This work aims at identifying and interpreting, by the means of ethnography,
the cultural heritage of people who work at the Ver-o-Peso, the most famous open-air
market of Belém do Pará. The focus is not the architecture and landscape as it was
acknowledged as cultural patrimony by Brazilian state law in 1977, but the heritage as a
means for aggregating a social group, conveying a sense of belonging and collective
identity, as well as a way for attributing values and meaning, even by people who are largely
unaware of it. The investigation methods included participant observation and formal and
informal interviews, in four field stages, from 2005 to 2007. The cultural heritage that was
identified has an intangible nature, but also is present in tangible form, around a space, one
territory according a proper timing, which is also considered a place, defined by its users
social practices and everyday routines, that reach other dimensions of social life. In that
space, objects, body expression, feelings and sociability associated and developed during
everyday practices, full of meanings and possibilities stimulate imagination and activate
memories. From generation to generation, this legacy is responsible, together with those
who preserve, reinterpret, and transmit it, for the maintenance of the essence of Ver-o-Peso,
as well as for the sense of belonging and identification of its workers with the place over the
years. The despite of the negligence of institutions, these workers preserve their culture.
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