Tamanduá News - April 2006

April
2006

Traditional knowledge: times and stories brought to the surface

Traditional knowledge: times and stories brought to the surface

Fazenda Tamanduá has always kept its doors open to all possible studies. At the beginning of this year, we had the pleasure of receiving Ana Carolina Vinholi, from the State of Santa Catarina, for a three-month stay. She assembled unique material, with many stories, legends and traditions, and she will be greatly missed for her friendly attitude, which won everyone’s trust and friendship.

But let’s hear what she herself has to say:

Having recently graduated in Social Sciences from the University of Vale do Itajaí (Univali), Santa Catarina, I decided to venture into projects in the sertão region of the State of Paraiba. The starting point for this was learning about the work developed at Fazenda Tamanduá, through the “Globo Rural” TV program. I then submitted a research proposal under the title “Oral history of the population of Fazenda Tamanduá, as an indicator of traditional knowledge”, and received the go-ahead to carry out this study.

Traditional know-how for earthenware

The objectives of the work were the following:
	To carry out a reconstruction of the Farm’s memories;
	To make a survey of traditional knowledge; and
	To identify the community’s material and immaterial assets.

My intention was to record the knowledge, or know-how, regarding matters related to the natural and the supernatural world, which were passed on orally, from one generation to the next. At first I had intended to cover only the population living within the farm, but little by little I discovered people “outside” who were part of the history “inside” the farm; and they contributed a lot of important elements to my research.

And so story-telling times followed … very often at the end of the day, when the family was gathered together. At other times, there were chats on the veranda, on a rocking chair, a hammock, or on horseback .. any time was a time to talk about one’s childhood, about memories of Dad’s times, about cotton growing, about traditional practices for cultivating the soil.

A story that records the idea of the community’s material assets, which is a space for memories, refers to the big stone cross. This place symbolizes many things: one of them refers to the turn of the century (it was built in 1900), which was closely linked to religious practice; another refers to periods of illnesses such as smallpox, measles and German measles, which brings with it the mystic atmosphere of a haunted place, or the presence of burials for “pagan” children, that is, children known as “not Christian, not baptized”.


Other topics that stood out in my research should be recalled:
	The work of midwives /assistants;
	The relationship between drought, rainfall and flooding;
	The movement of cattle carried out by the cowboys;
	The blessing given against evil eye;
	The art of traditional cuisine and its utensils;
	Stories of stealing images of saints for the rain to come;
	Visions, ghosts, trancoso, buried treasure;
	Popular medicine using teas, cough syrups and other concoctions;
	Outlaws: Antonio Silvino e Lampião;
	Saint John’s Day simpatias (folk practices and remedies);
	Vows and saints;
	Washer-women’s chants;
	The political scenario of the seventies;
	Times of slavery;
	Indian descent;
	Soap and butter from the land.

This work represented a lot more than just a survey carried out: I ended up getting to know and learning about many things, one of them being to take an interest in stories of long ago ... to give even greater value to what ordinary people have to tell, to be willing to learn how to hear, to listen.

In this three-month period, I got to know a sertão that was different from the pictures in my head, far from what the media show ... a sertão that is dry in January, and in March is green and covered with water. Full of mysteries and beliefs that quickly got me involved.

I’m sure that I shall return to my town – Itajaí – missing Santa Terezinha, the local people that I shall always keep in my heart, the Tamanduá family that ended up adopting me..

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to carry out this wonderful work, and I should like to record the narrative of “one who believed and made things happen!”.

Ana Carolina Vinholi

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Fazenda Tamanduá
Caixa Postal 65 - Patos / Paraíba - CEP 58700-970 - Brazil
Tel.(55 83)3422-7070 Fax(55 83)3422-7071