TERRITORIAL IDENTITY AND HANDICRAFT WITH GOURDS IN CENTRAL REGION OF RS – THE NOTION OF PRODUCTIVE SPATIAL CIRCUIT AND ITS POSSIBILITIES IN THE TOURISM' FIELD

Abstract

The central region of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Maria in particular, has great tourism potential that has been explored more intensively in recent years. In this sense, the appreciation of the handicraft with territorial identity is a way of evidencing the image and promoting the regional tourism. In the region is located the district of Arroio do Só, considered the largest producer of gourds of Brazil, which are cultivated by family farmers and used for local agribusinesses to making bowls for a local beverage called chimarrão. The fruit wastes, discarded by gourd industry, have been used by local craftswomen in handicrafts. However, this does not refer to the historical and cultural heritage of the area in which the artisans themselves are embedded. This article seeks to reflect and raise possibilities for the effective integration of a productive spatial circuit that results in the use of gourd in handicraft with territorial identity, aimed at the tourism consumption. The explicit setting of this productive spatial circuit may promote greater synergy between the actors involved, leading to the appreciation of an abundant material and increasing the visibility and recognition of historical and cultural heritage of the region.