Contabilidade sazonal na Comunidade São Francisco, na Ilha da Costa da Terra Nova, do Careiro da Várzea-Am

Abstract

The large variations in rising and falling river levels make Amazonian riverside communities vulnerable to floods and extreme droughts, which requires these communities to have a great capacity to adapt to difficult situations. In this sense, the objective of this research was to study, analyze, and demonstrate the praxis of the community members in their seasonal accounting through income and expenses in the São Francisco community, on the Terra Nova Coast Island - Careiro da Várzea, in the Amazon, where the community has an interaction with the waters and the forest. In this context, we analyzed the socio-environmental impacts during the four seasons - flood, rising, falling, and drying of the waters - which demand great skills from the men, women, and animals that interact on the Island, and the direct influence of these seasons on the daily lives of the community's population, in addition to the ways of life of the community members (peasants) and/or riverside dwellers, their monthly income and their expenses with housing, food, clothing, production expenses, loss of infrastructure, economic sectors, and the way the State helps them during the most difficult periods. To this end, we used the methodology of quantitative research through the application of semi-structured open forms (interviews) in loco, as well as secondary data in publications and official documents. The interviews were voluntary and spontaneous, without interference from the researcher, so that the interviewees used their knowledge, customs, and experiences acquired in the community and passed on from generation to generation. Finally, the study/research shows a panorama of the community's way of life, since it understands the movement of drought and extreme flooding in the lives of the community members (peasants) in order to demonstrate the seasonal accounting in the community, which culminates in a surplus in the peasants' economy. It was also observed that there is a very high degree of topophilia, which concerns the bonds of affinity between man and places, which in the words of Yi-Fu Tuan (1980, p. 106) means the "human love for place," as the inhabitants demonstrate this love for the locality. Keywords: sustainability; economy; drought; flood; mores; community.