Notas de campo #6: Fogo frio nos Soutos da Lapa | Field notes #6: Cold fire in the chestnut groves | jan 2023
Título | Title
Notas de campo #6: Fogo frio nos Soutos da Lapa | Field notes #6: Cold fire in the chestnut groves | jan 2023
Data | Date
13/1/2023
Notícia | News
A caminho de Moimenta da Beira, nos campos ainda um pouco alagados pela chuva intensa das semanas anteriores, no coração dos Soutos da Lapa, os habitantes desta região aproveitaram a segunda semana de janeiro, aqui e ali mais escorrida, para proceder à gestão de combustível vegetal e à manutenção dos terrenos agrícolas e florestais através de queimas e queimadas. Entre Sernancelhe e Moimenta da Beira, onde estamos recolher fontes arquivísticas, observaram-se vários “fogos frios” cujos lençóis de fumo, a acompanhar as chaminés domésticas e o nevoeiro, iam preenchendo brechas entre montes e vales. O fogo mostra a sua utilidade numa presença desejada pelas populações locais, que mantêm uma relação ambígua com o mesmo. Enquanto a paisagem arde, em pontos estratégicos e preestabelecidos, o FIREUSES perscruta arquivos em busca dos fogos criminalizados na mesma região entre os anos 1950 e 1990. Que zonas de interseção existem entre eles, paralelamente aos discursos e normas estatais e judiciais?
On the way to Moimenta da Beira, in the fields still wet by the heavy rain of the previous weeks, in the heart of Soutos da Lapa, the inhabitants of this region took advantage of the second week of January, here and there more drained, to proceed to the elimination of vegetable waste and the maintenance of agricultural and forest land through bonfires and burning of pastures. Between the rural areas of Sernancelhe and Moimenta da Beira, where FIREUSES is currently collecting archival sources, we observed several “cold fires” whose smoke plumes, accompanying the domestic chimneys and the fog, were filling up gaps between hills and valleys. Fire shows its usefulness in a presence desired by local populations that maintain an ambiguous relationship with it. While the landscape burns at strategic and pre-established points, FIREUSES goes through the archives in search of the fires criminalized in the same region between the 1950s and 1990s. What points of intersection exist between them, apart from state and judicial discourses and norms?
On the way to Moimenta da Beira, in the fields still wet by the heavy rain of the previous weeks, in the heart of Soutos da Lapa, the inhabitants of this region took advantage of the second week of January, here and there more drained, to proceed to the elimination of vegetable waste and the maintenance of agricultural and forest land through bonfires and burning of pastures. Between the rural areas of Sernancelhe and Moimenta da Beira, where FIREUSES is currently collecting archival sources, we observed several “cold fires” whose smoke plumes, accompanying the domestic chimneys and the fog, were filling up gaps between hills and valleys. Fire shows its usefulness in a presence desired by local populations that maintain an ambiguous relationship with it. While the landscape burns at strategic and pre-established points, FIREUSES goes through the archives in search of the fires criminalized in the same region between the 1950s and 1990s. What points of intersection exist between them, apart from state and judicial discourses and norms?
Serra da Lapa, 6 de agosto de 2020