THE COMMUNITIES’ IDENTITY REAFFIRMATION PROCESSES AND THE CONSTITUTION OF ALTERNATIVE CULTURAL LANDSCAPES IN THE RIO DOCE AND JEQUITINHONHA VALLEYS/MG - BRAZIL

This article records the accumulation of experiences obtained by investigations undertaken by researchers linked to the Postgraduate Program in Geography of the IGC / UFMG and developed within the framework of projects sponsored by FAPEMIG, in two emblematic regional contexts of Minas Gerais: the valleys of the rivers Doce and Jequitinhonha. These researches aimed to decode the problematic of traditional communities, (re) interpreting them in the optics of Cultural Geography and Ethnopolitics/Ethnoenvironmentalism, through qualitative methodologies developed in field works carried out in the municipalities of Santa Maria de Itabira, Carmésia and Resplendor (River Doce valley);Minas Novas, Chapelinha, Tourmalina and Angelândia (Jequitinhonha Valley), in which categories of analysis and paradigms of explicitly geographical emergence processes in loco interpretation were used. These studies enabled the orientation of Master's Dissertations and PhD Theses directed to Landscape Studies, which allowed the identification of alternative landscapes emergence processes in loco. Patasho and Krenak Indian societies and Maroons communities settled in Barro Preto (Rio Doce valley), Alto dos Bois, Córrego do Engenho and Barra do Capão (Angelândia/ Jequitinhonha valley - MG) were studied in this context