Plants, paths and place-making: examples from the ribeirinhos and the Xokleng/Laklãnõ in Brazil

Summary

The environmental management practiced by traditional societies has already been presented as a model of sustainability and an example of economic flexibility. However, little is said of its meaning for that own population, to whom it certainly exceeds its economic importance. Land is constantly transformed by human action, through selective cuttings, extraction of weeds, fertilization and planting. In this paper I will present two different examples from Brazil, one focusing on a ribeirinho community of the delta of the Amazon river and the other, the Xokleng/Laklãnõ indigenous land on the southern part of Brasil. In the first case, I attempt to emphasize the environmental transformation that begins with few visible gestures practiced daily by women in their houses, while bringing seeds and cuttings from the forest and from houses of kin’s and friends and planting them in their canteiros (suspended gardens). Planting here is understood as an act of care, which is made individually and its result is afterward socialized through a plant exchange network. In the second case, I will focus on how a hunter-gatherer society known for its high mobility pattern, the Xokleng/Laklãnõ, conceive and engage with their territory.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• From pollen to pottery: new insights on the interplay of society and environment in South America during the last 2000 years

Keywords

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