Ciclos de águas e vidas: o caminho do rio nas vozes dos antigos vaporzeiros e remeiros do São Francisco

Abstract

This work aims at studying São Francisco River based on the memories of the old vaporzeiros and the oarsmen, that is, people who use to work at steam launches and small barges, respectively. The former is a big boat moved by firewood; the latter is a small one set in motion by human force through the use of oars and barge-poles. Both of them were used to transport people and goods from Pirapora city (in the north of state of the Minas Gerais) to the city of Juazeiro (in the state of Bahia). By focusing on these men memories of the river, this research makes a geographical study of the affective feelings in which the river waters are their life and provide working means. Such geography of affective feelings is unveiled by the life around water travels, home and family nostalgia, meetings, feasts, work, and affectivities which unify these people to the São Francisco river as a place of the lived, of the felt, and of the perceived. Concepts such as place, perception, and memory permeating these workers reminiscences are considered in the light of geography, anthropology, literature, and philosophy authors as well as stories told by the vaporzeiros who cross São Francisco waters in Pirapora.