Hi-Merimã agricultural intention

agroecological approaches and paradigms in the indigenous Amazon

Abstract

Contact with European colonizers in America has led to a sharp decrease in indigenous populations. The demographic vacuum resulting from this population decline reflected in the agricultural systems and processes of domestication of plants, which shaped the current ecosystems. Even the “pristine” Amazon fores tis favored with hyperdominant useful species, legacy of an ancestral management.Although it is common to associate these changes in the landscapes with the peoples of the past, in certain contemporary Amazonian ethnographic contexts, it is possible to recognize management patterns that result in corresponding changes in the structure of forests. The established relationship between Hi-Merimã and the resources of their territory puts in question fundamental paradigms of agricultural systems. The management practices adopted by these isolated hunters/collectors indigenous people of the Juruá/Purus interflow, shed light on agricultural paradigms and problematize concepts of collection and agriculture in the Amazon context.