Bicho, cura e magia! Práticas culturais e conhecimentos tradicionais na reserva extrativista Mapuá (Ilha do Marajó, Pará): uma perspectiva etnozoológica

Abstract

This dissertation presents an ethnographic study about the reunion of knowledge and cultural practices of the agroextractivists from Mapua Extractivist Reservation in Marajó Island, Pará State, Brazil. The principal aim was to describe and analyze the knowledge concerning traditional medicine, focusing on the medicinal uses of faunistic local resources. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were the main methods used. The research documented the medical uses of 59 species of animals, as well the distinct categories of medical fauna attribution, such as remedies for physical diseases, spiritual diseases, and for hunters. We also discussed the symbolic attributions of the fauna, which is demonstrated as typically Amazonian worldview that appears indistinctly between the domains of nature and culture. The results present more than list of “animals” and their respective uses in local healing, but a rich biocultural patrimony involving social life, the natural world and cosmological life governed by the same categories. The present work highlights the importance of documenting the forest folk wisdom, regarding strategies to solve health problems based on the access to animals useful to humans.