Among plants and words. Models of Constitution of knowledge between the Wajãpi (AP)

Author(s)

Joana Cabral de Oliveira

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2012-04-13

Examining board members

Dominique Tilkin Gallois; Laure Emperaire; Tânia Stolze Lima; Beatriz Perrone Moises; Gilton Mendes dos Santos

• Advisor: Dominique Tilkin Gallois

Abstract

This research among the Wajãpi indians (Tupi-Guarani group) from Amapá (BR), it has its core in the wajãpi ways of knowing the forest. Taking as a guide the knowledge and the statements about the plants that comprise the forest that surrounds them, the thesis begins with an analysis of the forms of plant classification (its compositions, arrangements and operationalization in everyday life), to then pursue modes of perceptions that guide the relations between the Wajãpi, vegetables and other forest dwellers (such as animals, masters, spirits ...), to finally address their conceptions about knowledge and learning. This ethnography is presented with a line of flight which comprises a reflection on the scientific mode of production of botanical knowledge, which was developed from a field research with some plant taxonomists and a perusal of relevant literature. The presence of this concise analysis on botany has not, however, the goal of a strict comparison between science and wajãpi knowledge, but to compound - in a motion of similarities and differences - the processes in both contexts, aiming a better understanding of both the wajãpi ways of knowing, as well as show some aspects of theoretical analyzes of traditional knowledge which are based on a stabilized conception of science. (AU)