Guardiães de saberes quilombolas da Amazônia brasileira: relações entre mulheres, território, memórias e plantas no Médio Itacuruçá

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on studying the relationships that women from the quilombola community Igarapé São João in Médio Itacuruçá establish with the plants and herbs they cultivate. I turn to the knowledge, practices and worldviews historically arising from the management and cultivation of a diversity of plant species and fruit trees, medicinal herbs, roots, tree bark, vegetables and greens. Production that promotes the local and municipal economy, in addition to being a source of food supply and different forms of use by families in this community. The place of study where I carried out the ethnographic research is the riverside and quilombola community of Igarapé São João, in the Middle Itacuruçá, located in the municipality of Abaetetuba, in the region of the islands, a rural area in the state of Pará, Amazon, northern region of Brazil. Ethnography is one of the paths of qualitative research as it comprises the study based on direct observation of the customary living practices of a particular group of people (Mattos, 2011). Therefore, I used participant observation, ethnobiography (Gonçalves, 2012) and writing (Evaristo, 2020), with a view to capturing the experience lived by the interlocutors of this research. Between illnesses, observation of backyards, reports about home remedies and plants, in addition to my childhood memories, experiences and coexistence in the quilombola community of Médio Itacuruçá, I noticed the diversity of knowledge acquired and transmitted by women. In the face of a global environmental crisis and the confrontation of environmental conflicts (monoculture of oil palm and livestock), the agroforestry system used by traditional populations, including riverside and quilombola populations, is of paramount importance for the maintenance of life and biodiversity.