Correspondências por meio de sementes: saberes, sustentabilidade e produção artesanal

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes some aspects of artisanal production through the using ornamental seeds from the productive groups in Maracana and the Maranhao Handicraft Promotion Center - CEPRAMA (available in the Environmental Protection Area - APA - do Maracana). For this matter, it was used correspondence practices according the perspective of British anthropologist Tim Ingold, as a Design Anthropology approach to help understanding how artisans and designers establish their relationships with the materials and the environment they are inserted, and also to systematize coprojective actions in the field, emphasizing the sustainability. So that, the reason for the choice of Maracana and CEPRAMA as cutouts for this research are due to the fact that the first one is a traditional neighborhood on the island of Sao Luis (MA) – geographically located in an APA – that can be seen as a potential supplier of native forest seeds, propitious to sustainable artisanal production. Also, for carrying a large cultural repertoire that expresses significant identity value, capable of fostering the development of practices in the environmental, social, economic and cultural fields. The second reason is for having a consumption and diffusion potential of APA species, comprisesing a space that houses several artisanal products from a wide range of materials, such as seeds. An important factor to consider is the know-how exchange between artisans from both productive spaces, and the production of an inventory resulting from these exchanges. The ability of the designer in the field to perceive through the correspondences, the demands that were presented, allowed exchanges of know-how between the productive groups through meetings, exchanges and social experiments, resulting in the systematization and improvement of productive chains, strengthening the contact between groups, including other social actors imbued in the activity besides the artisans and in the production of an inventory of APA species identified and employed in the activity, including information on the processes of artisanal production with seeds from local knowledge.