The Living and the Sacred: Biocultural Circulations, Urban Agroecology and Afro-Descendant traditional origin in Cayenne (French Guiana) and São Paulo (Brazil).

The VISA-GSP project (The Living and the Sacred – French Guiana/São Paulo) examines biocultural circulations between French Guiana and the metropolitan region of São Paulo through a comparative study of Afro-descendant spaces of cultivation and worship, particularly terreiros in Brazil and houmfò in French Guiana. Rooted in anthropology, ethnobotany, and urban agroecology, this interdisciplinary project addresses contemporary issues related to global health, food sovereignty, biodiversity, and climate change. Terreiros and houmfò constitute singular territories produced by the African diaspora where religious, ecological, and social practices intersect. In both contexts the living world — plants, soils, animals, and natural elements — is inseparable from the sacred — rituals, songs, offerings, and cosmologies —contributing to the maintenance of Afro-descendant ways of life in urban and peri-urban contexts. Gardens, yards, and cultivated plots associated with sacred spaces function as places of territorial anchoring, memory, subsistence, and physical, mental, and spiritual resistance as well as to agrobiodiversity conservation and climate adaptation. The research aims to map and compare sacred, protective, and edible plants present in these spaces, analyzing ritual, medicinal, and dietary uses, as well as the modes of cultivation, care, and transmission of associated knowledge though a knowledge coproduction approach. The project also investigates liturgical songs (points and chants) as vectors of memory, transmission, and relationships with the plant world and spiritual entities: The proposal’s framework is multidimensional and will include de following conceptual axis: (i) Epistemological – to rethink relations between non-human beings (plants) and more-than-human beings (sacred ); (ii) Patrimonial – to value Latin-American African diaspora and their(our) immaterial patrimony; (iii) Ecological – recognize terreiros/houmfò as sacred ecosystems that contribute to urban environmental heath through agroecology practices; (iv) Knowledge coproduction and epistemic justice - to involve terreiros/houmfò participants as protagonist of the whole research process, including methodological decisions, data collection implementation and results dissemination. The methodology combines ethnographic fieldwork, comparative/participative ethnobotanical inventories, participatory and sensory mapping, and an analysis of the urban, ecological, and legal contexts shaping sacred practices. The research adopts a collaborative and participatory approach, developed in close dialogue with community and religious collectives. In São Paulo, the research will be coproduced with the terreiro Ilê Axé Omó Nanã and its urban garden, located at São Paulo-SP. Its traditional priestess Iya Adriana de Nanã is one of the associate researchers of the present proposal. The project will be implemented in 24 months. The conceptual framework will be amplified jointly through virtual meetings as well as in-person workshops at Cayene and São Paulo, involving the participation of academic researchers and members of terreiros and houmfò to short-term exchange experiences that will be designed within knowledge dialogue perspectives. Research ethics protocol will follow Brazilian and French Guiana’s legal demands on access to traditional communities’ knowledge on biodiversity. By comparing the contexts of French Guiana and São Paulo, the project explores the reinvention of the sacred and the maintenance of life forms in contrasting environments, from tropical forests to dense urban territories. The results will contribute to theoretical debates on Afro-American ontologies and support the recognition and valorization of Afro-descendant biocultural heritage within urban, environmental, and cultural policies.