ETHNOCENTERED TECHNOLOGY: BANANA FIBER, RECIPROCITY AND CRITIQUE OF AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTE

Abstract

This study analyzed the banana pseudostem as a supporting plant body, fiber, memory, and ethnocentric technology, in contrast to the agro-industrial rationality that reduces it to the condition of waste. The objective was to understand how the banana pseudostem, situated between productive waste and territorial continuity, can be interpreted as a matter of reciprocity, pedagogy of gesture, and basis of a localized economy. The research articulated the Inânâtéá Kalembre of the Karão Jaguaribaras, the critique of the webs of acad[e]conomia, the debates on plant biomass, and the reflection on the fiber extraction equipment in the patenting phase. A qualitative, theoretical-essayistic, and interdisciplinary approach was adopted, based on situated ethnography, critical bibliographic review, listening to the Territory-Entity, ancestral memory, and conceptual analysis of the relationship between plant, technique, and community. The results indicated that peel, leaf, and pseudostem do not operate as inert leftovers, but as parts of a living, relational, and technically fertile totality. The ibâ bungâ exposes the limits of productivist rationality and sustains a conception of technology linked to Time-Entity, to the Karão Jaguaribara matriarchy, and to territorial reciprocity. In this way, this study demonstrated that the dzibakobá fiber constitutes a material for transmission, work, autonomy, and technical production not subordinated to harmful capitalism.