The objective of this work is to explore two perspectives on land use and land cover change (LULC) in agricultural settlements of the Amazon region within an ethnographic experience: a “technical-scientific” view that defines LULC from afar using remote sensing techniques (classification and analysis of satellite imagery), and a “local” perspective that defines LULC by local farmers and residents using participatory sketch maps. This paper summarizes research results and the ethnographic experiences through which these perspectives may be formed, especially similarities and differences among the two. The analysis and results are divided into three views: one in which these perspectives are given equivalency across LULC studies; another describing the ethnographic experience according to an affective-intellectual intersectionality; and, finally, one that identifies a diagonally-shifting perspective, described as an expression of the spatial understanding of farmers produced through the ethnographic experience. © 2016, Centro em Rede de Investigacao em Antropologia. All rights reserved.203583606