Entre zagaias e malhadeiras: os conhecimentos tradicionais dos pescadores da comunidade Braga, sob as narrativas e viveres nas águas da Reserva do Piranha, em Manacapuru/AM

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how the fishermen of the Braga Community in the Piranha Reserve, in the municipality of Manacapuru/AM, express their traditional knowledge through their practices, narratives, and daily life on the water. This research is situated within the framework of approaches to the traditional knowledge of Amazonian peoples and communities who possess a rich ecological knowledge based on their place and a profound relationship with nature. The research site is the Braga community in the Piranha Reserve, in the municipality of Manacapuru/AM, located on the left bank of the Solimões River near the mouth of the Manacapuru River, 38 km away as the crow flies, where a complex of lakes called Lake Piranha is situated. This community relies heavily on fishing as one of its main sources of income, intensifying during the fishing season or the piracema (spawning migration), which occurs during the low water period extending from June to November. Using a qualitative approach, this study immerses itself in the knowledge of the fishermen of the Braga Community in their daily experiences on the water. These are amphibians that inhabit floating houses on the shores of lakes and whose lives are intertwined with the liquid territory of water, land, and forest in the Amazon. The data collection technique was based on semi-structured interviews, conducted using a script with questions relevant to our objective. The data were analyzed using narrative analysis, an investigative approach to various types of texts that share a historical way of knowing and communicating a culture. These were interpretive accounts developed by the researcher, based on interviews and fieldwork observation. The research results showed that the traditional knowledge of the fishermen provides profound understanding of fish management, fishing techniques, species identification, and a rich glossary of plants, fruits, and fish. This knowledge is essential for biodiversity conservation and the creation of conservation and management projects and programs. The results also demonstrated that the myths that populate the fishermen's imagination have a deep connection with nature, regulate their ancestral relationships with the forest, and foster respect for natural spaces, where they ask permission to fish. The worldview of the fishermen led us to understand that there is a symbiosis between the environmental, the social, and the subjective that make up the core of the community. This understanding must be highlighted, as recent environmental debates have prioritized only the preservation of biodiversity and neglected the social role of the lives of traditional communities in the preservation of these ecosystems. Finally, this study reaffirms the need to think about the Amazon from the perspective of its own territories, subjects, and temporalities. Traditional communities, such as the Braga community, are not remnants of the past, but protagonists of contemporary experiences that offer important contributions to the construction of more sustainable futures.