Os Paumari e o peixe-boi: da concepção histórica a prática da pesca

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to study the relationship between the Paumari people and the manatee, highlighting three dimensions that caught our attention during the construction of this research. In this way, we consider the historical dimension that develops an ethnographic approach to the historical sources, especially those regarding the XIXth century, presenting the Paumari people in this set and the manatee fishing practices in the Purus river. Moreover, we treat other dimensions, as feeding, that reveal the importance of manatee for Paumari society. Other dimension in this work is focused on the social position that manatee occupies in the Paumari socio-cosmology. In this sense, the Chapter II approaches some questions about the positions of “boss” and “owner”, with which the manatee is identified by Paumari. Finally, we face other dimension about the execution of manatee fishing, analyzing the universe of practices, the mechanisms used to achieve a good fishing, and the interactions with the landscape, where the manatee lives.