Wefts of technology: ethnoarchaeology and variability of Waiwai plaitworks

• Grant number: 17/13343-4
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2017
• Effective date (End): September 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Archeology
• Principal researcher: Fabíola Andréa Silva
• Grantee: Igor Morais Mariano Rodrigues
• Home Institution: Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Plaitworks are fundamental in basic activities among Amerindian peoples, such as transporting and food processing, as well as they occupy a prominent position in their thought and cosmology, expressing and agencying aesthetic precepts and Worldviews. These objects offer excellent opportunities for artefactual variability research, although they are understudied by Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology. In order to contribute to our understanding of this category of material culture, the goal of this project is to investigate many plaitwork productions techniques of the Waiwai people situated along the Mapuera River, Northwest of Pará state. The Waiwai is a Karib-speaking people whose multi-ethnic context presents a great challenge to address the multiple dimensions that make up the wefts of technology. (AU)