ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the impact of archaeological research among Amazonian caboclo communities. It examines the sociopolitical implications of participatory archaeology in a multifaceted social landscape. Archaeological research project was conducted between 2001 and 2003 in the community of Parau, located on the left bank of the Tapajs River some 100 km south of Santarm in the Tapajs-Arapiuns Extractivist Reserve in the Brazilian state of Par. It provides the elements on concrete forms of community participation and the appropriation of archaeological discourse within the community's own strategies of constructing identities. Faunal and archaeo-botanical remains indicated that the subsistence of these marginal groups, situated in an area of riverine terra firme, was based on the hunting of small animals, fishing, cultivation, and gathering. The caboclos constitute the traditional peasant population of Amazonia. The chapter demonstrates a formative indigenous occupation over a time scale of millennia with subsistence and settlement patterns possessing a degree of similarity with contemporary populations.
