Phenomena and Social Issues in Waters Amazon: Senses, Perceptions, and Social Representations

Abstract

In this study, with the main objective of observing how the senses in Amazonian communities are constituted, the perception of the subjects and their social representations about the importance, the use and preservation of water for, then, understand the logic of these communities, social phenomena and problems surrounding them, I made a qualitative research, under the theoretical framework of the Cultural Geography approach in its slope phenomenological, with Sociocultural Geography interface. The spatial areas of this study are six (06) communities inserted in two cities of the State of Rondônia: Porto Velho and Guajará-Mirim. All communities, researched, have cultural landscapes that while are in constant flow of knowledge exchange with the urban insist to and remain on the life experience with built senses and meanings, skilled or reassessed on the river banks. To reach that goal I used the following instruments for data collection: the unstructured interview and mental maps. In conducting the interviews and analysis of the narratives, I worked the method of Grounded Theory, using the software ATLAS /it. In the analysis of mental maps, I used Kozel’s methodology. In all of this study, with the help of this humanized Geography, I could note that the observed Amazonian communities exposed intimate senses in relation to waters that constitute their identities and, through these senses, identified the connections between social phenomena and problems surrounding their water, their place. Such connections lead their senses to the logic of fear and concern about the water that constitutes their place. These community logics were noticed to enable them to unity, confrontation and the ongoing search for solutions.