Práticas ambientais na construção da identidade de manifestações culturais da Comunidade Quilombola do Engenho Siqueira - Rio Formoso - PE

Abstract

Traditional communities, specifically Quilombola Communities, are culturally distinct groups that share values and symbols charged with ancestry that define what they are, their identity. Understanding how this notion of identity is constructed and which elements have influenced this construction is an extremely inviting task for research. The Quilombola Community of Engenho Siqueira - Rio Formoso / PE, object of study of this research, presents a very particular identity characteristic, which is the intimate relationship with environmental preservation and conservation. Therefore, the need

to understand the influence of environmental practices in the construction of the iden- tity and cultural manifestations of the community, has been established as the main

objective of this work. Through participant observation and the use of oral history as a research tool, it was possible to carry out the collection of testimonies and search

in the Individual and Collective Memories of the interviewees the elements that re- construct the past and the history of the community and allow us to understand how

their identity was constituted. In this way, the results demonstrate a past marked by struggle and resistance, and the extreme connection with the territory awakened the feeling of belonging and the consolidation of identity as ecological subjects. The community is vibrant and proud and states through the interviews that the conscience and environmental sensitivity expressed in the quilombo is the result of the teachings passed on by their ancestors and that are rooted in their customs. In this way, this research allows the projection of the culture and identity of a culturally subalternized

group, allowing their voice to be heard by the "other", the one who comes from out- side, inviting them to share their symbols.