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Abstract Background The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the French overseas department of French Guiana, South America, nearly doubles that in its European counterpart, Metropolitan France. This region is demographically diverse and includes several populations of Indigenous Peoples. Although such populations are at particular risk of developing T2D across the Americas, very little is known about their health status in French Guiana, and accurate numbers of diabetic patients do not exist. Methods In light of a potential public health crisis, an ethnomedicinal study of diabetes experienced by Indigenous Parikweneh was conducted to provide better insight into the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) related to this quickly emerging disease in French Guiana. Altogether, 75 interviews were conducted with community members and Elders, as well as healthcare professionals and administrators providing services to the Parikweneh population of Macouria and Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock. Results Interviews suggest a high incidence of T2D in this population, with cases that have risen quickly since the mid-twentieth century. Parikweneh participants linked the development of the illness to dietary changes, notably through the introduction of new and sweet foods. Recognizing the complexity of diabetes and its symptoms, diabetic patients highlighted the importance of biomedical treatments and follow-ups, though they frequently alternated or used them concomitantly with Parikweneh medicines. With the help of biomedical tools (i.e. glucometer), local medicinal practices mirrored biomedical approaches through dietary adaptation and the use of medicinal animals and plants for glycaemic control and the treatment of complications from the disease. Conclusion Parikweneh are appropriating T2D into their knowledge system and adapting their health system in response to this relatively new health concern. A greater understanding of local practices and perceptions relating to T2D among medical staff may therefore be beneficial for meeting patients’ needs, providing greater autonomy in their health path, and improving treatment outcomes. more...

Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the French overseas department of French Guiana, South America, nearly doubles that in its European counterpart, Metropolitan France. This region is demographically diverse and includes several populations of Indigenous Peoples. Although such populations are at particular risk of developing T2D across the Americas, very little is known about their health status in French Guiana, and accurate numbers of diabetic patients do not exist. Methods: In light of a potential public health crisis, an ethnomedicinal study of diabetes experienced by Indigenous Parikweneh was conducted to provide better insight into the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) related to this quickly emerging disease in French Guiana. Altogether, 75 interviews were conducted with community members and Elders, as well as healthcare professionals and administrators providing services to the Parikweneh population of Macouria and Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock. Results: Interviews suggest a high incidence of T2D in this population, with cases that have risen quickly since the mid-twentieth century. Parikweneh participants linked the development of the illness to dietary changes, notably through the introduction of new and sweet foods. Recognizing the complexity of diabetes and its symptoms, diabetic patients highlighted the importance of biomedical treatments and follow-ups, though they frequently alternated or used them concomitantly with Parikweneh medicines. With the help of biomedical tools (i.e. glucometer), local medicinal practices mirrored biomedical approaches through dietary adaptation and the use of medicinal animals and plants for glycaemic control and the treatment of complications from the disease. Conclusion: Parikweneh are appropriating T2D into their knowledge system and adapting their health system in response to this relatively new health concern. A greater understanding of local practices and perceptions relating to T2D among medical staff may therefore be beneficial for meeting patients' needs, providing greater autonomy in their health path, and improving treatment outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

IntroductionIn the French overseas department of French Guiana, in South America, nutrition therapy for the management of diabetes is based on French guidelines. However, this region is demographically diverse and includes several populations of Indigenous Peoples, Parikwene among others, also called Palikur. Due to socio-economical, cultural, and geographical differences, along with distinctions in the local food system, dietary recommendations, which many consider in the context of post-colonial power dynamics, are not well suited to local populations. In the absence of suitable recommendations, it is hypothesized that local populations will adapt their dietary practices considering diabetes as an emerging health problem.MethodsSeventy-five interviews were conducted with community members and Elders, as well as healthcare professionals and administrators providing services to the Parikwene population of Macouria and Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock communes. Data regarding the representation of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) consumption and diabetes were collected via semi-structured interviews and participant observation (i.e., observation and participation in community activities), namely via participating in activities related to the transformation of cassava tubers at swidden and fallow fields.Results and DiscussionParikwene have adapted the transformation of cassava tubers for their consumption in the management of diabetes.The importance of cassava tubers as a staple and core food to the Parikwene food system was established by identifying it as a cultural keystone species. Narratives illustrated conflicting perceptions regarding the implication of cassava consumption in the development of diabetes. Adaptations to the operational sequence involved in the transformation of cassava tubers led to the production of distinct cassava roasted semolina (i.e., couac), based on organoleptic properties (i.e., sweet, and acidic couac). Preferences for the consumption of acidic couac were grounded in the Parikwene knowledge system, as well as attention to diabetes related symptoms and glucometer readings.ConclusionThese results provide important insights related to knowledge, attitudes, and practices in developing locally and culturally adapted approaches to providing dietary recommendations in the treatment of diabetes. more...

O artigo reflete sobre o processo de conversão dos Palikur, povo nativo do Estado do Amapá, ao catolicismo romano e, posteriormente, ao pentecostalismo a eles introduzido pelos missionários do Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Resgatando considerações de Arnaud (1984), Capiberibe (2001) e Passes (1998) a respeito e empreendendo esforço de compreensão dos condicionantes que provavelmente contribuíram para a efetivação desse evento, além dos já mencionados pelos autores de base, o artigo propõe, na condição de outro explicador, a possibilidade de escolha como iniciativa dos próprios Palikur, percebendo-se que se mantém um sistema de costumes e crenças integrando a cosmologia palikur, por um lado, e a fé cristã manifesta no catolicismo romano e no pentecostalismo missionário, por outro, evento este que finda por se inscrever na esfera dos processos de hibridização cultural. Nota-se, por fim, que, a despeito disso, as sucessivas intervenções de natureza religiosa impactaram de maneira profunda a cosmologia ancestral palikur em favor de um ideal de evangelização resultado de interpretações unilaterais das narrativas bíblicas. more...

Abstract Background Palikur Amerindians live in the eastern part of French Guiana which is undergoing deep-seated changes due to the geographical and economic opening of the region. So far, Palikur’s traditional ecological knowledge is poorly documented, apart from medicinal plants. The aim of this study was to document ethnobotanical practices related to traditional construction in the region. Methods A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. Thirty-nine Palikur men were interviewed in three localities (Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock, Regina and Trois-Palétuviers) between December 2013 and July 2014. Twenty-four inventories of wood species used in traditional buildings were conducted in the villages, as well as ethnobotanical walks in the neighboring forests, to complete data about usable species and to determine Linnaean names. Results After an ethnographic description of roundwood Palikur habitat, the in situ wood selection process of Palikur is precisely described. A total of 960 roundwood pieces were inventoried in situ according to Palikur taxonomy, of which 860 were beams and rafters, and 100 posts in 20 permanent and 4 temporary buildings. Twenty-seven folk species were identified. Sixty-three folk species used in construction were recorded during ethnobotanical walks. They correspond to 263 botanical species belonging to 25 families. Posts in permanent buildings were made of yawu (Minquartia guianensis) (51%) and wakap (Vouacapoua americana) (14%). Beams and rafters were made of wood from Annonaceae (79%) and Lecythidaceae (13%) families. The most frequently used species were kuukumwi priye (Oxandra asbeckii), kuukumwi seyne (Pseudoxandra cuspidata), and pukuu (Xylopia nitida and X. cayennensis). Conclusions Although the Palikur’s relationship with their habitat is undergoing significant changes, knowledge about construction wood is still very much alive in the Oyapock basin. Many people continue to construct traditional buildings alongside modern houses, using a wide array of species described here for the first time, along with the techniques used. more...

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Ethnographic fieldwork (1994-1998) by the author among the Palikur of French-Guiana and Amapá State, in Brazil, provided a description of the actual state of their pottery tradition. It shows how the last Palikur potters manufacture ceramics and how they decorate their pottery. The Palikur decoration motifs reflect the organisation of Palikur society which is embedded in their oral tradition. They play an important role during public (ritual) events such as marriage, initiation and death. This information can be used as a tool for archaeologists to gain a better understanding of pre-Columbian ceramic complexes. more...

This article reports on an effort to apply to an oral history archive design the findings of ethnographic research regarding the visualisation of space and the organisation of knowledge among contemporary Palikur speakers in Arukwa, in northern Brazil. Central to the project rationale was the observation that standard devices for organising such an archive - variously, chronologies, alphabets, taxonomies, cartographies, authorship, etc. - are the product of particular socio-cultural discourses about knowledge, with the consequence that such approaches would tend to authorise some forms of knowledge but displace and decentre knowledges that do not readily fit the given structures. Given the need to be able to mediate knowledge diversity in a global order, a pressing question for cultural heritage practitioners is to consider different ways of representing knowledge in relation to space. Could new media technologies be mobilised to reorganise the frames of knowledge? Reporting on the development of a prototype archive that sought to reflect the Palikur knowledge practice of locating epics in relation to specific places, this paper offers a critical appreciation of the technology, and reflects on the suitability of virtual environment technologies for similar applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Epistemological commitments shape notions of what constitutes an ethical presence in the field. The article examines the assumption of secularism, linked to objectivity, implicit in codes of ethics, It argues that in fieldwork, the secular position neither guarantees ethical behaviour nor improves data collection. Reflecting on research encounters among Palikur-speakers in Brazil. the article examines the ways in which objectivity unexpectedly forecloses some avenues of research. Drawing on the Palikur idiom of ‘minahwa’ (to draw one's canoe alongside), the paper posits a change in the relationship between the anthropologist and the subject of research to an I-Thou relationship of mutual presence in which the anthropological self is hospitable to the other. An ethics of facing is posited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Palikur historical knowledge is overwhelmingly recorded spatially in landscape, but given that the map-maker's vision of the world is a product of a discourse about space and time, is a map an appropriate medium on which to base an archive of historical knowledge? This article explores aspects of Palikur speakers' experiences of landscape and historical time in the region known as "Arukwa" along the Rio Urucau´a in the state of Amapá, Brazil, and contends that the canon of stories is organized spatially more than it is organized chronologically. Based on ethnographic data, several dimensions of Palikur spatial history are explored. These include the contentions that location and events may not be historically coterminous, although they may be used to imply one another; and that landscape may be considered to be agentive in the sense in which it constitutes a resource for memorializing societies, environmental skills and political capacities of people who have dwelt on it in times past. In addition, the article notes that landscape knowledge and orientation can be considered embodied knowledges; places in landscapes may be seen as animate and as extensions of human community; landscape is connected to upperworlds and underworlds, much as they are on the horizon; and time, in the Palikur language, is spatialized. The article contends that many of these issues would be elided by substituting a cartographic/spatial approach to the recording of a non-chronological history. The aim, then, is to establish a spatio-temporal understanding of heritage without resorting to cartographic understandings of space, in order to explore whether—and how—those might be represented in a multimedia archive that aims to work within a local historiographic idiom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Ethnographic fieldwork (1994-1998) by the author among the Palikur of French-Guiana and Amapá State, in Brazil, provided a description of the actual state of their pottery tradition. It shows how the last Palikur potters manufacture ceramics and how they decorate their pottery. The Palikur decoration motifs reflect the organisation of Palikur society which is embedded in their oral tradition. They play an important role during public (ritual) events such as marriage, initiation and death. This information can be used as a tool for archaeologists to gain a better understanding of pre- Columbian ceramic complexes. more...