Weaving Power: Displacement, Territoy and Indigenous Knowledge Systems Across Three Kaiabi Groups in the Brazilian Amazon (2024)

The Same, but Different: Indigenous Knowledge Retention, Erosion, and Innovation in the Brazilian Amazon

This study explores how indigenous knowledge (IK) might be retained and/or changed among contemporary indigenous peoples. Through semi-structured interviews and quantitative analyses of long-term changes in artistic knowledge among three geographically displaced Kaiabi (Kawaiwete) we found an association between language proficiency and gender with greater IK retention, and formal schooling with IK erosion. Six mechanisms of innovation in knowledge of basketry and textiles among men and women were documented. A mixed mode of col-laborative learning and knowledge transmission involving diverse actors emerged from community workshops and group forums. Innovative mechanisms for cultural transmission have taken advantage of media, technology, and non-indigenous support organizations to expand weaving knowledge of basketry designs. Our results illustrate how indigenous peoples actively shape cultural transmission and change, as well as the role that public policies and academic research may play in these processes.

Traditional Knowledge in the Colombian Amazon: Tensions Between Indigenous Territorial Autonomy and Environmental Governance

The present study aims to analyze the role of traditional knowledge in territorial autonomy and environmental governance, as well as the level of interest of different indigenous and non-indigenous actors in the southern Colombian Amazon in applying traditional knowledge to public policy. Using the theoretical approaches of political ecology as well as a qualitative method, we describe a multidisciplinary project developed and implemented to incorporate knowledge systems of indigenous peoples of the Colombian Amazon into environmental policy. The results present an analysis of arguments by indigenous organizations, researchers , and government environmental agency administrators for and against using traditional knowledge to address the global ecological crisis. Through interviews and reports systematized by researchers and local collaborators within the project, we discuss conflicts that emerge when attempts are made to apply traditional knowledge in asymmetrical spaces of power. This includes responses by local residents to the global governance regime, which imposes policies regarding traditional knowledge in indigenous territories, and the possible repercussions of environmental policies on indigenous autonomy regimes in territories considered to be ancestral by indigenous peoples. We conclude that indigenous communities and organizations are more willing to apply traditional knowledge to public policy when the process is oriented toward strengthening their territorial and environmental autonomy than

Indigenous Knowledge, Culture and the Environment: A Case Study on the Kayapo Indians of Brazil

Indigenous Knowledge, Culture and the Environment: A Case Study on the Kayapo Indians of Brazil , 2018

Indigenous knowledge (IK) is a concept that attracts the researchers in the field of anthropology and development in order to critically study and critique our perception of it (Pramukh & Palkumar, 2006). IK influences how the communities interact with the natural ecosystems and hence shapes the outcomes of the activities of the individuals living in such regions. Societies usually apply the accumulated knowledge they gained over the years in order to use it in traditional health practices and most importantly to manage, modify and to protect their ecosystems from any external invasion or danger (Olufemi & Olubunmi, 2018). This paper discusses the Kayapo Indians’ management of the tropical rainforest ecosystem through their indigenous knowledge. They are described in this paper as effective managers of the tropical rain forest as they use their IK to ensure the continuation of the plant species through transplantation as a means of propagation, as well as using their IK to resist the construction of the dams and other developmental initiatives by the Brazilian government and other private companies. Their resistance to such projects as the dams is based on the possession of the knowledge regarding the negative impacts of the expected floods of the forest ecosystem. The Kayapo of Brazil are a Ge-speaking tribe of about 6000 individuals that lives along the Xingu River on both sides of the border of the Pará and Mato Grosso states (Plotkin, 2017, p. 956). By 1970s, The Kayapo found themselves surrounded by the Brazilian government, the wildlife traders and the gold miners. Thus they felt that their environment was endangered, and as a result they started protesting using what we could call very recognizable cultural resources and IK to claim land rights and recognition (Plotkin, 2017). Keywords: Kayapo Indians, indigenous knowledge, environment, ecosystems.

Athayde, S. F. 2003. Knowledge Transmission and Change in Kaiabi (Tupi-Guarani) Basketwork, Southern Amazonian Region, Brazil.

Indigenous Culture in the Amazon Case Study: Kayapó and the Belo Monte

Cultural Change and Traditional Ecological Knowledge: An Empirical Analysis from the Tsimane' in the Bolivian Amazon

Human Organization, 2014

”All This Is Part of My Movement”: Amazonian Indigenous Ways of Incorporating Urban Knowledge in State Politics

Creating Dialogues: Indigenous Perceptions and Forms of Leadership in Amazonia, H. Veber & P. K. Virtanen (eds.), 259–284. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2017

Traditional Peoples and the Struggle for Land in the Amazon Basin

1996

Current processes of deforestation and development in the Amazon Basin continue historical trends that have devastated indigenous populations and drastically reduced their land rights. While protection of the Amazon ecosystem has become a worldwide concern, many indigenous and folk groups employ forest management strategies that utilize natural resources without causing permanent degradation. This paper considers historical, political and socioeconomic circumstances that threaten the survival of indigenous groups and ...

Indigenous people and sustainable development in Amazonas

International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, 2004

Kichwa organizations in the Peruvian Amazon: Twelve challenges in their quest for land rights

2013