Juvyy (Tesãi Renda): lugares de saúde na cosmologia Kaiowá de Panambizinho

Abstract

The main aim of the research is to understand and label the medicinal plants at the territory which the Kaiowá people live, departing from an ethnoknowledge perspective. Specifically, the research is developed at the indigenous land Panambizinho Yvy Akandire, 17 km away from the Dourados city, at the Mato Grosso do Sul state (Brazil). This territory was recognized as a delimited indigenous land by the federal government in 2004. The Panambizinho tekoha is predominantly inhabited by the Kaiowá people. The tekoha is the place wherein the Kaiowá family live: this is the space where the community resists through the strengthening of the native language and the traditional livelihood in a context of a rich culture of living creatures and the Kaiowá wellbeing. Within this territory, the Kaiowá people have been suffering violences since the beginning of colonization, such as the exploitation of the environment. However, in the territory different traditional families practice their tradition and histories. The population at the tekoha Panambizinho counts on 381 people that remain in their original livelihood, valuing religious traditional practices such as the baptism of the white corn, the singing, the guaxiré dancing, the nhembo’e pray, the baptism of the young non-married girl and the boy (kunumi pepy for the latter). Through different histories, Panambizinho and its inhabitants resist at the juvyy (swamp) space: these are places of health, because this is a sacred territory that keeps alive all the guardians –járy. The methodology for this research includes personal talks with some women from my kindred to understand better the relevance of the juvyy and I was also guided by the dreams I had along the research proposal. The swamp or juvyy is also a space of research, as a laboratory that brings together plants and spiritual creatures that allow the research. Therefore, these creatures paved the way to understand, know and preserve the environment.