The article focuses on the interrelations between conflicts (how they develop and how they are resolved) and social identities (their genesis and transformations). An analysis of the history of land struggles in the state of Rio de Janeiro during the 1950s and 1960s indicates that the intersecting of various social factors caused these conflicts to change shape over time - thereby requiring different forms of resolution. Moreover, the very identities of the actors were re-shaped through these experiences. Studying this history is vital if we are to relativize our current views on rural Brazil, rather than simply transposing them to earlier moments in time.
land struggles; rural social movements; peasantry and politics; social identity; state of Rio de Janeiro