Revista Brasileira de Educação do Campo
The Brazilian Scientific Journal of Rural Education
ARTIGO/ARTICLE/ARTÍCULO
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e7672
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7672
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7672
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
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Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The
Creole Seed Exchange Festival in traditional peasant
communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT
Cristiano Apolucena Cabral
1
, Luana da Cruz Burema
2
, Edson Caetano
3
1, 2, 3
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso - UFMT. Instituto de Educação. Avenida Fernando Corrêa da Costa, nº 2367. Bairro
Boa Esperança. Cuiabá - MT. Brasil.
Author for correspondence: crisprelazia@yahoo.com.br
ABSTRACT. This text aims to present a brief discussion about
the existence of the associated production and agro, the unique
culture of work and experience of some principles of Buen Vivir,
which give the historical basis for the imposition of 'Feast of
exchange of seeds crioulas' in traditional communities peasants
from cuiabana. This issue is being discussed by the Group of
Studies and Research on Work and Education (GEPTE) of the
Graduate Program in Education (PPGE) of the Federal
University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). It is a theoretical research
and field on the matter concerned with analysis, wheels of
conversations and interviews.
Keywords: Peasant Traditional Community, Associated
Production, Creole Seeds, Solidarity.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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ISSN: 2525-4863
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Saberes, Produção Associada e bem viver: A Festa de
Troca de Sementes Crioulas em comunidades tradicionais
camponesas da baixada cuiabana - MT
RESUMO. Este texto tem como objetivo apresentar uma breve
discussão acerca da existência da produção associada e
agroecológica, da singular cultura do trabalho e da vivência de
alguns princípios do Bem-Viver, que dão fundamento histórico
para a instituição da 'Festa de troca de sementes crioulas', nas
comunidades tradicionais camponesas da baixada cuiabana.
Temática essa que vem sendo discutida pelo Grupo de Estudos e
Pesquisas sobre Trabalho e Educação (GEPTE) do Programa de
Pós-Graduação em Educação (PPGE) da Universidade Federal
de Mato Grosso (UFMT). Trata-se de uma pesquisa teórica e de
campo sobre o assunto em questão com análises, rodas de
conversas e entrevistas.
Palavras-chave: Comunidade Tradicional Camponesa,
Produção Associada, Sementes Crioulas, Solidariedade.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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Saber, Producción Asociada y buen vivir: El festival de
Intercambio de Semillas Criollas en comunidades
campesinas tradicionales en la Baixada Cuiabana - MT
RESUMEN. Este texto tiene como objetivo presentar una breve
discusión sobre la existencia de producción asociada y
agroecológica, la cultura de trabajo única y la experiencia de
algunos principios de Buen Vivir, que dan una base histórica
para la institución del “Festival de Intercambio de Semillas
Criollas”, en las comunidades campesinas tradicionales de la
Baixada Cuiabana. Este tema ha sido discutido por el Grupo de
Estudio e Investigación sobre Trabajo y Educación (GEPTE) del
Programa de Posgrado en Educación (PPGE) de la Universidad
Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT). Esta es una investigación
teórica y de campo sobre el tema en cuestión con análisis,
ruedas de conversación y entrevistas.
Palabras clave: Comunidad Campesina Tradicional,
Producción Asociada, Semillas Criollas, Solidaridad.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
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e7672
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Introduction
This text is a theoretical and field
research in some traditional peasant
communities in the municipalities of Nossa
Senhora do Livramento and Jangada, in the
state of Mato Grosso. The categories used,
the method and the subjects of this
research are inserted in the section
researched by the Study and Research
Group on Work and Education (GEPTE)
of the Graduate Program in Education
(PPGE) of the Federal University of Mato
Grosso (UFMT).
These communities, organized in
units of family production (Chayanov,
1974), maintain solidarity relationships of
cooperation between the units, for the
satisfaction of their material and
immaterial needs. However, the historical
limitations of the composition of the Labor
force, of nature, etc. it has pushed them to
another level of productive organization:
an associated production of products and
knowledge and an agroecological
production.
The culture of work arises from this
production of existence, full of meanings,
significance, representations of the world.
Thus, from this work culture, the
characteristics of Buen Vivir (Acosta,
2016) emerge: harmony with nature,
alternative proposal for the production of
existence, food sovereignty, attempt to
overcome the logic of capital,
strengthening popular and traditional
knowledge, attempts at another
relationship with the other, self-
management in production, protection of
the territory and biodiversity.
These are determinations that have
created historical conditions for the
establishment of Creole Seeds Exchange
Feast in these traditional communities. The
preservation of the Creole seeds is the
driving intention that unifies the different
communities, families, interests,
perspectives, values, attitudes and
representation of the world.
The method used is dialectical
historical materialism (Fernandes, 1978;
Gadotti, 2010; Harnecker, 1973). In this
method, the analysis criterion is the
concrete, dialectical, contradictory and
procedural history, which has work as its
ontological foundation (Lukács, 2013),
which is the constitutive principle of active
and thinking humanity itself, thus being an
educational principle (Lukács, 2013). As
for the methodology, that is, the research
instruments, observation of the productive
process of the Creole Seed Exchange Feast
of these communities was used in the
dialogues, interviews and chatting circles
with some residents.
The objective is to analyze an
alternative of the production, distribution,
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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circulation and consumption process of the
capitalist mode of production. Especially
the capitalism territorialized in the
countryside. Which commercialise the
labor force (Marx, 1980) and commodifies
the most necessary product for human life:
food. Commodification that has as main
intention, the profit.
In view of this control over
production and workers, that capital
institutes a new determination to relations:
its fetishization (Marx, 1988). In which the
relationship between people became a
relationship between things (ditto),
between goods. Namely, while people
maintain the material relationship between
them, the goods maintain a social
relationship (Ibidem).
The Creole Seed Exchange Feast -
built from the existence of an associated
and agroecological production, of the
unique culture of work that gradually
implements the principles of Buen Vivir -
breaks with several imperatives of capital,
grounding itself as a non- capitalist
production (Luxembourg, 1985) and
creating conditions for a new relationship,
not of things, but of people.
Capital goes to the countryside:
monoculture, pesticides and
commercialization of relations and seeds
As the territorialization of capitalism
in the countryside, production has a single
intention: to make its merchandise a source
of profit. This production in Mato Grosso
is limited to very few commodities: cattle,
soy, corn, cotton and sugar cane,
occupying more than 90% of the arable
land. With the land monopoly,
monoculture is effective in occupying
39.235.900 hectares (Cabral, 2017). This is
the strength of the commodification of
food in the intentionality of profit and its
consequent price control: "on the world
market, oligopolies put all their weight to
impose food prices - for their own benefit,
of course: as highest price as possible".
(Ziegler, 2013, p. 157). By
commercializing food, the product if the
survival of men and women, delimits and
determines who will live or have the
quantity and quality of food necessary for
survival. In order to control prices,
"essential sectors of agribusiness are
controlled, notably seeds, fertilizers,
pesticides, storage, transport, etc.".
(Ziegler, 2013, p. 152). An oligopoly of
few companies that controls the entire
productive and circulating process of food,
thus being not only an economic power,
but a political and social power,
unbalancing nations, peoples and
communities, especially the poorest ones
and most miserable ones.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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This offer of agricultural products is
the offer of industrialized agricultural
products
The main modern inputs, including
fertilizers and chemical pesticides,
fuels, feed and concentrates, seeds
and seedlings, etc., have created
important links of inter-industrial
relations with the chemical and
petrochemical industry and with the
food products sector. (Delgado, 1985,
p. 88).
With the command of
industrialization over production, not only
on seeds, fertilizers, etc., but on pesticides
that pesticides have become the great
marketing force of this system directed by
agribusiness. Its products are diverse:
insecticides, pesticides, herbicides,
fungicides, ant killers etc. In this way, with
this uniformity of production in wide
space, they attract several 'diseases',
making nature itself sick. Thus,
increasingly needing industrialized
'medicines' for its 'cure'.
Pesticides are present in the
production of the field in such a ubiquitous
way that their effects on flora and fauna,
soil, water, air, workers, consumers, etc.
they are so devastating that it is a true
biocide what happens to the liabilities of
the effects of the pesticide.
In addition, it drastically reduces the
diversity of existing products and food
wealth.
In fact, the world's agricultural
landscapes are intended for planting
just 12 species, 23 species of
vegetables and 35 species of fruits
and nuts. This means that no more
than 70 species occupy
approximately 1.44 billion hectares
of land currently cultivated in the
world. (Altieri, 2012, p. 24).
In fact, the world's agricultural
landscapes are intended for planting just 12
species, 23 species of vegetables and 35
species of fruits and nuts. This means that
no more than 70 species occupy
approximately 1.44 billion hectares of land
currently cultivated in the world (Altieri,
2012, p. 24).
Capital directs what is relevant or not
to ecological and human life. Therefore,
with the sole intention of commercializing
food with an obsession with profit, hunger
is created.
Hunger is primarily a product of a
poor distribution of wealth and a
poor planning of the world economy,
where one does not seek to meet the
real biological needs of each people,
but only their soluble needs, in other
words, what they are able of paying.
(Castro, 1960, p. 29)
Monopoly over land, monoculture,
commodification of the labor force and
food, ambitious control over prices,
reduction and uniformity of food are some
of the historical premises of this creation of
hunger.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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Hunger is not an inevitable fatality
that affects certain countries. The
causes of form are political. Who
controls natural resources (land,
water, seeds), who allows food
production? Who benefits from
agricultural and food policies?
(Esteve, 2017, p. 24).
Food is not only a commodity, it is
an instrument of political power, so its
control is necessary. States, people,
workers and consumers are controlled. Life
is controlled: “only ten companies -
including Avantis, Monsanto, Pionner and
Syngenta - control one third of the world
seed market [...]”. (Ziegler, 2013, p. 152).
Only with analyzes on the
territorialization of capital in the
countryside and with alternatives that
structurally transform this reality that men
and women will have access to food, that
they will be able to create another society,
on other social, economic, cultural and
political structures.
Traditional peasant communities in the
Baixada Cuiabana: associated
production and work culture as the
basis for Buen Vivir
In Mato Grosso, traditional peasant
communities are located, almost entirely,
in the Baixada Cuiabana
i
. These are
organized by families, for the material and
immaterial production of life, in territories
that have meanings.
An important element in the
relationship between traditional
populations and nature is the
notion of territory that can be
defined as a portion of nature and
space over which a given society
claims and guarantees to all, or to
a part of its members, stable rights
to access, control or use over all
or part of the natural resources
that exist there that she wants or is
to use. (Diegues, 1996, p. 83).
The territory, in some of the
communities of Nossa Senhora do
Livramento and Jangada, is not only a
space for access to natural resources, but,
simultaneously, for access to nature,
housing, leisure, celebration. The living
space is transformed into the comfort of
families, where generations have lived in
the same territory, building a traditional
culture.
Diegues (1996) highlights, when
defining traditional cultures, the relevance
of natural resource management; the
respect for natural cycles; respect for
limiting human exploitation of animals and
plants; and, finally, the complexity of
inherited knowledge for maintaining the
ecosystem.
As Diegues (1996, p. 85)
acknowledged, "it is important to analyze
the system of representations, symbols and
myths that these traditional populations
build, because it is based on it that they act
on the environment". They are the
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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religious celebrations blessing the family,
the work, the nature; they are songs of
cururu and the dances of siriri (with their
clothes of strong colors); it is the reduction
in two climatic seasons (drought and rain);
it is the hope of the arrival of the 'cashew
rain';etc. that give meaning to life in these
traditional communities in the Baixada
Cuiabana. That is why Diegues (1996, p.
87) defines traditional cultures as "patterns
of socially transmitted behavior, mental
models used to perceive, report and
interpret the world, symbols, socially
shared meanings".
Another characteristic in these
traditional peasant communities is balance.
Ploeg (2016), from Chayanov, analyzing
the peasant production mode, highlighted
some balances necessary for the
reproduction of peasant life: work-
consumption
ii
; utility-pain
iii
; person-
nature
iv
; production-reproduction
v
.
The Chayanovian balances are what
constitute and regulate agriculture.
They model and remodel, within
certain contexts restricted to time and
place, the shape and fertility of the
fields, the quantity and type of cattle,
the profits generated by plantations
and animals. (Ploeg, 2016, p. 14).
In these balances, work, leisure,
coexistence, needs and hardship at work
are intertwined in the same life experiences
to satisfy needs and overcome historical
difficulties such as the natural limitation
typical of the cerrado, such as the soil
poverty for production, difficulties with the
amount of water, lack of money for
investments in production instruments,
greater presence of elderly people in the
communities, distance from urban areas,
etc.
In this dynamism, for the suppression
of the two determinations, it is that some of
these communities organized their
production in an associated way.
As for associated production, it can
be understood in two ways, not
necessarily excluding: either as
associated work or a process in
which workers associate in the
production of goods and services, or
as the basic economic unit of the
society of free associated producers.
(Tiriba, 2008, p. 81).
Community edible gardens,
collective production of medicinal plants,
collective production of derivatives of
manioc, milk, sugar cane and bananas are
some of the associated productions
experienced by parts of these traditional
communities. Instruments, land,
knowledge and work forces are thus used
collectively.
Associated production - which
strengthens elements inherent to the actual
work and presents new elements - is an
educational organization, producinges
knowledge in association (Tiriba &
Fischer, 2012). Transforming this material
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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production and knowledge into culture, in
exchanges "of symbols, intentions, patterns
of culture and relationships, of power".
(Brandão, 2007, p. 08), preserving values,
ideas, knowledge, thoughts, beliefs,
feelings, etc. (Brandão, 1985).
Such reality is called work culture,
which Palenzuela (1995, p. 13) defines as
Set of theoretical and practical
knowledge, behaviors, perceptions,
attitudes and values that individuals
acquire and build from their insertion
into work processes and/or the
internalization of the ideology of
work, all of which modulates their
social interaction beyond their
specific work practice and guides
their specific worldview as members
of a particular group.
In the dynamism of this work culture
- the worldview, attitudes, behaviors, the
work process, the associated production -
life has meaning, which is experienced not
only in the work process, but in free time,
which it was only possible in the
communities - associated production - by
reducing the working day and
simultaneously meeting needs. In this way,
with the satisfaction of the realm of
necessity, the realm of freedom was able to
materialize in the production of existence,
as announced by Marx (2008, p. 1083-
1084), respecting historical and theoretical
differences.
Freedom in this domain can only
consist in: the social man, the
associated producers rationally
regulate the material exchange with
nature, collectively control it, without
letting it be the blind force that
dominates them; they do so with the
least expenditure of energy and in the
most appropriate and most suitable
conditions with human nature. But
this effort will always be in the realm
of necessity. In addition to this, the
development of human forces begins
as an end in itself, the genuine realm
of freedom, which can only flourish
on the basis of the realm of necessity.
And the fundamental condition of
this human development is the
reduction of the workday.
This reality, even in its limitations
and contradictions, exists in the traditional
community of São Manoel do Pari in its
associated production, which is
collectively thought and implemented from
the satisfaction of common material and
immaterial needs. Meeting these needs in a
cooperative and self-managed manner
produces both qualitative and quantitative
time. In the capitalist mode of production,
the excess time appropriated by the
capitalist for the extraction of surplus
value: by expropriating the surplus work
by paying the worker only the necessary
work, in the same working day, the
capitalist has part of the time of this
working day to thus, achieving the added
value and, subsequently, its realization
with profit.
Now, with these peasants in
possession of their own workforce and
means of production, producing in an
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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associated and self-managed way the time
necessary for the material production and
reproduction of life is reduced
quantitatively and qualitatively, leaving
time in excess of the freedom of other
activities: political, festive, religious,
educational, recreational, leisure etc.
Only when this realm of freedom
implements itself, always starting from the
realm of necessity, which will implement
Buen Vivir in the traditional peasant
communities of the Baixada Cuiabana,
“Buen Vivir should be considered part of a
long search for life alternatives forged in
the warmth of popular struggles”. (Acosta,
2016, p. 70).
Building new production
relationships, based on cooperation and
solidarity. All with a purpose: "it is about
promoting a life in harmony of individuals
in the community as part of nature".
(Acosta, 2016, p. 85). The organization of
life based on balance facilitates this
harmonization, being able to "collectively
build a new way of life". (Acosta, 2016, p.
23).
Thus, with the associated and
agroecological production, which create
conditions for a unique work culture and
the experience of some bases of Buen
Vivir, that the traditional communities
surveyed created conditions for the
construction of the 'Creole seed exchange
feast' experience.
Exchange of knowledge and flavors: 'a
people with no seeds is a people with no
history'
In order to reach the identification
with knowledge, practices, territory,
values, behaviors and attitudes, these
traditional peasant communities had to
recreate various attributes present in their
production of existence. Brandão (1984, p.
78) already stated that "it is with a new
way of recreating, combining and using
symbols and values of culture, that the
people reconstruct their own popular
identity, what among other educators
corresponds, in some way, to class
consciousness".
Obviously, in this process of
'recreation, combination and use' some
characteristics of capitalism and the urban
area are used. Even so, these
characteristics do not structurally deny this
identification of peasants and peasants as a
traditional community with singular
meanings, representations, practices and
knowledge.
In addition, the strong growth of
agroecology and its important and complex
ecological interaction (Altieri, 2012) in the
production processes influenced not only
the actions, but also the knowledge, senses,
meanings, values and relationships. In
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
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other words, it influenced the work culture,
pointing out better paths to Buen Vivir.
In this world of meanings, based on
objective material praxis, not only
the meanings of things were formed
as a sense of things, but also the
human senses, which provide man
with access to the objective meaning
of things. (Kosik, 1976, p. 76).
Agroecology is not just a productive
relationship with nature. Nature must also
satisfy its own needs. In this way, some
concerns and care are important for the
reproduction of traditional communities
present in the cerrado of the Baixada
Cuiabana, such as favoring plant diversity,
the use of organic fertilizer, the interaction
of plants and animals in the same space,
agroecological management, etc. (Altieri,
2012, p. 105-106).
Agroecology is the holistic study of
ecosystems, covering all
environmental and human elements.
Their attention is focused on the
form, dynamics and function of their
interrelationships, as well as on the
processes in which they are involved.
An area used for agricultural
production (a field for example) is
seen as a complex system in which
ecological processes that occur under
natural conditions can also take
place, such as nutrient cycling,
predator-prey interactions,
competition, symbiosis and changes
arising from ecological successions.
An idea implicit in agroecological
research is that, by understanding
these ecological relationships and
processes, agroecosystems can be
managed in order to improve
production and make it more
sustainable, reducing negative
environmental and social impacts and
decreasing the input of external
inputs.
The diversity of the agroecosystem is
essential for production and reproduction
of existence itself, satisfying the most basic
needs and dispensing with money. It
presents an alternative for economic
development that is not under the
imperative of money and capital.
This diversity is observed in the
productions of: corn, papaya, jiló, orange,
acerola, banana, pumpkin, potato, papaya,
okra, cashew, avocado, pineapple, mango,
pequi, lemon, guava, tamarind, coconut,
manioc, beans, sugar cane, various
vegetables (lettuce, arugula, chives,
coriander).
In the creation of chicken, pig, cattle,
fish. "It can be concluded that biodiversity
belongs to both the natural and the cultural
domain, but it is culture as knowledge that
allows traditional populations to
understand it, mentally represent it, handle
it and often enrich it". (Diegues, 2004, p.
16).
These traditional communities have a
repertoire of knowledge about the
ecosystem that surrounds them and makes
them appropriate nature (Toledo &
Berreira-Bassols, 2015): medicinal plants;
fruits; soil types; climate; natural pests; the
importance of the sun, rain, moon for
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
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production; the property of rocks;
mammals; fish; birds; pollinating insects
like bees; etc.
Thus, local knowledge encompasses
detailed taxonomic knowledge about
constellations, plants, animals, fungi,
rocks, snows, waters, soils,
landscapes and vegetation, or about
geophysical, biological and
ecological processes, such as land
movements, climatic cycles or
hydrological, life cycles, period of
formation, fruiting, germination,
estrus or nesting, and phenomena of
ecosystem recovery (ecological
succession) and landscape
management. (Toledo & Berreira-
Bassols, 2015, p. 97).
These knowledge’s have become
customs in the communities. Its
socialization, from generation to
generation, conserving and modernizing,
was structured as a subversive culture. As
Thompson said (1998, p. 19): "a traditional
culture that is, at the same time,
rebellious". In this rebellion comes a
singular experience, typical of the Buen
Vivir experience: Creole Seed Exchange
Feast, which is organized by these
traditional communities, supported and
articulated by entities such as the
Comissão Pastoral da Terra
vi
, breaks with
various imperatives of capital and proposes
a alternative way of circulating labor
products.
The communities themselves manage
the organization of the feast. The foods for
breakfast, snacks, lunch are organized in
cooperation and the products donated by
all, using their own productions. The shed
used for the party, when it is not ready, is
built in joint effort.
Socialization and cooperation go
beyond these moments. The Creole Seed
Exchange Feast promotes moments when
popular knowledge and scientific
knowledge dialogue with each other and
are socialized by peasants and peasants.
Know what are the roots, leaves, bark of
wood that can be used as medicine and
how to use them.
Here are some teachings about
medicinal plants, socialized at these
parties: the mineiro tea, a native herb in the
cerrado, contributes to the prevention of
eclampsia and swelling during pregnancy;
pennyroyal is a great remedy for those who
have diabetes, it is recommended that you
take it every day; the carrapatinho do mato
serves to help balance pressure and
anemia; gorse is a diuretic, helps to fight
rheumatism, diabetes, helps with wound
healing, to lose weight; jurubeba is good
for the liver and diabetes; kale and yam
prevent boils and pimples, are blood
purifiers, yam is still widely used to fight
itchy skin; turmeric also contributes to
intestinal function, and its leaf can be used
to cure asthma, bronchitis and colds. As
the peasants of the communities said: "the
cerrado is our pharmacy".
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
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These identify themselves as
guardians and guardians of the cerrado,
traditional and popular knowledge,
medicinal plants, fruits, seeds. With this
identification, cooperation, solidarity,
association of collective strength for
production, agroecological production that
the ‘Creole seeds exchange feast' becomes
effective as a historical consequence of
these traditional peasant communities.
The wealth of seeds, medicinal plants
seedlings, fruits etc. they are huge
vii
:
pepper; Cara; melon; tansagem; banana;
pineapple; cupuaçu; papaya; dipyrone;
corn; pumpkin; banana; caninha do brejo;
cumbaru; cotton; manioc; coconut;
cashew; saffron; Sesame; ingá; jambo;
bean; lemon; rice; avocado; Vick;
chamomile; buriti; guava; castor; tamarind;
corn; okra; tomato; potato; cilantro;
gherkin; etc.
Both who takes along and who
doesn’t take seeds and seedlings for
exchange, will acquire their seed or seed to
take home. Nobody is excluded from
access. In exchange, there is no relevance
to the financial market value, the rarity of
the product, the time used to produce it,
because what is relevant is the need for the
product and access based on the solidarity
of all.
The dynamism to find ways to
overcome limitations or in family units or
in communities is not restricted to the
cooperation of the work force in joint
efforts, in exchanging working hours, in
associated production or in agroecological
productions, but extends to the exchange,
free of charge , the products of their family
or community work. Here, money is,
again, non-existent.
However, the responsibility with the
seed, with the fertilizer, with the medicinal
plant is not fixed spatially and temporally
to the 'Creole seed exchange feast'. With
the registration of these products, in a Seed
Information Bank, there is a mapping both
of which family and community they
donated to which family and community
they received.
One of the intentions of this mapping
is for an eventual loss for both those who
brought and those who took, to be able to
access it again. At the 2017 festivals, for
example, in Nossa Senhora do Livramento
and Jangada, 270 and 300 seeds and
seedlings were registered
viii
, respectively.
Sharing these seeds, seedlings and
medicinal plants means sharing
knowledge, traditional culture, work
culture and the hope of continuing this
identity forged in seeds. Thus, maintaining
and continuing its own history, since: a
people without seeds is a people without
history.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7672
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
14
Conclusion
The traditional peasant communities
of the Baixada Cuiabana have several
contradictions and limitations. However,
some live the principles of Buen Vivir
more than others, some examples are the
communities of São Manoel do Pari,
Raizama, Minhocal, Ribeirão das Pedras
Acima, among others. Making the space
for the production of existence in a
territory full of senses and meanings that
represent solidarity, interests, expectations,
common values is essential for living the
principles of Buen Vivir. For, not only
relationships, nature, the work process, but
the territory thereupon they live has
meaning (Palenzuela, 2014).
In this territoriality of the unique
work culture, traditional communities will
be able to break through and overcome the
most destructive imperatives of
capitalism's human and ecological life. In
this way, a new production, distribution,
circulation and consumption process will
take place on concrete bases.
For this reason, associated
production, agroecological production, a
unique work culture that values
cooperation and solidarity and, finally,
living in the daily life of Buen Vivir are
attributes and experiences that are
hegemonic against capital. An experience
ingrained in culture. As Gruppi (1978, p.
73) recognizes, "hegemony, therefore, is
not only political, but it is also a cultural,
moral, worldview".
In this way, the exchange of creole
seeds, fruit seedlings, medicinal plants is
the realization not only of a cultural
alternative, but a political empowerment of
these communities, here food sovereignty
comes into the agenda.
Thus, food sovereignty means that, in
addition to having access to food, the
populations of each country have the
right to produce it. And that is what
can guarantee them sovereignty over
their existence. Controlling the
production of their own food is
essential so that the populations have
guaranteed access to them at any
time of the year and for the
production of these foods to be
appropriate to the biome where they
live, their nutritional needs and their
eating habits. (Stedile & Carvalho,
2012, p. 722).
The companies' dominance over
seeds and their commercialization is
broken; with its commercialization; with
its industrialization and, thus, with hunger.
This is the political proposal present at the
'Creole seed exchange feast' and the
concept of food sovereignty.
The fight for seeds is the struggle to
maintain the knowledge and flavors that
are endangered by industrialized
production, by monoculture and uniformity
of seeds (with its consequent uniformity of
knowledge and flavors): "eating, however,
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7672
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2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
15
is much more than swallowing food".
(Esteve, 2017, p. 191).
Thus, with the 'Creole seed exchange
feast' of traditional peasant communities,
with all their limitations and
contradictions, an alternative to the
production of material and immaterial life
is proposed, a new culture of work so that
the Buen Vivir proposal have in fact a
foundation in human work to satisfy their
biological and socio-cultural needs.
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i
The Citizenship territory's of Baixada Cuiabana,
or as it is called Baixada Cuiabana, is a region
belonging to the state of Mato Grosso and has 14
municipalities, namely Acorizal, Barão de Melgaço,
Campo Verde, Chapada dos Guimarães, Cuiabá,
Jangada, Nobres, Nossa Senhora do Livramento,
Nova Brasilândia, Planalto da Serra, Poconé,
Rosário Oeste, Santo Antônio do Leverger and
Várzea Grande
ii
Quantitative and qualitative intensification is in
full relation to family needs. This determines that.
iii
The hardship of working hours is only acceptable
if all this effort is useful for the reproduction of life
in the community. If the benefits are greater than
the pain, it is accepted.
iv
Relationship of care with nature, because is from
it that one can stay alive.
v
It is extremely necessary and relevant to maintain
material production itself, with its instruments and
nature, for continuous reproduction. Thus, it is
necessary the constant reproduction of the materials
used.
vi
The Comissão Pastoral da Terra, created in 1975,
after meeting with bishops from the Amazon, had
the initiative of responding to the desires of rural
workers, squatters, landless, riverside dwellers,
peasants. Subsequently, it was established in all
states of the country. The mission remains in the
link between a subversive reading of the gospel and
a subversive reading of reality. Its action is in the
formation, organization, dynamization and
strengthening of the protagonism of these social
subjects in the struggle for land and in the struggle
for permanence in the land, producing and
reproducing existence in a dignified manner.
(Canuto, 2012).
vii
Data from the internal archives of the Comissão
Pastoral da Terra - MT.
viii
Data from the internal archives of the Comissão
Pastoral da Terra - MT.
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020). Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The Creole Seed
Exchange Festival in traditional peasant communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT…
Tocantinópolis/Brasil
v. 5
e7672
10.20873/uft.rbec.e7672
2020
ISSN: 2525-4863
17
Article Information
Received on September 24th, 2019
Accepted on January 20th, 2020
Published on May, 29th, 2020
Author Contributions: The author Cristiano was
responsible for the elaboration, analysis, interpretation of
data and writing of the article. The author Luana was
responsible for article writing and revising the content of
the manuscript. The author Edson Caetano was
responsible for the review the manuscript; the authors
approved the final published version.
Conflict of Interest: None reported.
Orcid
Cristiano Apolucena Cabral
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3770-5648
Luana da Cruz Burema
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4886-5316
Edson Caetano
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9906-0692
How to cite this article
APA
Cabral, C. A., Burema, L. C., & Caetano, E. (2020).
Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The
Creole Seed Exchange Festival in traditional peasant
communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT. Rev. Bras.
Educ. Camp., 5, e7672.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e7672
ABNT
CABRAL, C. A.; BUREMA, L. C.; CAETANO, E.
Knowledge, Associated Production and buen vivir: The
Creole Seed Exchange Festival in traditional peasant
communities in the Baixada Cuiabana - MT. Rev. Bras.
Educ. Camp., Tocantinópolis, v. 5, e7672, 2020.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20873/uft.rbec.e7672