TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE IN ARTISAN FISHING

Abstract

This essay presents e discusses the knowledge based on traditon - understood as the knowledge constructed over the generations, transmitted through oral means and everyday experiences - as a result of a non-scientifical knowledge based on the observation e guiding of the more experient ancestors. The reference icon used in order to proceed the debate is the fishing activity. We emphasize the knowledge which allows the fishermen, among other abilities, discover the food habits of fish and other animals; guide by the stars during night navigation and learn the tide flows guided by the moon. This work was organized based on a bibliographic study and a field research about the several ways of fishing in the Northern and Northeastern regions of Brazil. The emphasis on the traditional knowledge compares fishing to scientifical knowledge in order to show that it is possible a relation of complementarity between science and tradition in the modern world.