Miriti-Tapuia: ethnography of a minority people in Upper Rio Negro

• Grant number: 23/01295-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• End date: March 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Geraldo Luciano Andrello
• Grantee: Pedro Roberto Meinberg Garcia Filho
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research proposes an ethnography with the Miriti-Tapuia people of the Tiquié River (Northwest Amazon), demographically the smallest of the Tukanoan-speaking groups of the Uaupés River (less than 100 people). The intention is to explore their position in the system of reciprocal considerations expressed among the more than 20 peoples of the Tukanoan language family of the Uaupés River. The study seeks to bring to light the trajectory of a minority people within this extensive social network, as well as the way in which they and their neighbors describe the origin of this position and their current conditions of reproduction and insertion in the regime of exogamy that marks regional sociality. Starting from the hypothesis that they are a composite people, formed by groups that moved along two axes, one along the course of rivers and the other between rivers, the research intends to explore this composition from the point of view of native narratives and experience. It is considered that this research can contribute to the current debate regarding the formation and transformation of the Upper Rio Negro collectives. (AU)