Quando os paus de fruta da mata viram plantas: o amálgama entre a agricultura e floresta na Resex Arióca Pruanã, Oeiras do Pará

Abstract

The present study is a research, undertaken from a qualitative approach, about the food use of wild plant species by the people of the Melancial Village, one of the greatest human agglomerations of the Arióca Pruanã Extractivist Reserve, at Pará State. The wild food plant species are all listed as producers of edible fruits. Were registered management, collect, prepare and consume practices for these species, as well as the role of the family members in each one of the coted steps. Were undertaken efforts for understanding the factors that lead people to collect and consuming these species and register the knowledge that those people have about them. In addition, was sought to verify if these species are in some way threatened. It was found that the strategies of obtaining food are diversified in Melancial and match each other in a complex calendar that herein includes activities as agriculture, fishery, animal husbandry, hunting, collect of wild fruits and buying groceries. However, if these activities have in common the objective of ensuring the access to food, they too are found imbricate at the daily practices, which, in its whole, result in landscape management. The repertory of knowledge required to the maintenance of the lifestyle of the villagers from Melancial extrapolates that strictly related to the flora and fauna species. This outline includes yet the capacity of analyzing climatic, pedological, topographic and hydrographic phenomena, in a context marked by distinct practices and social events, in addition to ways of resource appropriation. Factors such as the esteem for the fruits and the maintenance of belonging and identity links condition as well as physiological and economic factors the choice for the wild fruits in the families’ diet. The work sexual segregation evidences itself subtly at the management, collect, prepare and consume steps of the wild fruits. Except for the wood exploitation, there are no threats for these wild food plant species. The domain over the territory seems to be circumscribing itself increasingly to the limits of the community area. The yards and orchards stand as interface between agriculture and extractivism. The agriculture depends on the forest and reconfigures it in “capoeiras” and orchards, such as the forest penetrates at the yards as the wild plant species are introduced therein by human hands. The result of this management is the agroforestry of the landscape, visible face of the amalgam between agriculture and forest.