THE SACREDNESS OF THE ENVIRONMENT: LIVES CO-CONSTRUCTED IN KNOWLEDGE, DOINGS, FEELINGS

Abstract

Presenting the sacred that exists in the clay extraction process by women from the Santa Luzia do Maruanum Quilombola Community for the creation of ceramic artifacts involves natural, cultural, spiritual, and mystical practices. This clay extraction process encompasses a blend of living co-constructed by knowledge, actions, and feelings that direct people to appropriate locations, inspired by sacred rituals, respect for deities, and the sensitivity to emotionally connect with the space that provides sustenance and ensures environmental sustainability. The symbolic and sacralized connection these women develop with nature is based on human, sociocultural, and affective self-interpretation. Critical Ethnography is used as a method to investigate the sacredness that exists in the clay extraction process in the mystical practices of quilombola descendants. Data collection practices include observation of everyday reality and narrative research. It is clear that clay extraction continues to be a sociocultural and economic activity that fosters coexistence among women and local ecological survival and subsistence. As a sociocultural and economic contribution, it is possible to observe that this practice is passed down from generation to generation, ensuring family sustenance, facilitating an ecological life, and enabling an education that transcends the established norms. It is concluded that addressing the sacred in clay extraction allows, through Ecology and Ethnomathematics, to secure these women's voice, envision a future with greater sociocultural justice and equality of opportunity, and reveal dialogical encounters between human beings and nature, between a liberating education and an education that fosters this future.