Relações socioambientais dos Inỹ/Javaé na Ilha do Bananal: um enfoque etnoecológico

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to understand the dynamics of the socio-environmental interrelationships of the Inỹ/Javaé indigenous on Bananal Island, state of Tocantins, focusing on the cultural conception of the environment, traditional practices and the effects of environmental tensions in the region. In this way, leaders, elders, shamans, teachers and residents of Aldeia Canoanã participated directly in the research. This is an interdisciplinary study, with a qualitative approach, descriptive and exploratory, anchored in the ethnographic and ethnobiological method and in the techniques of participant observation and semi-structured interview. The methodological course was built from literature, field experience and information from social media, enabling the recording of narratives/memories, myths, stories and interviews, in addition to the observation of cultural practices. The treatment of data collected in the field consisted of transcription, interpretation and qualitative discussion, inspired by ethnographic research, in which the point of view, the image and the imaginary projected by the participants prevail. The research results indicate that the environmental perceptions of these indigenous people are associated with their sociocosmology. It thus presents a symbolic relationship implicit in rituals through intangible beings, as well as a practical one, characterized by traditional practices that reveal their way of being and living. Connectivity with natural resources mainly (territory, water, forest and animals) and the concern to maintain them, represents not only dependence on nature, but also their own survival. The natural physical space, the landscape with the local ecosystems, constitute meeting points for beings of different dimensions from a humanized cultural perspective that starts from the notions of unity, sensitivity, sustainability and environmental conservation. However, the eco-socio-environmental relationship of the Javaé with the world around them, touches at the same time, the real and the mythical, in search of a balance between man and the environment.