Conhecimentos químicos e tradicionais presentes na comunidade indígena dos Pataxós, Juerana, Porto Seguro/Bahia/Brasil

Abstract

This research investigated the evidence of chemical knowledge inherent to the everyday practices of traditional peoples, specifically focusing on Indigenous individuals from the Pataxó ethnic group of Aldeia Juerana, located in Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil. The methodological approach was grounded in qualitative research, based on a field study that incorporated elements of ethnographic methodology, employing participant observation as the primary technique. This approach respected non-intervention in the analyzed context and ensured the preservation of the image of the subjects and practices observed. During the fieldwork, data collection instruments included a non-scripted interview, which was audiorecorded, as well as photographic records of objects and natural phenomena, while safeguarding the image, identity, and individuality of the Indigenous participants. The research was submitted to the Comitê de Ética and the Comissão Nacional de Ética em Pesquisa in 2022 and approved in 2023 (Parecer No. 6.186.161). The investigation is based on the assumption that, contrary to what is commonly disseminated in the social imaginary, Indigenous peoples possess well-defined and specific forms of knowledge related to chemistry, matter, and its transformations. These forms of knowledge can be expressed through their own techniques, traditions, rituals, and processes involving understandings of matter, its properties, and the chemical laws that govern it. This assumption constituted the main hypothesis guiding the selection of the Indigenous community of Juerana as the locus of investigation. An “ethnochemical map” was employed as a strategy to systematize the representation of the knowledge obtained from data analysis, intersecting elements of chemistry with the cultural practices of the Pataxó ethnic group. Based on this study, it was possible to contribute to the debate on the construction of ethnochemical knowledge and to the understanding of how such knowledge circulates and contributes to everyday social relations. As a main result, the study demonstrated that the community implicitly mobilizes chemical knowledge in its cultural, productive, and food-related practices. The presence of knowledge related to organic, inorganic, and physical chemistry was identified, especially in processes involving the transformation of natural materials and food preparation. Practices such as pigment extraction, the use of medicinal plants, and the perception of physicochemical properties in the environment stand out. Thus, it is concluded that there is a consistent circulation of chemical knowledge in the daily life of the village, even if not formally systematized scientifically. The research findings provide pedagogical support for Aldeia Juerana and for the Licenciatura Intercultural program of the Instituto Federal da Bahia, aimed at the higher education training of teachers working in Indigenous schools in the region. The dissemination of this knowledge within the scientific community fosters and accelerates debates on knowledge as an intercultural construction, at both local and global levels, in opposition to the dominant culture established within spaces of knowledge production and dissemination. In this way, the research contributes to the antiracist struggle against coloniality and against Eurocentric and homogenizing views of science.