Ethnopedological studies have mainly focused on agricultural land uses and associated practices. Nevertheless, peasant and indigenous populations use soil and land resources for a number of additional purposes, including pottery. In the present study, we describe and analyze folk knowledge related to the use of soils in non-industrial pottery making by peasant potters, in the municipality of Altinho, Pernambuco State, semiarid region at Brazil. Ethnoscientific techniques were used to record local knowledge, with an emphasis on describing the soil materials […]

Classic ethnoscientific techniques were adapted to describe and analyze the knowledge of peasant potters about soils they use for making pottery in a rural village in the Agreste region, State of Paraiba, northeastern Brazil. Five soil profiles from pits where local people obtain pottery clay were formally described by researchers (etic approach) and by peasant artisans (emic approach). Samples collected during both the emic and etic approaches were used for the morphological and analytical soil characterization. The peasant potters were […]