Memórias sobre a ação de madereiras: o processo de extração da floresta no município de Cascavel/PR

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss narratives regarding wood industry work between 1950 and 1970 (time of major activity), in Cascavel, located in Western Paraná. This dissertation is organized in three chapters: the first one analyzes the city historiography. For this purpose we selected works concerning this subject, such as Alceu Sperança's Cascavel: a história, reissued in 2011 and Terra, Sangue e Ambição: a gênese de Cascavel, published in 2013, by Vander Piaia. We look for a discussion concerning, according to these works, the city history being build over the wood industry action; on the second chapter the analysis is focused on oral narratives, regarding people who worked in the wood industry between 1950 and 1970. We use Oral History methodology. Interviews were conducted and analyzed from 2011 to 2013 with former owners and employees aiming to discuss the different relations between this industry and its employees, as well as its relation with deforestation itself, analyzing perceptions towards the process, since even if they worked together, their perceptions tend to vary according to their work positions, thus it is necessary to verify if the interviewed person was a manager, or a sawyer, accountant or something else inside his/her workplace. In this regard we interviewed several subjects, who were chosen according to their work positions; on the third chapter the analysis is also focused on these people's perception regarding their environment and its relations with human beings. From these memories it is possible to investigate which are their perceptions on the landscape, how they describe flora and fauna surrounding them, as well as the expressions used for these descriptions and how their ideas concerning environment are changed according to the interviewee's time, space and social position