Paĩ Tavyterã, Kaiowá and Guarani traditional knowledge about the ka’a he’ẽ (Stevia rebaudiana)

Abstract

This article describes the traditional knowledge related to the use and management of Stevia rebaudiana by the Paĩ Tavyterã, inhabitants of the Amambay department, in eastern Paraguay, and of the Kaiowa and Guarani, in the south of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. This plant is known by the name ka'a he'ẽ, in guarani. Through the realization of two intercultural researches, carried out in Brazil and Paraguay, the uses reported by elders with ka'a he’ẽ are described, including ecological knowledge and plant management. Ka'a he'ẽ, in addition to being used as a remedy for the cure of various ills, and as a food sweetener, was consumed by young people, girls and boys, in the transition to adulthood, at which time their bodies became especially vulnerable to outside influences. In this context, the consumption of ka'a he’ẽ leaves, and the application of infusion of leaves on body parts, contributed to the ability of women to produce or extract sweet foods, such as sweet kaguĩ (chicha). In addition to producing the ability to make something sweet, ka'a he'ẽ acted protectively, moderating and controlling the powers of altering the bodies of young people during the jekoaku phase in the transition to adulthood, frightening beings whose affections to body are not wanted. The plant was used especially in the ritual of the kunumi pepy, just before the piercing of the boys' lower lips for the insertion of the tembetá.