Humans thresholds: a study on the interspecific and environmental interactions among the Makuxi

• Grant number: 12/19800-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2013
• End date: May 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Paulo José Brando Santilli
• Grantee: Paulo José Brando Santilli
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The project aims to delineate the colonizers and exotic animal species conceptions in Makuxi cosmology, a people of Carib linguistic affiliation in Guiana region. It intends to investigate the incorporation of the European colonizers, and in particular, of the cattle, and other animal species that have been introduced in the Rio Branco valley into indigenous practices, and discuss their daily mediations and cleavages in kinship and ethnic relations and environmental exploitation.Considering the secular relations established by the Makuxi with the cattle, the proposition is investigate the indigenous taxonomic classification of the bovine, among other exotic beings , in contrast to the native species, and produce an ethnography of the daily activities of villagers relating to grazing, referenced to hunting and agricultural productive practices. This research covers the detailing of the concepts of property, both individually and collectively as a family herd, the pasture areas, as well as management and marketing of animals not yet described in the anthropological literature.It is proposed to devote the conclusive phase of the research to question and discuss the cattle management with local leaders and the representative organizations of indigenous population in the context of the environmental legislation and codes of fauna present in the country. (AU)