From honey to (the arch of) ashes: about the ecology of bees and the territories of isolated indigenous peoples on the Amazon frontier

• Autor(a) principal: Cangussu, Daniel
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Otto Diniz, Renata, dos Santos S. Melo, Luis Felipe, Viana Braga, Leonardo, Garcez Bertolin, Gabriel, Ambrósio Moreira, Priscila, Auxiliadora Drumond, Maria
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/ling/article/view/46450
• topic: Entomologia; etnobiologia; desmatamento; gestão ambiental; indigenismo; Tupi; entomology; ethnobiology; logging; environmental management; indigenism; Tupi

The eastern and southwestern borders of the Amazon have been the scene of an intense process of deforestation and land grabbing, where through the use of fire, the systematic conversion of forests into monocultures and pastures for cattle is carried out. In this context, the soil is being poisoned by the (de)regulation of the use of pesticides, and rivers and streams are disappearing more quickly. With the extermination of pollinators, soon all the agricultural production systems of this great region will be directly impacted, and little by little, the arch of fire, as this territory is known, will become an arch of ash and ruins. But there are other less obvious but no less worrisome impacts in this dramatic destructive process. This territory corresponds to the home of all the uncontacted Tupi indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon. Communities that, like the Awá-Guajá of Maranhão and Kagwahiva of Mato Grosso, are formed by very small groups that live in the last forest strongholds of these Amazonian frontiers. The extinction of bees in these territories jeopardizes the deep relationship between indigenous peoples and this entomofauna, and the pattern of mobility and itinerancy related to the collection and extraction of honey, a practice of great relevance in this indigenous Tupi context.