Ambiente Flutuante: os significados e identidade de lugar de moradores de casas flutuantes

Abstract

Place Identity is based on our experiences throughout life in certain contexts or environments, which somehow had meaning in our existence and contributed to our composition as psychological beings. The house has not only physical meaning such as shelter and dwelling, but also emotional and affective meanings which are historically constructed by the residents in their social relations. This way, there's close relationship between cultural, social, economic and psychological aspects in the formation of identity of place. This study aimed to investigate the meanings and identity of place and their implications in shaping the social identity of the inhabitants of houseboats in the city of Coari-AM. The research of qualitative descriptive exploratory approach included a multi methods approach to better understand the environmental relations of the floating dwelling. The techniques adopted were: a) documental research along governmental bodies to obtain data on the housing and its occupants; b) participant observation along with , photographs and spontaneous interviews with old residents and c) semi-structured interviews with 30 residents (25W, 5 M) aged 18 years or over resident for at least six months at the place. The results showed that the people who live on a floating house embody in their own history the cultural experiences from the amazon environment, that is, its geophysical environment e the cultural practices in that relation, including the joy and the suffering as time passes by. The cultural waves signalised the city bay as the only possible housing in town. Living in a floating house in the city bay is far away from being a fancy environment. Living at the river surface is to foresee either the physical and social difficulties. Living over the waters is to float while they hope to be recognised as citizens. On this territory, the occupant is not recognised by the others, such as city administrators, as they live in a non-existing territory, they have no streets, no land, not even an address. The residents believe that due to living on this place, the city does not give them opportunities. Their invisibility is so evident that over them are thrown the city leftovers. Living in this place is to be socially invisible and to have always to fight to be recognised as citizen with all the needs regarding their social economic conditions, even with the consolation of being privileged to see the horizon on the river.