Conhecimento etnobotânico como patrimônio: os quintais urbanos nas pequenas cidades do Vale Histórico Paulista

Abstract

In the cities of São José do Barreiro and Areias, in the Vale Histórico Paulista, it is possible to find, inside the urban center, spaces where the cultivation of vegetables and fruits still exists. In these urban homegardens, there are plants and also people who have familiarity with these plants, which allow us to consider these spaces as holders of botanical knowledge on food plants. Cultural and socioeconomic changes have warned that homegardens and botanical knowledge held by this population have become vulnerable. The present paper aims to discuss the knowledge about plants and the relevance of the maintenance of cultivated homegardens for the permanence and transmission of this botanical knowledge, here considered as heritage. In order to understand the richness and vulnerability of this group, residents who had urban homegardens with food cultivation plants were interviewed in order to characterize the homegardens and understand their motivations for food cultivation. From the recommended procedures for the understanding of urban ethnobotany, the interviews allowed us to understand the actions required for the maintenance of this heritage’s existence, which results in measures to contain its vulnerabilities.

Keywords

• agricultura urbana
• vulnerabilidade social
• desaparecimento de saberes
• transmissão do conhecimento
• plantas alimentícias