Introduction
Marianne Sallum and Daniela Balanzátegui

This fourth article of the international seminar “Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples in the Americas: Collaboration, Archaeology, Repatriation, and Cultural Heritage” (2023-2024) arises from a collaboration between the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Research in Evolution, Culture, and Environment (LEVOC) at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), the Laboratory of Archaeology Studies (LEA) at the Federal University of São Paulo (Brazil), and the laboratories of Latin America Historical Archaeology  (LAHAL) and New England Indigenous Archaeology Lab, both at  University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston/USA). This text brings together the voices of two research projects in Brazil and Ecuador, involving community representatives, researchers and allies on strengthening sustainability practices, transmitting knowledge across generations, solidarity actions, and strategies to address climate change.

In Ecuador, the project “The Valley of Thorns”, led by Barbarita Lara (National Coordinator of Black Women Carchi-Chapter), co-author of this article, emerged from the call of the Guardians of the Thorn for the holistic recovery of traditions related to the care, use, and significance of various thorn species that are part of the botanical heritage of the Ancestral Territory of the Chota Valley (Carchi and Imbabura provinces)^. This territory is part of two regions: one in the province of Esmeraldas and another in the provinces of Carchi and Imbabura. These areas have traditionally been used by Afro-descendant populations since their forced arrival in Ecuador, allowing them to live in harmonious connection with the Andean environment in the liberation struggle. The guardians are leaders who work at the grassroots level on environmental sustainability and the ongoing fight to mitigate climate change. The revitalization of memories is part of the methodology of the “inner house” dialogue, conducted by National Coordinator of Black Women Carchi-Chapter and the knowledge guardians, to map the geography of interaction with thorns through participatory community ethnography and based on an ethno-education program (Pabón 2009). The research is carried out in collaboration with LAHAL (UMass/Boston) and the Escuela de la Tradición Oral la Voz de los Ancestros (ETOVA), which, through dialogue in the territory, positions the narratives of ancestral knowledge and practices that have enabled the survival and responsible management of the territories. This article includes dialogues with three guardians, regarding whom an initial mapping of their paths was carried out: Don Nelson Espinosa (La Concepción Community), Don Salomón Acosta (Mascarilla Community), and Eliza Manteca (Guallupe Community) (figure 3).

Figure 1 – From left to right and from above to below: guardians Salomón Acosta and Barbarita Lara, Nelson Espinoza, Barbarita Lara and Eliza Manteca. Photos: Daniel Congo and María Fernanda Espinoza 2024.

The second study is part of the project “Gender, Memories, and Materialities of Interaction/Confluence: Indigenous and Afro-descendant Women in the Historical Archaeology of São Paulo, Brazil”, developed by the research group on Gender Archaeology, Persistence, and Liberation (ARGPEL[1]/LEA) at UNIFESP (Sallum 2024). Part of this project was developed and is being carried out in collaboration with women ceramists’ organizations in Apiaí, in the Ribeira Valley, São Paulo, a region with a long history of relations among indigenous peoples, people of the African diaspora, and Europeans. The Ribeira is home to one of the last continuous areas of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil, where communities with self-sustaining trajectories preserve collaborative and solidarity-based ways of life, grounded in ancestral practices of maintaining the integrity of the forest. In this context, women play a central role in articulating knowledge and materialities to persist through social and political leadership. They are essential in grassroots community organizations, working in the defense of territories, the strengthening of family farming, and the transmission of knowledge to new generations (Flores-Muñoz et al. 2024).

This article presents the historical trajectory of women and men who have integrated into the ceramic practice communities of Apiaí (figure 2), preserving the ancestral tradition of vessel making.

• Marina Gomes da Rosa Cordeiro is the secretary of the Association of Artisans of Apiaí – Custódia Jesus da Cruz (ASAP) and of the Rural Workers’ Union, which represents five municipalities: Iporanga, Ribeira, Itaoca, Barra do Chapéu, and Itapirapuã Paulista.


• The Arte Looze Group is composed of two families who live in the Mineiros neighborhood and learned to mold clay to increase income; they preserve the ancestral way of making ceramics, passing it down from generation to generation. The first family joined the ceramic practice in Apiaí in 2010, with three members: Diná Cristina Looze Miranda Silva, Jaqueline Jenifer Looze da Silva and Aparecido da Silva Medeiros. The second is a descendant of the community of potters in the region, with two members: Loide de Oliveira Rosa Lima and Moacir Conceição de Lima.

Figure 2 –  From left to right and from above to below: Marina Gomes (ASAP), Diná Looze Silva, Lucia A. Rosa (ASAP), Aparecido Medeiros and Jaqueline Looze da Silva (Photo: M. Sallum, 2024). Photos: personal archives of Gomes and Art Looze.

Valley of Thorns
“The hawthorn regrets having been born in the field, this is how I have healed, for having loved you so much.”
Barbarita Lara, 2024

In various regions of Africa, thorn trees have demonstrated their versatility by being integrated into the construction of living fences, where their physical and symbolic strength acts as both a material and spiritual border. The thorn tree (Vachellia macracantha) can reach up to six meters in height, effectively adapting to arid environments thanks to a root system that extends more than two meters in search of water, with a remarkable capacity for survival in extreme environmental conditions.^[2] Among its features, its bark has medicinal properties for treating infections and healing wounds. The oral memory of Barbarita Lara warns of the respect owed to this plant: “You shouldn’t sleep under a thorn tree because it sucks your blood”.

The production of charcoal from thorn trees supports local commerce, considering that approximately one-third of the world’s population still relies on firewood and charcoal as energy sources (FAO 2017). Planting timber trees like the thorn tree also provides raw material for constructing bahareque houses and is used as boundary planting for protection against external threats. The sustainable economies surrounding the thorn tree are framed within the Political Agenda of Afro-Ecuadorian and Afro-descendant Women 2024–2027 (VVAA 2024: 26), under the Territory and Climate Change Axis, and Policy 3, which promotes “the implementation of environmental conservation with a gender focus […] that incorporates ancestral knowledge, especially from women”. This agenda considers that climate change is related to “poverty in households, mostly headed by women, and fragile territories, informal settlements, or those vulnerable to extreme climatic events, primarily affecting rural areas”, and it is women who face greater risks due to their multiple roles, including caregiving, providing food, and dealing with the lack of housing, land, and water access (ibid.: 25).

Figure 3 – Map of the Guardians of the Thorn, Chota Valley

Don Salomón Acosta is a griot of ancestral knowledge and practices, one of the leading representatives of the community and collective organization of the maroon population. He narrates the symbiosis between animals and plants, the spiritual nature of the thorn tree, and its traditional uses at the center of Afro-Chotense life and worldview (figure 1).

Don Nelson Espinosa has been dedicated to charcoal production from the thorn tree since his youth. Using traditional practices such as creating an on-site charcoal kiln, proper wood arrangement, and controlling oxygen and temperature during combustion, he increases resource efficiency, reduces waste, and makes the most of the presence of local species (figure 1).

María Eliza Manteca is the creator of the Golondrinas Foundation and demonstrates the key foundations for a reforestation project rooted in ancestral ecology. This is possible through education, conservation, soil recovery, and landscape renewal with native species (figure 1).

Communities of ceramists, Apiaí, Ribeira Valley

“I found myself in ceramics, which today is my main source of income and the work I enjoy doing the most”.Marina Gomes, pers. comm., 2024

The practice communities of women ceramic producers have a long historical trajectory in what is today São Paulo (figure 4). Initially produced by Tupiniquim women for approximately 15 centuries, their descendants and various generations of women have continued ceramic production, including those who arrived from outside. The set of ceramic vessels produced in the Ribeira Valley holds diverse meanings and memories, combining knowledge that, depending on the location, is considered closer or more distant to indigenous, Afro-descendant, or traditional heritage.

Figure 4 – Some places with ceramicist communities in São Paulo, including Apiaí.

Since the 1960’s, the production and consumption of this pottery have been researched in constant dialogue with the women who produce it (Scheuer 1976). However, only recently has it been identified that this production emerged on the coast of São Paulo from the appropriation and transformation of common Portuguese pottery in the first half of the 16^th century (Sallum and Noelli 2020). Research conducted by two of the authors of this article (Sallum and Noelli 2020) has shown that there was a specific colonial context in which Tupiniquim communities transformed their relationships with some of the Portuguese into alliances and kinship, articulating ancient and new practices of material production and consumption.

The “politics of consideration” structures kinship, friendship, and alliance relations among South American indigenous peoples, regulating internal and external interactions through collaboration and sustainability (Kelly and Matos 2019). In these communities, collaborative practices of forest management and life maintenance coexisted, along with the integration of different individuals committed to the politics of regard, resulting in social relationships distinct from those present in urban centers and plantations. The Tupiniquim practice of alterity and incorporation of allies and kin resulted in descendant communities with diverse social formations.

In Apiaí, Afro-indigenous heritage is evoked, but there are also cases where other identities and affiliations are manifested, such as those of rural communities, quilombolas, artisanal fishers, and riverine populations, among others. Currently, a partnership is being developed to systematically expand and disseminate ancestral memories and practices related to pottery, biointeraction, languages, and genealogies of these women. The Apiaí Artisans Association has continuously built this work.

The main action of the partnership is to meet the objectives outlined in the association's statute (ASAP), described in six items (see Lima 2005):

• Bring together the members and defend their economic, social, cultural, and individual interests;


• Unite the Apiaí community to promote citizenship in its social, economic, educational, cultural, environmental, and historical aspects;


• Organize the community to carry out community projects or events that promote the region’s economic development;


• Develop motivating activities to boost tourism and craftsmanship in the region;


• Establish partnerships to improve the professional education of young people and women, aiming to foster entrepreneurial spirit and their integration into the local and regional market;


• Establish local and sustainable partnerships to combat poverty and social exclusion in all its forms.

In conclusion, the purpose of this partnership is to strengthen the community’s interest in maintaining its self-determination and quality of life within its own parameters of solidarity and the politics of consideration. As such, we present the testimonies of the coordinator of ASAP, Marina Gomes, and two representatives of the Arte Looze Group – Diná and Jaqueline Looze, as previously mentioned.

Marina Gomes was born in the city of Apiaí, SP. She is a farmer and artisan. Since its initial organization, she has been part of the Association of Artisans of Apiaí “Custódia de Jesus da Cruz”, which was formalized in 2005. Currently, she has taken on the presidency of the Rural Workers Union of Apiaí. Her interest in craftsmanship arose from observing the work of other artisans and, over time, it became a source of pleasure and a supplement to the family income, an activity she has been engaged in for 17 years.

Jaqueline L. da Silva, an artisan from Apiaí, began working with ceramics inspired by her mother, making it a source of family income since 2010. She created social media pages to showcase her work and promote local crafts, and in 2018, she joined the Artesol Network. In 2019, she gained professional recognition with the Sutaco (Subsecretariat of Handcrafted Work in Communities) certificate and participated in the documentary Pepitas do Ribeira (2022)[3].

Diná L. Silva, an artisan residing in Apiaí, began working with ceramics as a hobby, which became her source of income in 2010. In 2013, she started selling her pieces at the city portal store, expanding her reach. In 2018, she joined the Artesol Network, and in 2020, she obtained the national artisan certificate through the Brazilian Handicraft Program. Since 2023, she has been conducting workshops in public schools, strengthening the transmission of artisanal knowledge.

Final comments

Francisco S. Noelli

The sustainability and solidarity of the communities in the Valley of Thorns and Apiaí seem to reflect the guidelines of major global organizations focused on inclusion, sustainability, and social justice. These practices also appear to adopt the latest scientific advances in ecology, climatology, botany, zoology, and food sovereignty. However, the opposite is true: some groups within academia and international and national organizations have appropriated and synthesized ancestral knowledge from different peoples worldwide to transform it into scientific standards for ecologically correct ways of living (Santos 2023; Garcia 2023). The most current pillars of this appropriation result in the cutting-edge scientific-intellectual discourse on climate justice, sustainability, and solidarity. This discourse stems from numerous ancestral knowledge systems observed in recent decades proposed to neutralize and replace the rhetoric of colonialist, liberal, and neoliberal vanguards. However, this new discourse has not yet surpassed the previous one, as the global system remains dominated by financial capitalism, promoting increasing scales of extractivism, racial violence, genocide, and neo-slavery. The most notable consequences are the worsening climate crisis, advancing deforestation and wildlife depletion, increasing gas emissions, rampant consumerism, growing inequalities, hunger, wars, and other global issues that affect or annihilate ancestral communities.

Against such circumstances, the collectives resist with a critical attitude to maintain their sustainable and solidarity-based practices.

The communities in the Valley of Thorns are gradually reconstructing the ecology of their territories degraded by four centuries of colonial extractivism, cultivating various useful plants and multiplying species to reforest the area. The thorn tree (Vachellia macracantha) is a crucial example. It is a sustainable energy source for food processing and the practical and symbolic knowledge transmitted between generations regarding its medicinal properties. Its cultivation eliminates gas or electricity consumption and reduces the need to sell labor, in the still alive monoculture of sugar cane. The same applies to cultivating other plants for diverse uses, a decisive factor for self-determination and reducing dependence on the market economy, which aligns with ancestral sustainability practices. Local crops include beans, a variety of vegetables, fruits, and ancestral Andean medicinal plants, which were part of the indigenous botanical repertoire consumed before the Hispanic colonial advance in the early 16^th century.

The communities of Apiaí and its region have ancestral practices similar to those of the Valley of Thorns. However, they also have some differences, highlighting ceramic vessels inherited from ancestors whose production began in the 16^th century. In the upper Ribeira Valley, cultivation maintaining forest integrity predominated until a few decades ago when some agribusiness methodologies and species were introduced, driven by the need to produce small family farming units for the regional food market. However, they resist real estate speculation that has brought deforestation and imposed “green deserts” with monocultures of introduced tree species for producing cellulose, wood, resin, and firewood, such as eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.) and pine (Pinus spp.), whose significant impacts include reducing soil moisture and biodiversity. Other monocultures also exist, such as tomatoes (Solanum Lypersicum), persimmons (Diospyros sp.), peaches (Prunus persica), oranges (Citrus × Sinensis), rice (Oryza sativa), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and corn (Zea mays). Monocultures are mechanisms in both regions for centralizing and verticalizing wealth, whose creation requires destroying ecosystems that previously produced polycultures capable of maintaining environmental integrity cultivated through relationships based on solidarity and reciprocity.

The communities in both areas strengthen their ancestral practices to maintain balance against the neocolonial advance of real estate speculation, which seeks to seize more land, alter/destroy ecosystems, and sell labor power while extracting money from individuals in various ways. Moreover, these communities also fight to reclaim cultural elements and practices they were forced to abandon in the past, including cultivating several botanical species. These battles are constant but often unnoticed outside the communities themselves. Nevertheless, they are proportionally more significant than diffuse attempts in cities to restore degraded, polluted ecosystems, where solidarity and sustainable practices are generally scarce. For example, the individual carbon emissions of these communities are historically negligible compared to those generated by urban and industrial areas.

The most important aspect is the critical attitude of the communities, as shown in the testimonies in the videos of this article.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the editors of Etnográfica, especially Humberto Martins, Renata de Sá Gonçalves, and Mafalda Melo Sousa. We thank Rafaela Astudillo Balanzategui for filming the communities in Vale do Ribeira, São Paulo, and Fernando Machado for the music in the videos (https://www.fernando-machado.com/). To the Casa do Artesão de Apiaí, Amanda Magrini and Fabíola A. dos A. Durães. MS: This study was financed, in part, by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Brazil. Process Numbers 2024/04746-1, 2024/20602-0, 2019/18664-9, 2019/17868-0. MS&FSN: This work was financed, in part, by Portuguese funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the framework of the project UID/00698: Centre for Archaeology. University of Lisbon.

Authors

Barbarita Lara (mabalaca@yahoo.es) – Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras-Capítulo Carchi (CONAMUNE-Capítulo Carchi), colaboradora del Laboratorio de Arqueología Histórica Latinoamericana

Marina Gomes (marinagomes367@gmail.com) – Associação de Artesãs de Apiaí, São Paulo, Brasil

Maria Eliza Mantega  – Proyecto Golondrinas – Valle del Chota, Ecuador

Diná Looze Silva (artelooze@gmail.com) – Arte Looze - Vale do Ribeira, Apiaí, Brasil

Salmón Acosta  – Federation of Black Communities and Organizations of Imbabura and Carchi (FECONIC)

Nelson Espinoza – Guardián de la Memoria – Valle del Chota, Ecuador

Jaqueline Looze da Silva (artelooze@gmail.com) – Arte Looze - Vale do Ribeira, Apiaí, Brasil

Aparecido Medeiros (artelooze@gmail.com) – Arte Looze - Vale do Ribeira, Apiaí, Brasil

Andrea Chávez (andrea.chavez002@umb.edu) – Universidad de Massachusetts Boston, Estados Unidos

Genesis Delgado (genesis-santay@hotmail.com) – Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), México; Laboratorio de Arqueología Histórica Latinoamericana de la Universidad de Massachusetts Boston, Estados Unidos

Danielle Samia (samiadgs@gmail.com) – Nhandu Consultoria Ltda

Cleberson Moura (clebersonmoura@gmail.com) – Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil

Daniela Balanzátegui (daniela.balanzategui@umb.edu ) – Universidad de Massachusetts Boston, Estados Unidos

Francisco S. Noelli (chico.noelli@gmail.com) – UNIARQ - Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Marianne Sallum (marianne.sallum@unifesp.br) – LEA, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brasil; UNIARQ – Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal