Paper short abstract:

The relationship of quilombola people from Mituaçu (Paraíba, Brazil) with plants, fish, crabs and the Gramame River is a way to perceive how biodiversity is creatively cultivated and valued in the search for good living in this area since the colonial period.

Paper long abstract:

The living and conviviality are affected by several metamorphoses in Mituaçu — an afro descent community which recognize itself as remnants of quilombo communities — located in the municipality of Conde, Paraíba State, northeast of Brazil. Starting with the colonial process, the metamorphoses reaches the current urban growth and the pollution of the Gramame River. It also comprises the life cycle of the plants, crabs and other beings that inhabit the area. Plants around the houses connect relatives and neighbors when circulating as seedlings/gifts. Wild plants — such as the xenxém onion — reveal healing knowledge through the myths. But plants also tell stories of fungal devastation along the time, like the death of mango trees. Likewise, the life cycle of the fish and the annual migration phenomenon (“andada”) of the crabs are forms to indicate the periods of fishing and gathering activities of the quilombolas. But the recently death of aquatic life due to the leaking of caustic soda and dumping of cellulose in the Gramame River, also inform about the new strategies of the community with the environment. Here, we focus on the long trajectory of the quilombola’s knowledge developed with plants, crustaceans and fish. As an element of local identity of quilombola and also indigenous communities along the South coast of Paraíba State, the relationship with different kinds of plants, as well as with fish, crabs and the Gramame River, shows us how biodiversity is creatively cultivated and valued in the search for good living in these territories over time.