Pioneers, Founders and Adventurers. Land Occupation in Rondônia

Abstract

In the region of Ariquemes, during the 1970s, two directed settlement projects (called PADs) were implemented as part of the military government colonization initiative. During the fieldwork, I realized that much of what I was interested in researching in Rondônia came together under a specific characterization that identified many of those who were responsible for the land occupation in that state: the "pioneer". This article aims to discuss the use of positional categories associated with the transformation of "forest" in "land" – that is, from land with no commercial value to "open” and, therefore, farmable land – highlighting different time periods. At the time of the occupation of the land, they saw themselves as "adventurers", unfolding into another category – the "founder" – in a later historical moment. In the ethnographic description brought to the text, my goal is to point out the difference in the use of those categories by using conversations held with six pioneers.