On movements, bottles and consideration: Everyday production of the common in rural settlements in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

A rural settlement is intimately linked to another through a network of people, objects and houses. This article seeks to ethnographically explore mechanisms of cohabitation and specific experiences that make the everyday production of community life possible in these mutually interconnected spaces. I start from the descriptions of exchanges of an extremely valued good in a settlement located in western Sao Paulo State: bottles of frozen water that are stored like treasures and that follow a daily circuit between the homes of old settlers, new settlers, and neighboring towns. This ephemeral good allows mapping the production of linkages between people and their territory, capturing individual acts of collective nature.