As retomadas de terras na dinâmica territorial do povo indígena Tapeba: mobilização étnica e apropriação espacial

Abstract

This dissertation discusses the repossession of lands by the indigenous Tapeba tribe, which population is about six thousand and is geographically located around the city of Caucaia, the third largest in Ceará and part of the metropolitan region of Fortaleza. The retake actions are understood as the actions politically organized by the indigenous population, aimed to occupy traditional areas to which they are not allowed to enter and/or exploit. This analysis discusses the relationship between the ethnicity and territoriality of said tribe, starting especially in the 1980s, inserted within a political inter-social area. Over the past twenty-five years, the land demarcation process of the Tapeba indigenous areas underwent three identification and delimitation studies, all stopped by the Courts. Given the slow progress of the land regularization legal actions and the advance of urbanization over their territory, the land repossession actions have been used by the indigenous people in order to secure a greater control over the territorial management. The social, political and economic disputes are perceived, in the spatial dimension, by the multiple uses and interests that have an effect and overlap over the Tapeba lands. It can be said that the de facto appropriation promoted by said repossession actions secured a considerable improvement in the quality of life and a greater autonomy to those dwelling in or exploiting such lands.