MACONHA, COGOLLO AND SYMBOLIC BORDERS IN THE CHUÍ / CHUY CONURBATION

Abstract

This work is part of an ongoing ethnography, conducted in the cities of Chuí, in the extreme south of Brazil, and Chuy, in the southeast region of Uruguay. The objective of the research is to analyze the interaction between Brazilians, Uruguayans and Doble Chapas regarding the planting, consumption, trade and trafficking of Cannabis, considering the context of criminalization of the substance on the Brazilian side of the border, and regularization on the Uruguayan side. Anchored in symbolic interactionism as a conceptual theoretical basis, it intends to understand, through participant observation and conducting interviews, the meanings attributed to legality and illegality, access and consumption, as well as possible developments typical of border regions and attenuated by the geographical particularities of the place. It is hypothetically argued that dynamic processes typical of border regions also extend, in this case, to the free flow of negotiation, supply and consumption of the plant and its derivatives. It is assumed that the border in question functions as a "neutral field", that is, a space where a large part of what is understood as a beneficial aspect of one or another legislation converges, while the permissive state dictates (although regulated) or prohibitionists, do not enjoy full force when compared to other spaces, located beyond the four customs offices that surround the conurbation.