Go behind the fish:

Integration strategies and ethnic-cultural diffusion in fishing villages on seacost south of RS-Brazil

Abstract

This article deals about territoriality processes related to the ethno-cultural configuration of fishing villages of the south coast of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, through migratory flux, partly triggered by conflicts related to the port-industrial and agro industrial expansion on the fishing territories of the coastal zone, as well as the development of the fishing market. Faced with these situations of change, survival strategies of these groups were taking place, leading in turn to the integration and cultural diffusion among different ethnic groups, considering their work practices and their kinship logic. Thus, I seek to present processes of migratory flows of ethnic groups mainly by the way of territorial conflicts and by the native orientation of "going behind the fish". It also points to the configuration of a "territory of the socially excluded", where the beach offers possibility of surviving these groups, through working and relationships between local communities, to those who come from outside. Then, I treat to approaching the formation of the ethnic configuration of that region as a creative practice and of cultural resistance, in this way the question of the cultural heritage is articulated with the dynamism of the way of life.