Political organization and struggle for difference: collective actions of the Rede Puxirão dos povos e comunidades tradicionais

Abstract

During the last decades collectives that auto-recognise themselves and are recognised as traditional peoples and communities have been assembled throughout the country. These groups were politically formed through mobilisations for their recognition and for the access to rights, especially territorial ones. In order to understand these processes, we discuss the collective organisation of the Rede Puxirão de Povos e Comunidades Tradicionais do Paraná, that assembles eight segments: indigenous people, faxinalenses, quilombolas, cipozeiros, artisanal fisherfolk, islanders, holders of traditional knowledge, and terreiro communities. The organisational processes are constructed through relations among these segments whose collective action happens by alterity and recognition of differences.