Paxiúba: Traditional Housing in the Western Amazon

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the traditional construction method of building with paxiúba (Socratea exorrhiza) in the Amazon—more specifically in the Brazilian state of Acre. This type of palm tree is native to Central and South America, and is commonly used in the construction of vernacular houses. Originally employed by local indigenous villages, paxiúba was popular not only because of the abundance of raw material, but also due to how easy it is to work. With the arrival of latex farmers to the Amazon in the early twentieth century, paxiúba started to be used in early non-indigenous settlements, becoming a construction material associated with the infrastructure of resource extraction in early stages of territorial occupation. Today few houses built of paxiúba remain in Acre. Despite changes in building material, newly built residences nonetheless retain the floor plans and construction methods inherited from traditional paxiúba houses, notwithstanding different spatial uses and settlement locations in dense, urbanized areas far from the isolated forests or farming settlements of their predecessors.