Os efeitos da estrutura de habitat sobre as comunidades de aranhas em uma floresta de caatinga do nordeste brasileiro

The inherent complexity of natural communities is a challenge to our understanding about how the habitat influences the abundance, local distribution and species diversity. The habitat can influence community structure in multiple ways and elucidate these relationships has provoked a lot of debate in ecology. The habitat heterogeneity hypothesis states that an increase in habitat heterogeneity (number of habitats) leads to an increase in species diversity in the landscape due to an expansion in niche dimensions. This study aims to identify whether this hypothesis is valid for the spiders that inhabit a locality in the Caatinga of northeastern Brazil. Cursorial and arboreal spiders were sampled in 30 plots within an area of Caatinga together with measures of environmental complexity, habitat heterogeneity and environmental parameters related to multiple aspects of vegetation architecture and species composition of woody plants. Stepwise multiple regressions were used to define which local environmental parameters best explain the variation in arboreal and cursorial spiders richness. Then a NMDS (Nonmetric multidimensional scaling) was used to reduce the number of predictive variables to those who are the most important and best represent the variation in spiders richness associated with the environment they were sampled. The results show a clear segregation between the guilds of arboreal and cursorial spiders, both related to what kind of environmental variables best explain its variation as well as in relation to what part of the vegetation they occupy

(Santa) Rita de Cássia na boca do povo de Santa Cruz/RN: identidades culturais em construção

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cultural identities of Santa Rita de Cassia constructed from the representations contained in the speech of Santa Cruz urban area residents, which is located in a harsh part of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. These residents make the story of the Saint full of meaning for themselves, in their daily lives, as well as to the society. This is observed in the narration of Rita de Cassia’s story which has been told in the city over the past one hundred and eighty years, the number of women's names and commercial establishments named “Santa Rita”. In 2010, with the inauguration of the Alto de Santa Rita – a space for worshiping the saint –, the amount of visitors increased in the city, due to the construction and inauguration of a colossal monument representing the image of Rita de Cassia. Then, new social, cultural, religious and political aspects became part of the local reality of the city of Santa Cruz, what made residents have something in common to talk about. According to the interdisciplinary approach of Applied Linguistics, our theoretical background is based on the socio-historical language concept, which understands language as discursive practice. Still theoretically speaking, this study establishes an interface with cultural studies, taking into account the concept of cultural identity in post-modernity society. Discourse analysis proved plural, with a multiplicity of cultural identities ranging from very obedient daughter to wife who suffered because of the husband, from very religious woman to the widow who entered the convent, on to the Saint of the miracles and healings interceding in the lives of the ones who seek for help. It was also observed in the above mentioned investigative path that these identities can be constructed and reconstructed if immersed in a different set of social practices historically determined

Amélia Duarte Machado, a Viúva Machado: a esposa, a viúva e a lenda na Cidade do Natal (1900-1930)

The research project examines representations elaborated about Amelia Duarte Machado, images that were built in a particular space: the Natal City. Amelia, one mossoroense that has a simple life, stated a luxurious life after marrying with a rich Portuguese merchant Manuel Machado, in 1904. She led a life of society lady, lived in a sumptuous residence, traveled to Europe, attending the Theatre the city and took care of the social image of her husband, opening the doors of your home to promote dinners and receptions. Experienced the changes occurring in Natal in the first three decades of the twentieth century, when the initiative of a political and intellectual elite of the city began to incorporate bourgeois values and to provide a technical framework focused on the improvements brought by the Industrial Revolution. In 1934, with her husband's death, took over the family business. Besides the widow, also became an enterprising woman. The widow Amelia Machado also became the target of suspicion of the population, rumors about his life. From there emerges a frightening figure in Natal, a being that captured and ate the liver of children, the papa-figo of Natal City, the Widow Machado. In this research, we relate different images that circulated about this woman, who was society lady, dashing widow and papa-figo, articulating these representations with the discourse on female circulating in Natal from 1900 to 1930 yet will raise hypotheses about the creation of the Legend of the Widow Machado