Sentidos de lugar na comunidade rural Serra do Cavalo, em Água Branca, Alagoas

Abstract

The process of identification of the subject with a certain place requires experience, intentionality, and interactions. Each subject appropriates and experiences the place in a particular way, and their experiences lead to the constitution of values linked to the lived space. Thus, the scope of this research consists of analyzing the constitutive relations through the appropriation and identification of/with the place Serra do Cavalo, in the city of Água Branca, state of Alagoas. To this end, we define as specific objectives i) to reveal the toponymic meaning of the referents of Serra do Cavalo; ii) to identify relations of conviviality with the place; iii) to understand the meanings of place for the community's residents. To prepare this dissertation, we based our analysis on a qualitative and phenomenological approach, guided by the study of the essences, identities, senses, and meanings of the subjects in the space of existence, based on Merleau-Ponty (2018), Dardel (2015), Relph (1979) and Tuan, (1980; 1983). Due to their theoretical-conceptual itineraries, we highlight the use of research procedures and instruments, such as: documentary, bibliographic, and photographic surveys, direct observation, and semi-structured interviews. Direct observation and semistructured interviews were carried out based on a script drawn up to unveil the senses of place and toponymic meanings, ways of being, ruralities, appropriations, localities, belonging, identity, and conviviality. The meanings of the place Serra do Cavalo were the guiding thread that led us in this context of subjectivity permeated, above all, by the meanings, values, attachment, belonging, memories, stories, and perceptions of the residents about the place. In this dissertation, we learned that the place is where everything happens. The place is the space of the possibility of being, it is the condition of existence. It is where we are invited to realize our human condition: experimenting, experiencing, learning, feeling, and perceiving. The place is complex because it is made up of different meanings, but it is there that we experience multiplicity in unity. The sense of place of Serra do Cavalo is related to community participation, integration, the feeling of belonging to the whole, sharing, culture, and ways of being directly linked to rurality.