A travessia dos saberes tradicionais amazônicos: um estudo centrado na cultura do cacau de várzea, no Território do Baixo Tocantins/ PA.

Abstract

The cocoa culture in the Amazon arises since the colonial period, with the process of occupation of territories and exploitation of drugs in the hinterland, where in the headwaters of the Amazon River it expanded in two directions: to the north, it followed the Orinoco valley, Central America and southern Mexico; to the south, it ran through the Amazon basin. In the Lower Tocantins, considered as one of the oldest and most well-established spaces of Portuguese colonization in the Amazon, it began to coexist with the traditional extraction of cocoa and other “sertão drugs”, characterizing the Amazon economy. However, the knowledge of cocoa producers who live in communities, in tune with the forest, may have been influenced throughout history. Thus, this study sought to analyze how the knowledge of producers who cultivate lowland cocoa in the territory of Baixo Tocantins is constituted. This perspective looks at the importance of cocoa, glimpsing its historical value and highlighting it as an element of subsistence that contributes to local development. For this purpose, agroecology was highlighted as an important ally to technological innovation, contributing to environmental balance. In this sense, it was apprehended that traditional knowledge combined with technological innovations, such as agroecology, enables the process of endogeny in a sustainable manner. To this end, this study was organized in a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory manner, and included field research with semi- structured interviews with lowland cocoa producers. The methodological procedure included a bibliographic and documentary survey, having as historical analytical reference the historical, cultural, social, environmental and spatial factors pertinent to the implantation and expansion of the lowland cocoa culture in the territory. The work is structured in three chapters, called “Crossing”. As products of this work, an agroecological sheet and an agroecological booklet are presented, aiming to promote and ensure agriculture in a sustainable manner, based on some objectives of the SDGs, minimizing the negative impacts that affect the environment, serving as guides for cocoa producers.