O Fetichismo da Fronteira: a formação de Rondônia na Amazônia brasileira

Abstract

This research focuses on the process of the formation of Rondônia, highlighting the representations of frontiers and colonization used since the Portuguese colonies in confrontation with the Spanish ones, through Catholic missions, mining, indigenous posts tutored by SPI, up to the colonization by INCRA, a type of agrarian reform tutelage. Parallel to this, there were demarcations of Indigenous Lands and the arrival of projects that proposed improvements and regulations for occupations and the use of raw materials, following new capitalist concepts that introduced development ideas, thus controlling the "unchecked advances" of the “recent colonization”. The study prioritizes two major “frontier zones”. The first is fluvial, formed by the Guaporé, Mamoré, Madeira rivers, and their tributaries. The other is terrestrial and concerns the access between the Midwest and the Amazon through the road initiated by the Strategic Telegraph Lines Commission from Mato Grosso to the Amazon (1906 to 1909), which was a reference for the construction of the BR 29 highway, currently BR 364. In the academic literature on the subject, it is common to find representations of this conjuncture, denominating it as “recent colonization”, also called “agricultural frontier” by public policies, having the BR 364 as a reference for Colonization Incentive Projects. In a broader scenario, this process, besides Rondônia, also reached Mato Grosso and Pará, being called the “expansion front”. In this new "frontier zone," besides mining, two agencies stood out in this process: FUNAI and INCRA. Created between the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were designated to be specialists in territory demarcation and resource exploitation, with control over the occupation and circulation of specific populations, such as farming families and indigenous peoples. The fetishism of the frontier is an instrument of domination, as in situations where the frontier is treated exclusively as a natural element and territory available for occupation, the social relations, conflicts, and labor exploitation used in this process are concealed. Thus, the research demonstrates that the fetishism of the frontier is formed by the intersections between capitalism, violence, and the social representation that supports colonization.