Cartographies of the South: from the microcosm to literacy in other geographies

Abstract

This text was conceived as a trilogy to participate in an Ethnoecological call for papers in Brazil, organized by the Brazilian Society of Ethnobiology and Ethnoecology, entitled “Quando pensa que não...”: tales, anecdotes and chronicles in ethnoecology (“When you least expect it…”: Tales, anecdotes and chronicles in Ethnoecology). It was proposed as an alternative form of literature to gather and publish our practices and field experiences—whether personal or collective, poetic, subjective, joyful or sad—written in a free format such as short stories, narratives or chronicles. The text turned out to be relatively long, which is why it was divided into three chapters: the first two were accepted, while the third—containing more experiential material—remained too extensive to shorten and therefore was left out. That part is intended for the fourth call. Today we present the complete text as a reflective essay on my approaches to cultural geography and the processes of social cartography with local and ethnic communities.