Plantas medicinais: valorização dos saberes tradicionais da etnia indígena Magüta

Abstract

The research carried out in this master's thesis aims at producing a documentation on medicinal plants from the traditional medicine of indigenous peoples in Brazil, stemming from the knowledge of the elders of the Magüta people community. The fieldwork, in this research was carried out in the Ticuna indigenous community of Umariçu-II and Cajari-I, that are located in the municipality of Tabatinga, in state of Amazonas. During the research, the work was extended to the São Sebastião indigenous community of the Marubo ethnic group, located by the Curuçá river, in the municipality of Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas. This research has an ethnographic nature – it was conducted with an interaction with the communities where the field research was carried out, from semi-structured interviews. All the information was recorded on audio files and photos taken and stored on cell phones. The data obtained during our visits were transcribed into a field notebook. In some cases, drawings were made in order facilitate the understanding of the preparation of the natural remedies, which plants treat which diseases, and how they must be used. This work aims at presenting ancestral knowledges in a concise and accessible way, covering the most important or essential points of how medicinal plants are used to prepare natural remedies, and how such remedies are used to cure or treat illnesses, and their symbolic values.