Terra em disputa: sentidos em tensão no Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

This article addresses the persistent dispute over land ownership in Brazil, a conflict that, since the Portuguese invasion, has reshaped the territory and frequently resulted in the deaths of Indigenous peoples. The land issue is analyzed as a central theme in Brazilian history, in which “land” constitutes an ideological signifier that mobilizes meanings in tension: on one hand, property and a resource for economic exploitation, and on the other, ancestral territory. Grounded in Materialist Discourse Analysis, the main objective of this study is to investigate how the right to land is signified in Mato Grosso do Sul. Several verbal materials will be analyzed, including texts published in the magazine Carta Capital, publications by the organizations CIMI and FAMASUL, and a report produced by the newspaper Midiamax. The analysis highlights how the “right of property” and the “right to property,” inscribed in a contradictory manner in the Federal Constitution, are signified from different discursive positions. The tension of meanings surrounding “land” reveals its ideologically constituted nature, not as a physical and neutral space, but as a space of meanings in conflict.