Memórias da produção artesanal da cal no Segundo Distrito de Caruaru-PE : cultura do trabalho e a paisagem cultural no Povoado do Juá – 1950-1980

Abstract

The artisanal production of lime was an important economic activity in part of the Second District of Caruaru throughout almost the entire 20th century, attracting men and women of different ages to explore the natural resources (limestone and firewood) that were the basis for processing lime in the ovens. The intensification of this activity in people’s lives and communities in the region was capable of modifying one of the most characteristic elements of a social group, the culture, in addition to causing natural changes, the landscape. Therefore, we seek to analyze in memories the culture that has been constituted as a result of the work of making artisanal lime in the region and, in the environment, perceive in the landscape the elements that present and demonstrate the interference and importance of production in the period between the 1950s to 1980s. Therefore, we sought to refer to authors such as E. P. Thompsom (1981), who in his analyzes shows that culture is an integral part, created and validated by the members of a society, something that is shaped by their experiences and needs – giving us the opportunity to see it through the concept of Work Culture (Antunes, 2009 and Silva, 2003) based on the memories we gathered through interviews, we sought to promote an approximation with the ideas of sociologist Halbwachs (1990), who states that these Memories are “ collective” since they were made by the group and are remembered by the members. Another important concept for the work is that of cultural landscape (Menezes, 2002 and Ribeiro, 2007), shaped by the hunger of the ovens, which motivated the widespread consumption of natural resources, and becoming one of the results of the entire process of exploration and transformation into cal, as the landscape carries marks that are also shared memories between men and nature. These assessments help to interpret and recognize part of the history of Povoado do Juá and neighboring communities that worked in the artisanal production of lime, – stories of people who never had the opportunity to be recognized through the lens of history or another science.