Abstract:

This paper discusses the importance of local knowledge as a way of promoting relevant education in social and cultural terms and as a way of preserving the collective memory, heritage and promoting sustainability. Special emphasis will be given to the role of design as a tool for sustainable development, as well as the process of incorporating of cultural knowledge and their local traditions versus modernity. In this context, it will be presented a case study about the production process of the Miriti toy, in the town of Abaetetuba, Pará, Brazil in order to verify the contribution of the traditional design in terms of socialization, education, preservation of the collective memory, construction of local cultural identities, improvement of the quality of life and the promotion of environmental, cultural sustainability and income generation in the local community. Preliminary results of this study performed in 2013, using ethnography and and interviews with producers and consumers, allows us to observe the toys processes of production while reflects the ways of the traditional knowledge and techniques of the region's inhabitants. What is their role in socialization, education and identity construction in increasingly multicultural contexts, traversed by local and global logic? The flux of knowledge around the toy production, its marketers and consumers claim themselves as having plural reflective thinking that integrates both traditional and modern rationalities. This research aims discuss those processes and try to understand the rationalities that circulate among the values, ways of seeing, explain and act around traditions and symbols associated with the production chain of the Miriti toys.

Keywords:

Education, Design, Sustainability, Cultural identity.