Here there are more dogs than Indians: human-animal relationship among the Mbya-Guarani in the Jaragua (São Paulo / SP)

• Grant number: 16/13834-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): October 01, 2016
• Effective date (End): September 30, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden
• Grantee: Bruno Silva Santos
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to be an ethnography of the relations between the Guarani-Mbya and domestic dogs, focusing on the everyday living of the inhabitants of the indigenous villages of the Jaragua (north-west of São Paulo city) with dogs there are abandoned by the population of the metropolis. It tries to understand the position of these animals in the Mbya universe, as well as the material and symbolic practices that connect the dogs and other beings - other animals, spirits, gods and humans, Indians and non-Indians. From these objectives, is expected to deepen our understanding of the human-animal relations among the Mbya and, more generally, among indigenous peoples in the South American lowlands. Having the background of the crescent anthropological interest about the relationship between humans and animals, this research hopes to contribute to this debate through a research on the collective formed by the Mbya-Guarani and dogs in villages in São Paulo capital city.