‘TEORIA’, ‘INTELIGÊNCIA’ E ‘CIÊNCIA’ COMO ÍNDICES BAIXO-AMAZÔNICOS DO CONHECIMENTO INCORPORADO

Abstract

This paper will analyze three ways of pointing out the complexity of the embodied knowledge in a lower-Amazon riverine context. According to the meaning conveyed by the riverine-dwellers, the terms ‘theory’, ‘intelligence’ and ‘science’ might be regarded as ethnographical indexes that mark –i.e. do not describe- certain body skills and perceptual abilities with which some traditional techniques are enacted. On the one hand it will be argued that the use of these terms reflects a hybrid cultural setting in which etic concepts are integrated and reinterpreted by the local discourse. On the other hand will be suggested that the aforementioned indexicality of the riverine-dwellers embodied knowledge draws further from the representational vision of the intellect, thus inviting us to re-think the classical separation of theory and practice from the Amazonian perspective on the implicit knowledge. Keywords: Incorporated thought, ribeirinhos, quilombolas, theory, intelligen­ce, science.