Paper short abstract:

Based on an ethnographic research conducted in a Brazilian community of Amazonian afro-descendents, this paper discusses the perspectives on space and place proposed by Tuan and De Certeau in the light of Ingold’s concept of “ambulatory knowing”.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I deal with the "territorializating" practices of a community of Amazonian afro-descendents in order to discuss the role of walking as a sensory experience that permits to construct a peculiar mapping of the territory. Interweaving the concepts of space and place, I outline two different and complementary modalities of experiencing the territory by walking: one more ephemeral and subjective, the other more stable and shared by the community. On one side, I decode the references that organize the orientation and, therefore, the movement in the forest space. In fact, every individual, moving in the space along original trajectories, knows a peculiar forest that, in the bargain, contributes to modify through specific "territorializating" acts. On the other side, I consider the tie that joins socially shared practices and memories to specific forest areas that, for this reason, are recognized as places. From this perspective, the ephemeral signals impressed on vegetation by the individual created a subjective mapping of the territory that intersect with an enduring and social one.