Environmental knowledge and the definition of a community of practice. Improvisation and identity of the Butiaceros of Southern Uruguay

Abstract

This paper delves into the interaction among humans and palms, considering the relation between the concepts of knowledge and community of practice. The reflections presented are the result of an ethnographic work on the use of Butia odorata palms in Southern Uruguay. The work focuses on different dimensions of the definition of a community of practice defined by practical knowledge developed from a life in common with the palm forest. We analyse the different stages of the use of the palm at local scale, considering the harvesting as the more intimate human-environmental activities, the cooking as a process of improvisation and the sale of Butiá by-products as a key activity in the collective differentiation. The work also consider the impact of a NGO project aimed at standardizing the local production, affecting the skills and abilities of improvisation involved in the human-environmental relations. We propose a concept of knowledge that flows through the in-between environment and person. We argue that knowledge as a practice is embedded simultaneously in the body of people and the environment and, moreover, this kind of knowledge as practice is the basis for the constitution of a community of practice.