Based on the observation that land occupations with camps currently place an unavoidable demand on the Brazilian state for land expropriation and redistribution, the article analyzes the sociogenesis of this discourse. The authors seek to: examine how the first landless camps emerged; understand how men and women mobilized to occupy land; and identify relations between the original landless camps in Brazil and the current ones. The article takes a comparative approach, focusing on the individuals involved in the first land occupations in the South, Southeast, and Northeast of the country. In the conclusion, the authors show how such discourse draws on individual initiatives and the intersection between historical processes, the constitution of movements, and the response by the Brazilian state.
land occupations; landless camps; agrarian reform