Caminhando o bom caminho: a noção de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional dos Guarani de Sapukai

Abstract

The Guarani are indigenous Indians who occupy lands in the South and Southeast coasts of Brazil. They are known for their constant mobility, in a peregrination inspired, among other reasons, by the search for a "Land without evil." The peregrination is both literal and symbolic: it includes rules which are followed to reach this land. Living according to the rules is expressing the "Guarani way of being": the nhanderekó. The purpose of this research is to analyze the constituted elements in the notion of the Food and Nutritional Security (FNS) for Sapukai Guarani. The data organized in this work are part of field work developed from 2011 to 2014 in the Sapukai village, Angra dos Reis RJ. We carried out systematic observations and interviews with indigenous people, including men and women of different ages, spiritual leaders and village politicians. The interviews delved deep during various meetings, and the empirical material was analyzed based on thematic content analysis. The notion of FNS for Sapukai Guarani differs from that found in the Organic Law on Food and Nutritional Security, the LOSAN. What stands out in the dialogues are discourses about a land that allows them to develop the nhandérekó. The immediate dimension in search of the "Land without evil" emerges in the arguments, which do not disassociate the "right way to live--" including planting, harvesting, cooking and eating, from a land that allows them to perform these actions in accordance with the rules established by Nhanderú, the highest divinity. In this context, they speak about the need of a walk through a correct path, i.e., following rules (traditional), which are also expressed in the different stages of the food system, and that would lead them to reach the second dimension of the "Land without evil:‖ the assurance of eternal life. The search for a territory where they can live as a true Guarani is predominant in dialogues and attitudes. Thus, the FNS can only be achieved in a territory that allows them to live "in the way." In traditional rites, the main elements are the foods that must have been planted, harvested and prepared in good ground, according to the rules. Territory, tradition and rituals, are then three constituent categories of the Guarani notion of SAN, which also includes, at its core, religion/cosmogony as a producer of norms and as a community organizer. Although, the LOSAN affirms the need to respect the culture and tradition in the definition of FNS, we point out that there is still a great gap between the two, which makes contextualized practical conduct difficult. Dialogue between the indigenous people and leaders of FNS policies is an urgent need