflecting on women's life histories, relationships with the environment, insertion into political organization, social and family life and what these women advocate as development. And to understand the space lived by peasants and the changes of this same space, in view of the socio-environmental transformations that occurred in Raposa / Ribeirão D'anta after the implantation of soybean crops, the territory dynamics was mapped, identifying the daily relations of women in the lived space. The research is qualitative, participatory and has as methodological procedure in the record of the life history of women, the talk wheel and the social mapping in the occupation of the territory on “Raposa / Ribeirão D'anta” community by peasants. It should be noticed that the knowledges, doings and looks of the peasant women have a deep relationship with the ancestry and with the environment they live. They place themselves as a part of the nature and knowing that if they preserve, they could enjoy the economic, medicinal and food potential of the cerrado's biodiversity. Thus, their lives in the Serra do Centro are marked by the sweetness of the fruits on cerrado and the bitter feeling of unrest with the insecurity on the land tenure, violence, contamination of water by agrochemicals and deforestation. It is concluded that because the men go to work in the soybean fields to supplement the income of the families, the women suffer from the overload of work and responsibilities with the family: taking care of the children; doing the housework; working in the countryside / working in school; being a wife; and fighting in defense of the territory. This excess of responsibilities has also contributed to physical and psychological illnesses.