This paper analyses the working conditions of pottery craftspeople in one of the most important production centers in Pará State, the neighborhood of Paracuri, located in the District of Icoaraci, Belém. This neighborhood has approximately 80 (eighty) potteries, with around 220 (two hundred and twenty) craftspeople who work mainly on the production of pottery with Marajoara graphics. This study has a critical dialectical approach. The data collection tools were: documents, observation of the working dynamics in the potteries, and a semi-structured interview. A total of 24 (twenty-four) individuals were investigated: 15 (fifteen) were pottery craftspeople; (08) eight were dealers of handicrafts made in Icoaraci; and (01) one was the director of a public body responsible for the implementation of public policies on traditional handicraft in Pará State. This paper is divided into five sections: the introduction presents a theoretical analysis of the object under study; the second section analyzes the role of handicraft in the economy of the Brazilian Amazon; the third section studies the particularities of the extraction-based work of pottery craftspeople
in Icoaraci, which is performed similarly to the working conditions of the colonial
period in Pará State; the fourth section analyzes the work of pottery craftspeople. Finally, there are considerations on the main results, with emphasis on the fact that through this professional activity pottery craftspeople play their role in the job market because the manufacturing process attracts the attention of visitors and tourists, who are drawn to Paracuri in search of handicrafts with Marajoara graphics, among others. This work form is those workers’ main source of income. This work form is very important for the social reproduction of the craftspeople surveyed and for the characterization of this community as a production center of handicraft, and it is based on the extraction of natural resources, similarly to the colonial period in the state. This work form is determined by the economic, social, political, and cultural dynamics of Pará State; therefore its maintenance is directly related to the following aspects: savoir faire, social organization of the craftspeople in associations and cooperatives, and actions based on several public policies (in the areas of tourism, environment, industry and trade etc.). The peculiarities of the handicraft production in Icoaraci demonstrate that the precarious working and living conditions of the craftspeople are related to the role the Brazilian Amazon has played in the international division of labor. Thus this past as exporter of primary products is a limit to the improvement of the poor working and living conditions of these workers, who contribute to the accumulation of capital. Therefore the multiple determinations of this work form must be object of further analysis in order to improve the working and living conditions of these craftspeople.
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