Etnobotânica e Práticas Alimentares entre os Paiter Suruí na Amazônia brasileira

Abstract

The present work investigates the Paiter Suruí people, located in the southwest of the Brazilian Amazon, especially the complex food system which includes insects and native fruits in addition to the management of the landscape of this people. For this, field visits were carried out to the Joaquim village, in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land, from 2017 to 2020. The methodology used in applied Ethnobotany includes free lists, semi-structured collective interviews, participant observation, guided tours and photographic records. In addition to the great diversity of edible invertebrates, 17 plant species were listed that are directly related to insect management, as well as 112 fruit ethnospecies known by the Paiter Suruí, which in part were observed being consumed and cultivated in backyards. Among the plant species listed are some that have populations with some degree of domestication. It was found that the age of the Indigenous is related to the number of citations and that both genders were important to compose the diversity of the ethnospecies list. The babassu palm (Attalea speciosa Mart. ex Spreng.) deserved special attention and 26 uses of this plant were listed by the Paiter Suruí, food or not, and can be considered a Cultural Key Species for having a central place in their ethnic identity. The results obtained expanded the traditional knowledge of this indigenous group already recorded in previous research and could contribute to a theoretical advance in the process of domestication of landscapes associated with food practices.