On the manioc trail: pursuing kinship and alterity along the Lower Oyapock

• Grant number: 15/19611-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: May 01, 2016
• End date: April 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Artionka Manuela Goes Capiberibe
• Grantee: Artionka Manuela Goes Capiberibe
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The border between Brazil and French Guyana, located along the Lower Oyapock River, is inhabited by a diversity of ethnicities and cultures, which includes the Palikur, an indigenous population which speaks one of the maipure-arawak languages. This research will look at the Palikur approach to alterity, with the central focus being their kinship relations and, as a guiding theme, the process of production and circulation of manioc flour, a food that links relatives and non-relatives, indians and non-indians alike. The main goal of this project is to understand the significance of alterity in (and to) Palikur sociality. (AU)