The São Francisco River transposition and Pipipã people’s health, in Floresta, Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

Government actions to implement development projects in indigenous territories, whose operational model is linked to the prospect of supposed economic and social progress, have affected the perspectives for the future of people in several countries and in Brazil. This study analyzed the socioenvironmental processes of vulnerabilization of the Pipipã people resulting from the transposition of the São Francisco River in the municipality of Floresta, Pernambuco, Brazil. The research used the perspective of social determination of health and proposed a dialectical movement aiming to favor the needed dialogues for a proper understanding of the complexity of health problems. Qualitative research methodological procedures were used for data collection and analysis. Documents, interviews and participant observation were analyzed, emphasizing the understanding of the destructive social processes determined by the transposition of São Francisco river and the perceptions of the Pipipã people about the relationship between health and disease. The research evidenced that the São Francisco river transposition made the Pipipã people materially and symbolically more vulnerable, created compulsorily new territorialities and vulnerabilities raising a threat to the processes of social reproduction of the Ethnic group.