Shifting cultivation, or slash-and-burn agriculture, is a technique used by many farmers all over the world and also by traditional farmers of Cananéia (SP). These farmers have inherited a set of skills and knowledges, orally transferred through generations, about the agriculture carried out by indigenous people, since Brazil's pre-colonialist period. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the main crop in this system, representing a key crop for the understanding of the specificities of the shifting cultivation. Information about the crop species and ethnovarieties was obtained. Interviews with the farmers allowed to characterize the system used in the region, showing that 62 ethnovarieties of 15 different species were cultivated in the studied propriety, reflecting the high inter- and intraspecific diversity. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis were used to characterize cassava samples. Through the evaluation of 21 morphological characters in one traditional farmer's field, it was possible gather cassava ethnovarieties in groups coherent with the local classification. The employed methodology seems to be very efficient with data gathered in non-experimental conditions.
shifting cultivation; cassava (Manihot esculenta); intraspecific diversity; ethnobiology; cluster analysis; principal component analysis (PCA)
