The article discuss the relationship between small producers and the State in the Brazilian Amazon, through situations that started in the middle of XXth century, in different contexts and with different state policies for territorial management. It recovers the fact that in the 1970's and 1980's, the State systematically condemned traditional forms of space appropriation common to collectivities of small producers and standardized the form of control over the land through the legal concept of private property, aiming at the integration of the region to national economy through large corporations. It also reflects on the effects of the process of re-democratization of the country and the diffusion of environmental policies in the following decades, when social movements of small producers made alliances with environmentalists, became politically more influential, and the projects of sustainable development began to compete with other development projects. Taking as an example the process of creation of two environmental protected areas in the Jurua River, in the Amazonas state, that involved small producers and agencies of the federal government related to Agrarian Reform and Environment, we argue about the extent to which the relationship between the State and the small producers of the region have change substantially due to this context.
Emerging social subjects; Peasantry; State; Territory; Jurua River; Amazon