**9. Family Routine João and Vânia – Piriquitaquara community – Combu Island**

This remarried family was composed of João, the father (41), Vânia, the mother (32), the adolescents Maura (14) and Alexandre (17), and the children Laís (8) and Amanda (3). These are fictitious names, and the ages refer to the time of data collection. The couple has lived together for 9 years. Laís and Amanda are the biological children of the couple, the latter of whom has Down syndrome. The others are Vânia's children.

The family lived with a fix income composed of João's salary. He worked as a boater hired by Belém city to transport students and teachers of the school located a few meters from his house and from "Benefício Assistencial de Prestação Continuada BPC – LOAS" because of the daughter with a deficiency. Additionally, the children relied on the benefits of "Bolsa Família" (i.e., a program that involves the direct transfer of income to benefit poor families) because they met the health and education requirements that are necessary for this federal program.

All of them would wake up early. João, Vânia, and Alexandre left to gather açaí (ES). Upon returning from the forest, João went to his boating job. Maura prepared breakfast (FS), along with the younger sisters. Alexandre went to "Porto da Palha" to negotiate the selling of açaí. Maura remained at home to help with DTs, and Laís went to the school located next to their house. However, because of the terrain flooded by the river, the shortest route was by boat.

Vânia typically was found at home with the youngest daughter performing DT and PC activities. However, twice per week, the husband took her by boat to the capital to go to the hospital for therapeutic care of her deficiency, which was sometimes done with the help of Maura. Thus, the family organization was adequate for the routine to address the needs of the daughter with Down syndrome.

Vânia concomitantly performed the SF, DT, and PC activities of Amanda. Around noon, the other family members returned home for lunch. Before eating, Maura took a bath in the river with Amanda during moments of PC and L. After lunch, Alexandre and Maura went by boat to the capital to study in a state school. At the beginning of the afternoon, João transported the students of the afternoon period. Vânia took care of the PC activities of Amanda and Laís, the principal partner of the youngest daughter. At night, everybody performed activities linked to L.

Being prepared since childhood for domestic tasks, the traditional riverine women get married during adolescence, as opposed to the current urban perspective. Academic education does not appear to be important. Instead, education that ensures marriage and family maintenance is viewed as more important. In fact, in traditional societies, marriage is necessary for survival, and the woman's social role is to be mother and wife, such as in some communities in Oriental

In addition to the gender patterns that structure social organization and parental practices, the isolation status of the riverine families is also taken into consideration. The distance and poor access to services impose relationship barriers that make bond formation with other parts of the community difficult; thus, the daily routine has been maintained in a traditional way for

For comparison purposes, below we present data on the family who resided on Combu Island, an Amazon river region that is close to the capital Belém and not considered a typically traditional community, although it maintains characteristics of the Amazon river region.

**9. Family Routine João and Vânia – Piriquitaquara community – Combu**

This remarried family was composed of João, the father (41), Vânia, the mother (32), the adolescents Maura (14) and Alexandre (17), and the children Laís (8) and Amanda (3). These are fictitious names, and the ages refer to the time of data collection. The couple has lived together for 9 years. Laís and Amanda are the biological children of the couple, the latter of

The family lived with a fix income composed of João's salary. He worked as a boater hired by Belém city to transport students and teachers of the school located a few meters from his house and from "Benefício Assistencial de Prestação Continuada BPC – LOAS" because of the daughter with a deficiency. Additionally, the children relied on the benefits of "Bolsa Família" (i.e., a program that involves the direct transfer of income to benefit poor families) because they met the health and education requirements that are necessary for this federal program.

All of them would wake up early. João, Vânia, and Alexandre left to gather açaí (ES). Upon returning from the forest, João went to his boating job. Maura prepared breakfast (FS), along with the younger sisters. Alexandre went to "Porto da Palha" to negotiate the selling of açaí. Maura remained at home to help with DTs, and Laís went to the school located next to their house. However, because of the terrain flooded by the river, the shortest route was by boat.

Vânia typically was found at home with the youngest daughter performing DT and PC activities. However, twice per week, the husband took her by boat to the capital to go to the hospital for therapeutic care of her deficiency, which was sometimes done with the help of Maura. Thus, the family organization was adequate for the routine to address the needs of the

whom has Down syndrome. The others are Vânia's children.

daughter with Down syndrome.

Africa [9,3].

108 Parenting in South American and African Contexts

centuries.

**Island**

The distribution of the members during sleep followed a similar distribution as the family of the Araraiana community, in which all of the daughters slept in the only bedroom, and the parents and oldest son slept in the living room.

**Figure 5.** Activities/task performed and subsystems involved in the J/V family during weekdays.

During the weekends, the family went on a boat trip to Vânia's mother's house, a place in the metropolitan region of Belém where most of the relatives lived.

#### **9.1. Parenthood in the family who lived in the Combu community**

In this community, the participating family presented a way of life with some characteristics common to traditionally isolated families, such as a strong familial bond, which is considered a survival strategy among families who live in the forest [16]. However, because they were directly influenced by the urban environment, we found different characteristics compared with traditional families, which is reflected by the speech of the matriarch (Vânia) who, although she is responsible for the house organization and care of the children, presented herself as the family leader who was responsible for day-to-day decisions. Thus, the father, despite being the provider, was not considered the family leader. This posture highlights the flexibility of gender division in traditional communities.

distinguished based on gender social roles. Both the father and mother had their roles previously defined in the familial environment and surrounding community. Thus, the parental practices were different from those in urban centers and were more similar to rural communities because they were based on cultural prototypes aimed at the division of daily activities between parents and children and obedience in fulfilling domestic tasks, see [3]. The children spent most of their time engaged in activities performed with siblings, and the presence of the parents was not common during these times. The time shared between the father, mother, and children only occurred through daily activities that were directed at the learning necessary to fulfill domestic tasks (e.g., SF, ES, and DT). The parents did not stay busy with the children. The mothers, despite always being present in the domestic environment, kept away from the children, and this trend increased as the children aged. The older children,

Parenting in Amazonian Riverside Context http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/57056 111

normally girls, delegated the responsibilities of taking care of the young (i.e., CT).

there is no cultural standard that is better or worse for human development [5,6].

context where they are inserted is understood.

care for children in an ever-transforming world.

absorbing typically urban values and beliefs.

in the urban context.

The fact that the parents did not directly take care of the children does not mean that they were not concerned about the children's well-being or development. However, the concerns were more linked to obtaining food from the river and forest to ensure family survival. The paper of [6] indicated that what the parents do or do not do only makes sense if the specificity of the

Living in the middle of the Amazon forest requires that the Amazonia riverine parents' actions are linkedtosubsistenceandthepracticaldirectionofdailyactivities that certainlyareunknown in urban contexts. Thus, although parental behavior is considered a task of universal develop‐ ment, the nature of this development is cultural [3,7]. Therefore, any kind of judgment about the best practices for children's' development can only be made by considering the values and beliefs of each specific group [6]. No parental practice should be evaluated in isolation, and

With the central objective of providing visibility of riverine communities, the present study sought to understand parenthood in such contexts, challenging assumptions that are consid‐ ered universal with regard to parental care. Moreover, our goal was to compare families in transition communities. According to [3], this helps to better understand how communities are transformed over time based on contextual changes and parental needs to provide essential

The Piriquitaquara community on Combu Island can be considered a community in transi‐ tion [3]. For many years, it stopped living exclusively in a traditional way. The closeness with urban centers located on the other side of the riverinfluences the way of life of its residents who participate in social institutions that arepresentin the cities, sharing commercial exchanges and

The parental practices also adapted to these changes, but this does not mean that they became practices toward autonomy, which is common for parents in urban contexts. However, they no longer reflect the totally prototypical interdependence of rural communities. Something is changing. Some indicators ofthis transformationhave arisenfromthe flexibility ofthematernal role because the mother in the family studied herein was the leader who made the family's decisions. Even the children, including the girls, were encouraged to continue their education

Another important aspect to be emphasized is the fact that the children were able to finish their education in the capital because only up to the fifth year of elementary school (Cycle II) is provided on the island. Thus, we observed from the collected data that significant changes were introduced with regard to the children's beliefs about work, the future, and family. The daughters were allowed to study in the capital. Although they continued to perform routine domestic tasks, they spent more time in school and were encouraged to study and be prepared for paid work in the cities. Thus, marriage was no longer the main goal of the teenagers.

Another important point concerns the detachment of the father from the domestic environ‐ ment. [3] indicated that the occupational roles marked by gender specify that men be engaged in activities that require physical strength and detachment from the home. In the case of riverine families, separating activities and social relationships between boys and girls is common. A boy's job is to help gather açaí (an Amazonian fruit base of their diet), process it, prepare it, and sell it, in addition to hunting and fishing. The girls should stay around home, and their learning is directed to domestic tasks that do not require high physical effort and do not put them in situations of risk, such as falling and snake bites.

With regard to fraternal subgroups, we observed the same pattern as in traditional Amazonian river families. Siblings of the same sex spent most the time together. The oldest, the majority of which were girls, were responsible for taking care of the young. The oldest, when not at school, helped the adults with domestic tasks, açaí gathering, and fishing. They were also seen at different times playing or bathing in the river.

Thus, the Piriquitaquara community consists of intermediate characteristics between two welldefined contexts: urban and traditional Amazonia riverine. The incorporated family inherited the traditional way of life, combined with influences from the capital. They even relied on a set of services made available by the state and city, such as education, healthcare, and work.

However, although Combu Island is considered a peculiar region from a cultural standpoint, it was composed of a peripheral scenario of strong local economic impoverishment, a common characteristic of all Amazonia riverine communities. Thus, the families studied herein were representative of hundreds of Amazonia riverine communities that survive by gathering forest products within the context of poverty.
