The Immateriality of Cultivated Plants in the Context of Rio Negro Region (Brazilian Amazon)

Recognizing that the diversity of cultivated plants from which the world’s population benefits today is based on the knowledge and practices of local populations is not new and links their existence to the notion of resource. However, many ethnographies, as well as the new multispecies approaches, show that the existence of this diversity is anchored in a multidimensional space and that this intangibility is just as central and relevant as its tangible biological reality. The immaterial basis of the agrobiodiversity is explored on the basis of research carried out in the Rio Negro region where the cultivated plants acts as social and territorial extensions of the roça, the cultivated plot. In conclusion, we argue that the challenge of ethnobotanical or ethnoecological approaches, whether conducted by Amerindian, traditional, or other researchers, from academic or nonacademic backgrounds, is to contribute to the construction of new dialogues that ensure the future of these traditional agricultural systems.