La ciencia de lo invisible: el saber de la Amazonía | Hortensia Caballero Arias | TEDxAmazônia

Quick Overview

Hortensia Caballero Arias argues that the biocultural heritage of the Yanomami people, encompassing their ecological knowledge, subsistence practices (agriculture, hunting, fishing, collection), and cosmological worldview, is severely threatened by external factors like global economies, climate change, deforestation, and pollution, emphasizing the need to support indigenous self-determination and respect their unique ways of managing the environment.

Key Points: The Yanomami people comprise 410 distinct indigenous peoples, speaking over 300 languages, with 80 groups living in voluntary isolation. The Yanomami occupy an extensive territory of 190,000 km2 across Venezuela (15,229 people) and Brazil (19,338 people), representing 3.5% of the Amazonian population. Their subsistence system is cyclical, integrating agriculture, hunting, fishing, and collection to maintain ecological balance. The speaker emphasizes that the Yanomami possess profound, traditional socio-productive calendars detailing when to hunt, fish, farm, and gather. This vital biocultural heritage is constantly threatened by global economies, climate change, deforestation, forest fires, and river contamination (e.g., from mining). The speaker recounts an anecdote where a Yanomami elder described a sick person whose spirit was lost, illustrating their cosmological understanding. The path forward involves creating spaces for participatory and collaborative work with indigenous communities to support their right to self-determination and preserve their cultural knowledge.

Context: Hortensia Caballero Arias, a Venezuelan anthropologist, shares insights derived from 30 years of working with indigenous peoples and communities in the Amazon, particularly focusing on the Yanomami people who inhabit territories in both Venezuela and Brazil. Her presentation centers on the richness of Yanomami biocultural heritage—their subsistence strategies and cosmological views—and the severe threats posed by modern external pressures.