Indigenismo : um orientalismo americano

Desde os anos 1940, marco importante na sua história, o indigenismo tem desvendado todo um mundo empírico e teórico sobre as relações extremamente desiguais entre os povos indígenas e os Estados-nações, especialmente, na América Latina. Inicialmente dedicado ao papel do Estado como disciplinador dessas relações, o indigenismo tem passado por transformações conceituais ao sabor das mudanças vividas por seus protagonistas. É hora, portanto, de redefinir o que é indigenismo

The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity

Book review of The Origins of Indigenism: Human Rights and the Politics of Identity. Ronald Niezen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. xix + 272 pp., notes, references, index. ISBN 0-520-23554-1, 0-520-23556-8

Indigenous Peoples and the Refusal of the Market

Al trabajar el tema del desarrollo y la interculturalidad, la antropología, con su experiencia centenaria en buscar la comprensión de mundos no occidentales, tiene el deber incontestable de 1) interrogar la validez universal de expresiones como ésas, principalmente cuando se transforman en productos de exportación, y, 2) traer al terreno de discusión ejemplos no occidentales que refuten, reduzcan, amplíen o, de preferencia, dialoguen con tales conceptos. Este trabajo presenta situaciones extraídas de diversos contextos indígenas con el fin de a) mostrar cómo la definición canónica de desarrollo puede ser inadecuada para experiencias indígenas que involucran recursos y riquezas, y, b) argumentar que el concepto de interculturalidad sólo le hace justicia a su propio nombre cuando promueve un ecumenismo de ideas y prácticas sobre el bien común, escapando, así, de modismos y premisas ideológicas no siempre étnicamente justas.When working with development and interculturality, anthropology, with its long experience of trying to understand the non-Western world, must 1) ask about the universal validity of such terms, especially when they become export products, and 2) bring into discussion non- Western examples that refute, reduce, enlarge or, preferably, dialogue with these concepts. Therefore, this paper presents situations from various indigenous contexts in order a) to show how the canonic definition of development can be inadequate to indigenous experiences involving resources and wealth, and b) to argue that the concept of interculturality can only do justice to its name when it promotes an ecumenism of ideas and practices about the common good, thus dodging fads and ideological premises not always ethnically fair

Da etnografia ao indigenismo : uma trajetória antropológica

Relato da trajetória profissional de Alcida Rita Ramos desde suas primeiras incursões na antropologia como aluna do Professor Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira no Museu Nacional, passando pela pós-graduação na Universidade de Wisconsin, Madison, até a sua aposentadoria na Universidade de Brasília, com ênfase nas pesquisas entre os Sanumá, subgrupo Yanomami e, posteriormente, no indigenismo comparado na América Latina. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTAlcida Rita Ramos describes her professional trajectory from her first steps as an anthropology student of Professor Roberto Cardoso de Oliveira at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro through her graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, up until her retirement at the University of Brasília. She emphasizes her research work among the Sanumá, a Yanomami subgroup in north Brazil and, more recently, on comparative indigenism in Latin American

Uma crítica da (des)razão indigenista

O artigo trata de um aspecto pouco abordado nas análises de Estado e poder: o voluntarismo de agentes de Estado e sua influência no estabelecimento de normas e resoluções que podem afetar povos inteiros. O caso empírico escolhido para demonstrá-lo é o dos Panará e sua saga pelo Parque Xingu sob o comando de Orlando Villas-Bôas nos anos 70. Como estratégia de demonstração, utiliza-se a proposta de Edward Said sobre a importância que o início de uma narrativa tem para o seu desfecho. Portanto, dependendo de onde comecemos a analisar um evento, este pode revelar ou mesmo ocultar contornos relevantes para a sua conclusão. _______________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThis article deals with a somewhat neglected aspect in State and power analyses, viz., the individual whims of State agents and how these influence decision-making processes that may affect entire peoples. To demonstrate this the article focuses on the case of the Panará Indians and their ordeal as uncomfortable “guests” of Orlando Villas-Bôas in the Xingu Park in the 1970s. Edward Said’s Beginnings has been the analytical inspiration to unravel the Panará situation. Depending on where we begin to tell a story, its outcome may take unpredictable turns

Indigenising Development

Among the many social groups that have been historically excluded, indigenous people comprise one that offers great challenges to development. Although their assimilation has been a goal of the national societies that engulfed them, it is disputable whether indigenous people desire the type of social inclusion that development, in its many forms, can produce. At the same time, development seems irreversible, and resistance to it might have consequences far more adverse than those brought by acceptance. The best way to overcome the challenges seems to be to indigenise development: to put it to work on behalf of indigenous people instead of putting them to work for a model of development that is not only alien to them but that frequently does violence to their culture. With this in mind: Alcida Rita Ramos, Rafael Guerreiro Osorio and José Pimenta introduce the theme and the challenges to indigenising development, considering points raised by the other contributors. Gersem Baniwa writes about the dilemmas that development poses to indigenous people in Brazil, who simultaneously want to enjoy its benefits, particularly the material and technological resources of the modern world, and to also keep their traditions. Myrna Cunningham and Dennis Mairena explain that the very concept of development is inimical to some core values of many indigenous cultures of Nicaragua, such as collective labour and property, egalitarian distribution, and holistic world views. Jaime Urrutia Cerutti presents his thoughts on why in Peru, unlike Bolivia and Ecuador, there is no massive and strong social movement of indigenous people. The indigenous population comprises the majority in these three Andean countries, and is already integrated into their modern national societies. Stuart Kirsch departs from the concept of human development to show how a mining project in Suriname might enhance the economic freedom of some indigenous groups at the expense of some other important freedoms associated with being indigenous. José Pimenta tells the success story of an Ashaninka group in Brazil who became an archetype of the ecological indian, running sustainable development projects, and managing and protecting the environment. This success was context-specific, however, and was not without cost to their way of life. Charles R. Hale recalls the dramatic impacts of the civil war on the indigenous people of Guatemala. Caught between the state and the guerrillas, they have been through genocide, and modest advancements achieved earlier were reversed. A re-emerging Maya social movement now faces the resistance of the country?s elite. Bruce Grant takes us back to the Soviet Union and pinpoints some of the differences of socialist development, showing how it affected indigenous peoples in Siberia who were paradoxically seen as both a model of primitive communism and of backwardness. It was a dear goal of Soviet planners to make them leap forward as an example of the benefits of socialism. David G. Anderson considers how the dismantling of the Soviet Union affected indigenous peoples in Siberia. Current Russian models of indigenous development are worth considering because they are not purely capitalist: private corporations that take over projects assume many of the roles of the former socialist state in welfare provision, and the overall repercussions are both favourable and otherwise. Bernard Saladin d?Anglure and Françoise Morin discuss the impact of the colonisation and development of the Arctic on the Inuit. Charged by the Soviet Union for neglecting the human development of the Inuit, Canada devised a policy that succeeded in raising their material standards of living while culturally impoverishing them. Carolina Sánchez, José del Val, and Carlos Zolla emphasise the importance of monitoring the welfare and development of indigenous people by devising culturally adequate information systems. They summarise the state-of-the-art proposals, outline the main demands of indigenous leaders and experts as regards such systems, and present the successful experience of their programme in Guerrero, Mexico. We hope that the articles in this issue of Poverty in Focus help raise awareness in the development community about problems that do not have immediate and easy solutions, but that are crucial to shaping the present and future of indigenous people.Indigenising Development

Apresentação

Esta apresentação descreve a origem e desenvolvimento das ideias que compõem este dossiê, ressaltando a importância da comparação entre as situações vividas por povos indígenas expostos a políticas estatais distintas, em regiões de fronteira na Amazônia. Enfatiza a tensão entre a força centrípeta da etnia e a força centrífuga do Estado, provocando nos povos indígenas iniciativas próprias de realidades transfronteiriça

Nomes Sanumá entre gritos e sussuros

Como os demais indígenas Yanomami, os Sanumá (o subgrupo mais setentrional dessa família lingüística amazônica) praticam com afinco o sigilo dos nomes próprios. No entanto, ao contrário dos outros, eles praticam também a suspensão do sigilo quando se trata de “fazer coisas com nomes”, para parafrasear J. L. Austin. Transformados em ferramentas sociais, os nomes sanumá são capazes de marcar o público com recursos do privado. Assim, alguns poucos nomes masculinos são retirados de seu sigilo doméstico para anunciar o surgimento de grupos patrilineares com os quais os Sanumá organizam sua vida política e matrimonial. Com o advento do conquistador, nomes estrangeiros começaram a entrar no léxico social dos Sanumá, aliviando, assim, a pressão sobre a quebra de sigilo onomástico. Primeiro missionários protestantes, com seus Davis e suas Saras, depois garimpeiros e outros aventureiros da mata, com seus regionalismos e alcunhas idiossincráticas – Ceará, Paraíba, Passarão, etc. – têm contribuído substancialmente para que os nomes sanumá fiquem cada vez mais preservados do ouvido público. Pareceria, então, não ser mais necessário sussurrar nomes para identificar as pessoas, podendo-se agora chamá-las aos gritos. No entanto, as coisas não se passam bem assim. De que modo a etiqueta dos nomes tem reagido a essas mudanças é o que tentarei esquadrinhar aqui.Like the other Yanomami Indians, the Sanumá (the northermost subgroup of this Amazon language family) preserve their personal names in secrecy. But, unlike most Yanomami, they suspend this secrecy when it is necessary to “do things with names”, to paraphrase J. L. Austin. Personal names, transformed into social tools, are capable of marking the public sphere with devices coming from the private realm. In this way, a few male names lose their secrecy so as to herald the emergence of new patrilineal groups with which the Sanumá organize their marriage and political life. With the arrival of outsiders, foreign names made their entrance in the Sanumá social lexicon, thus relieving the pressure over name secrecy. First came protestant missionaries with the Davids and Sarahs, then gold miners and other jungle adventurers with their regional and idisioncratic nicknames – Ceará, Paraíba, Passarão, etc. – greatly contributing to keep Sanumá personal names away from the public ear. It would thus seem that whispering would no longer be necessary, and crying out people’s names could be done at ease. Things, however, are not as they seem. To what extent Sanumá naming etiquette has reacted to these changes is what I intend to scrutinize

Do Engajamento ao Desprendimento

Indigenous peoples in Brazil, as elsewhere, increasingly take stock of the abuses perpetrated by certain scientific researchers who act as though indigenous spaces were no man’s land. Reactions on the part of the Indians have affected a number of, especially young, ethnographers. This situation deserves our attention with regard to the future of traditional ethnography. At the same time, a growing number of Indians have access to higher education, which opens the horizon for the establishment of auto-ethnographies, namely, research carried out by those who have been the "objects" of ethnographic inquiry. If this trend is confirmed, what will happen to academic ethnography? It is suggested that a number of possible roles can be opened for non-indigenous ethnographers who might become supporting actors in ethnographic research. In such new scenarios academic ethnographers could continue to exercise their commitment both to indigenous peoples and to the anthropological profession.Com a crescente tomada de consciência de seus direitos, os povos indígenas no Brasil, a exemplo de tantos outros no mundo, passaram a reagir contra os abusos de certos pesquisadores que persistem em tratar o espaço indígena como terra de ninguém. Essas reações atingem muitos etnógrafos, principalmente a partir dos anos 1990, o que nos leva a ponderar sobre o futuro dos estudos etnográficos tradicionais. Ao mesmo tempo, com a crescente escolaridade dos indígenas, abre-se o horizonte para as auto-etnografias, ou seja, pesquisas realizadas por aqueles que sempre foram "objetos" de investigação etnográfica. Se essa tendência se confirmar, o que acontecerá com a etnografia acadêmica? Sob o nome de ator coadjuvante, propõe-se a possibilidade de uma gama de prováveis papéis que os etnógrafos tradicionais podem assumir sem abrir mão de seu compromisso tanto com os povos indígenas quanto com a profissão antropológica

Intelectuais indígenas abraçam a antropologia. Ela ainda será a mesma?

Com o ingresso crescente de indígenas nos cursos de pós-graduação em antropologia, está-se gestando uma ala de intelectuais indígenas que, portadores de seus próprios saberes, têm grande potencial de desafiar as certezas da disciplina e influir no traçado de seus rumos. Espera-se que a adesão indígena ao campo antropológico contribua para expor ilusões, falácias, cegueiras e contradições e tirá-lo de seu atual estado letárgico, provocando uma guinada para uma “antropologia ecumênica”, capaz de acolher e se beneficiar de saberes que atualmente são apenas matéria-prima para teorias nem sempre pertinentes.The growing number of indigenous students enrolled in graduate programs in anthropology is spawning a grouping of indigenous intellectual who, bringing their own knowledge to academia, have great potential to challenge the discipline’s convictions and open new vistas. One hopes the arrival of indigenous scholars in anthropology will expose its illusions, fallacies, blind spots, and contradictions and retrieve it from its present lethargy. The diversity of indigenous knowledge ought to provoke a shift toward an “ecumenical anthropology” willing to embrace new knowledge forms and contents, and benefit from them on equal terms rather than continuing to use them as mere raw material for often idle theories