Criança na pesca: brincadeira ou trabalho?

Abstract

The daily activities of children in a fishing community are the focus of this work. In it, we sought to understand the daily life of children and to evaluate their importance both in the productive structure of the family and in the practice of fishing activities, as well as to know their insertion in this activity in order to unveil its meaning in the scope of family production. This research took place in the fishing community of Algodoal, in the municipality of Maracanã, on the coast of northeastern Pará. An attempt is made here to contribute to the knowledge of the fishing communities of the Amazon and, consequently, to generate data for the socio-environmental characterization of these populations, this being one of the objectives of the Project Natural Resources and Anthropology of Maritime, Riverine and Lake Populations of the Amazon: Study of Man and his Environment/RENAS. The research methodology was based on the descriptive method, and the data was obtained through anthropological techniques. It is observed that the girls' work is directly linked to domestic activities, which is a determination of the mothers to reduce their workload. Their activities also take on a training character, since the intention is that they share or even replace their mothers in some activities. As for the boys, they do the same kind of work as the girls, only less intensively, until they are initiated into deep-sea fishing, when the initial picture is inverted, directing their training to fishing. The boys' training has the same objectives that are imposed on the girls: to replace their fathers in the future. It was also possible to evaluate the insertion of the boy in fishing and his importance in the family production from the exclusion of other components of the boat to insert him, thus leaving the production almost entirely in the family group.