THE TIME OF THE FIERCED BOSSES: FRAGMENTS OF THE HISTORY OF HUMAN OCCUPATION IN THE AMANÃ SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RESERVE

Abstract

This article aims to present some aspects of the social and economic history that characterized the human occupation of the Sustainable Development Reserve Amanã territory from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Data comes from oral reports of people living in several towns, collected during intensive field research. The oral stories tell about the difficulties and challenges faced by dozens of families in order to guarantee their subsistence; about the ways that extrativism was conducted as the basic economic enterprise in the region; and also the role played by the traders (the employers), in the process of occupation of that territory, and its subsequent replacement by other agents of development. Key Words: Amazonian history, social memory, migration.