CRIA Seminars 2026
The CRIA Seminars 2026 form an annual series that brings together the four research groups within a shared programme, promoting the presentation and discussion of ongoing research, research projects, as well as books and other scientific publications.
This initiative aims to strengthen the sharing of scientific work and to foster dialogue across different areas of research, offering a comprehensive overview of the themes, approaches, and methodologies that characterise CRIA’s scientific output. The sessions take place on Fridays at 12:00.
Session 6 – 'Between Waters and Spreading Lands: The Traditional Agricultural System, Territorial Resistance, and the Struggle for Environmental Justice of the Vazanteiros in the Middle São Francisco - Brazil
With Ana Thé (Visitante CRIA NOVA FCSH | UNIMONTES)
The presentation will address the Traditional Agricultural System (SAT) of the quilombola, vazanteira, and fishing communities of the Middle São Francisco in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Starting from an analysis of the agrarian and environmental conflicts that have marked the region since the 1970s, the talk will cover the historical context of territorial dispossession—from the application of Brazil's Land Law to the establishment of large-scale ventures, such as the Jaíba Project and the construction of hydroelectric plants—and the paradoxical creation of integral protection Conservation Units as a form of compensation, which resulted in the criminalisation and forced displacement of these populations. In contrast to the conflict narrative, the vazanteiro way of life will be presented based on their ethnoecological knowledge, their multiple identity (quilombola, vazanteira, and fishing), the territoriality marked by water cycles, the management of the Vazanteiro SAT, the riverside cosmopolitics, and the relations with non-human and more-than-human beings. The lecture will highlight the collectively built resistance strategies, such as the self-demarcations and re-takings of territories (cases of Pau Preto, Lapinha, and Caraíbas), the Nova Cartografia Social (New Social Cartography), the elaboration of free, prior, and informed consultation protocols, and, more recently, the mobilisation for the recognition of the Vazanteiro SAT as a biocultural heritage. This last point is inspired by the exchange of experiences with other communities, such as the Apanhadoras de Flores do Espinhaço (Flower Harvesters of Espinhaço)—the first Brazilian traditional agricultural system recognised as GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems) by the FAO. The exposition will also highlight the role of participatory research and the choice for an "anthropology by demand" adopted by the NIISA/LEAEH-Unimontes team in the co-production of knowledge that strengthens the struggle for territorial rights, environmental justice, and the defense of sovereignty over their food systems as a strategy of resistance to the climate crisis.
