Origin narratives, transformation routes: heritage, knowledge and (a)symmetries on the Uaupés river

Abstract

This article begins with a series of discussions on the identification of sacred sites in the locality of Iauaretê, situated on the shores of the middle Uaupés River, between 2004 and 2011, involving the participation of local indigenous leaders and representatives of the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (IPHAN). The work of identifying these sites began with the institute's visit to the region in 2004 and the partnership established with the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Rio Negro (FOIRN) and the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a non-government organization that has provided advice and support to indigenous peoples of the region for two decades. Following an evaluation of the effects of the listing of the Iauaretê Falls as intangible heritage by IPHAN in 2005, as well as the preservation actions implemented subsequently, the article explores some aspects of the new collaborative dynamics between anthropologists and indigenous researchers/intellectuals which the experience brings to the fore, as well as the specific way in which this phenomenon is manifested in the context of the upper Rio Negro.

Tobacco visions: shamanic drawings of the Wauja Indians

“…By the way, a history that awaits to be written. However, independently of their strictly art historical value, ethnographic collections have been gradually encompassed by Indigenous political movements focused on the direct or indirect safeguarding of tangible and intangible cultural heritage (Andrello, 2013;Martini, 2012). In recent years, some Upper Xingu groups, specially the Kuikuro and Kamayurá, have cultivated a special interest in the safeguarding of their cultural and artistic heritage through the creation of documentation centres and the investigation of ethnographic archives (Kamayurá, 2018).…”

Políticas da hierarquia e movimentos da política no alto Rio Negro: algumas transformações indígenas

“…13 Se, de um lado, podemos ver isso, por exemplo, nas divergências que as diferentes narrativas míticas apresentam sobre qual "irmão" apareceu primeiro nos tempos primordiais, de outro lado, é sociologicamente perceptível que a "hierarquia" está em algo relacionada a uma habilidade para manter a harmonia cotidiana e realizar rituais. O crescimento de alguns grupos (e definhamento de outros) é um elemento central para se entender reposicionamentos na ordem dos "irmãos" -que ora se multiplicam e se sobrepõem, ora encolhem e desaparecem (Andrello 2013). Adicione-se a isto o fato de que os grupos propriamente ditos passaram a se redimensionar nesta aliança pan-étnica em São Gabriel, e perceberemos que a "hierarquia", antes mais bem definida na maloca -modelo de convergência de toda sociologia e cosmologia (S. Hugh--Jones 1979, 1995) -passa a contar com muitas outras variáveis.…”