Memória social do uso de plantas medicinais em uma comunidade ribeirinha do Amazonas

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of a research performed in an Amazonian riverine community of São Francisco, Careiro da Várzea / Amazonas, which the social memory of the use of medicinal plants was investigated. The objective was to investigate the residents’ social memory from the riverine community about the knowledge of medicinal plants. Specific objectives were: a) to understand the aspects related to the valuation of the traditional knowledge of medicinal plants; b) investigate ways of maintaining memory; c) understand the processes of transmission of such knowledge. The methodology was the qualitative research, due to its focus in understanding the meanings and senses attributed to the social memory of medicinal plants’ use. The instruments were: semi-structured interviews with guiding questions that focused on the oral narratives by participants, having as their source the memories and experiences about their daily life within the alive time of social memory, in its duration, present with images from the past to put into action new forms. Participant observation was also used as a way to negotiate directions and fill in gaps left during the speeches and to better understand the construction of memories, with notes in field diaries. The participants of the research were 10 community’s residents, over 18 years old and had the “snowball” method used to define the sample. The data collected, in the form of oral narratives, were treated in an analytical way according to what is established in the Content Analysis of Bardin (2011). The results of the research pointed to: oral transmission of traditional knowledge usually by women (mainly mothers and, secondarily, grandmothers), but also by "forest spirits"; purpose of the use of plants to use in physical diseases as associated with other practices for spiritual diseases; who cares for other people is primarily women, while men take care of themselves; the most used part of the plants is the leaves; there is concern about dosage, preparation of teas and home remedies, also interacting with pharmacy remedies; existence of plant beds in backyards. We conclude that the investigated community still values the use of medicinal plants and that their knowledge was inherited orally from generation to generation, acclaiming the woman as guardian of such knowledge and confirming that the social memory of the use of medicinal plants still subsists in that place. Another conclusion is that the processes of transmission of knowledge are given in a relationship of teaching and learning, having a domestic education due to riverine family’s culture, which puts women as educators and praxiological agents. In addition, the woman is also the holder of the knowledge about health and takes on the role of caregiver in the community, concerned with treating and curing diseases.