On March 3, at 6:30 pm, student Cristiana de Lima Bernardo, researcher at the Postgraduate Program in Social Anthropology, at the Center for Human Sciences, Letters and Arts (CCHLA), defends her master's thesis entitled “Agricultural practices and local knowledge of the Potiguara People of Paraíba: spaces and food production from cassava”. It is the first time that the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte celebrates a master's degree defense by a student of indigenous origin, in an indigenous location. The historic moment takes place at the Maria das Dores Borges Indigenous Municipal School, in Aldeia Alto do Tambá, in Baía da Traição (Paraíba).
The work sought to reflect on the food and forms of land management aimed at food production for the Potiguara people of Paraíba. Special emphasis was also placed on activities focused on cultivation methods and the production of cassava derivatives. Furthermore, the dissertation intended to describe the ways in which land is chosen and managed for the construction of houses, the opening of farms and the composition of inhabited places.
The evaluation panel will be made up of professors José Glebson Vieira (advisor), Paulo Victor Leite Lopes (president), Carlos Guilherme do Valle (UFRN), Rita de Cássia Maria Neves (UFRN) and Felipe Sotto Cruz (UFBA).
According to master's student Cristina Bernardo, work is part of its history, but also of its people. “I keep in mind that, although it is a work written by me, which tells part of my story and that of my family, it is also the story told from an indigenous perspective, about the history of their own people, of my Potiguara da Paraíba people,” said the researcher on social media.