The mining of “São Thomé” rock in São Thomé das Letras-MG: an ethnographic study about collective health and environmental justice

Authors

  • Bruna Marcelo Bernardo Moreira Universidade Federal de Itajubá (UNIFEI)
  • Luiz Felipe Silva Universidade Federal de Itajubá (UNIFEI)
  • Maria Isabel Cardoso da Silva Bueno Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/dma.v54i0.65016

Keywords:

mining, collective health, environmental justice, cultural anthropology

Abstract

Mining activity, including that of non-metals, has a significant participation in the current development model. The stone digging caves "São Thomé" embraces and get mixed with the municipality of São Thomé das Letras, south of Minas Gerais. This study, through ethnography, aimed to investigate the perception of the inhabitants of the municipality regarding the impacts of mining in the areas of collective health and environmental justice, considering the occurrence of silicosis in workers of the sector and the proximity of the fronts of culture and the urban center of the city. The fieldwork, carried out between March and July 2017, was part of the daily life of the community and included observation as a way to better understand the reality of São Thomé das Letras. During this period, semi-structured, recorded and unrecorded interviews were carried out, both with people who work or already worked in mining and other members of the community. For the analysis of the data, the methodology of analysis of oral reports was used, which enabled the treatment of the information to satisfy the objective of the research. Residents and workers perceive that mining influences the health of the community and the reports collected, it is observed that the issue of environmental justice is expressed and felt in the speeches. The perception also reveals that the community is hostage to the mining activity, in the predominant model, source of survival, as well as pain in the human and environmental landscape.

Downloads

Published

2020-09-16

How to Cite

Moreira, B. M. B., Silva, L. F., & Bueno, M. I. C. da S. (2020). The mining of “São Thomé” rock in São Thomé das Letras-MG: an ethnographic study about collective health and environmental justice. Desenvolvimento E Meio Ambiente, 54. https://doi.org/10.5380/dma.v54i0.65016

Issue

Vol. 54 (2020)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright on works published in this journal rests with the author, with first publication rights for the journal. The content of published works is the sole responsibility of the authors. DMA is an open access journal and has adopted the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Not Adapted (CC-BY) license since January 2023. Therefore, when published by this journal, articles are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercial) and adapt (remix, transform, and create from the material for any purpose, even commercial). You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license and indicate if changes have been made.

The contents published by DMA from v. 53, 2020 to v. 60, 2022 are protected by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.

DMA has been an open access journal since its creation, however, from v.1 of 2000 to v. 52 of 2019, the journal did not adopt a Creative Commons license and therefore the type of license is not indicated on the first page of the articles.