Abstract
The proliferation and consolidation of the so-called “territorial struggles” taken up by indigenous populations, quilombos and traditional communities has become one of the most debated phenomena in the social sciences dedicated to Brazilian rural issues and/or social movements. In this article we seek to analyze some of the ways in which this polysemic category has been used within these debates. We begin by presenting how certain authors have expressed the distinction that exists between the “struggle for territory” and the “struggle for land” (usually associated to groups characterized as “peasants”). We then present critical reflections on how the concept of “deterritorialization” is used within the debates, in which “territory” is associated with the resistance strategies of certain groups facing the advance of economic frontiers. Finally, we emphasize how the idea of territory may also be considered the result of certain “institutional creativity”.
Keywords:
struggles for territory; struggles for land; deterritorialization; indigenous populations; traditional communities