rolê through the frontier

the case of motorcycle in Pedro Juan Caballero (Paraguay) and Ponta Porã (Brazil)

Abstract

The article discusses some sociocultural conflicts occurring in the border area between the Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero and the Brazilian city of Ponta Porã. The conflicts involve motorcycles transiting between the border of these two countries. The aim is to demonstrate how a seemingly commonplace and unimportant fact can take on diverse aspects regarding to social reality, presenting itself as an instrument for analyzing categories such as ethnic identity, solidarity networks, legality and illegality and social conflicts. The methodology was composed by bibliographical and documentary research, as well as ethnographic fieldwork allied to semistructured and free interviews. The theoretical reference is based on the contributions of Fredrik Barth and other authors whose investigative efforts have the borders as object of study, as well as questions regarding the legal/illegal binomial and its multiple ramifications and consequences. It is concluded that, although the borders have several porous capillaries, the limits erected by the State are present in different situations of the daily life of the inhabitants of the frontier strips, which implies them strategies of action in order to circumvent the existing order and to balance the forces in conflict.