Astronomia: resgate dos conhecimentos astronômicos dos povos indígenas Avá-Guarani

Abstract

The general objective of this work was to rescue the Indigenous Astronomical Culture and compare the empirical knowledge of indigenous peoples of the Avá­Guarani ethnicity on astronomy with scientific knowledge, associating the observation of the sky with the seasons, climate, better times to hunt animals and better planting seasons. Interviews were conducted with 3 indigenous people, one a tribe’s chief and two older indigenous people previously selected, indicated by other indigenous people, due to their knowledge of astronomy in order to recover knowledge related to relative movements between the Sun, Earth and Moon, phases of the Moon, Eclipses and indigenous astronomy, and what is the importance of this knowledge for the Avá­Guarani ethnic group. After these analyses, a didactic sequence was developed, applied to 14 indigenous students from 6th to 9th grade of elementary school, aged between 18 and 50 years. When interviewing the oldest and indigenous students, it is clear that the students did not have knowledge regarding their tribe's Astronomy and showed lack of interest in their culture. With the development of the didactic sequence, they were interested in knowing, valuing and keeping records about their culture and astronomy, they were able to differentiate knowledge related to their culture and scientific knowledge. Schools, especially indigenous ones, must maintain a continuous work of valuing and recording the knowledge of older indigenous people, so that it is not lost with the passing of generations.