Publication / Project Year: 2024

Marges i moviment: entre l’urbà i el ribeirinho en una ciutat amazònica. Etnografia i arquitectures de mobilitat a l’illa de Combu (Belém)

Peer-reviewed article on fluvial mobility practices on Combu Island, in Brazil’s urban Amazonia, and their impact on the aquatic urban space.

Available in Catalan

Ilha do Combú, Belém, Brasil, 2022. Image Natalia Figueredo

Client: Quaderns, revista de l’institut català d’antropologia

This article presents a project that aims to study the fluvial mobility practices in the riverside community of Combu Island, located in Brazil’s urban Amazonia. Mobility dynamics on the Amazonian rivers are both a material construction and a social product, constantly shaped by the mobility tactics inherent to everyday life. Generally, the existence of Amazonian territories is overlooked due to myths that portray the region as an empty green space.

Given that riverside communities depend on waterways and use rivers as their main routes, the central question posed in this article is: What can fluvial mobility and the social, economic, and cultural structures it determines and is determined by reveal about urbanism in Amazonian cities? The research analyses how these connections translate into ways of life, a relationship that goes beyond merely linking places through circulation.

Drawing from an interdisciplinary approach between anthropology and architecture, the study aims to propose a perspective focused on understanding how river routes interact with everyday life in the case of Combu Island, considering the rivers and the caboclo communities.

Marges i moviment: entre l’urbà i el ribeirinho en una ciutat amazònica. Etnografia i arquitectures de mobilitat a l’illa de Combu (Belém)

Ilha do Combú, Belém, Brasil, 2022. Image Natalia Figueredo

Client: Quaderns, revista de l’institut català d’antropologia

Project Year: 2024

Available in Catalan

Peer-reviewed article on fluvial mobility practices on Combu Island, in Brazil’s urban Amazonia, and their impact on the aquatic urban space.

This article presents a project that aims to study the fluvial mobility practices in the riverside community of Combu Island, located in Brazil’s urban Amazonia. Mobility dynamics on the Amazonian rivers are both a material construction and a social product, constantly shaped by the mobility tactics inherent to everyday life. Generally, the existence of Amazonian territories is overlooked due to myths that portray the region as an empty green space.

Given that riverside communities depend on waterways and use rivers as their main routes, the central question posed in this article is: What can fluvial mobility and the social, economic, and cultural structures it determines and is determined by reveal about urbanism in Amazonian cities? The research analyses how these connections translate into ways of life, a relationship that goes beyond merely linking places through circulation.

Drawing from an interdisciplinary approach between anthropology and architecture, the study aims to propose a perspective focused on understanding how river routes interact with everyday life in the case of Combu Island, considering the rivers and the caboclo communities.