Mining in indigenous lands: an ethnography of the relationships between the Xikrin do Cateté people and the large mining projects of Vale S.A. in the Southeastern region of Pará

• Grant number: 23/07127-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Renato Sztutman
• Grantee: Julia Silva de Castro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this project, I aim to conduct an ethnographic investigation on the modes of political action articulated by the Mebengokre-Xikrin, as well as the alliances formed in the process of confronting large-scale mining operations by Vale S.A. that directly impact their territory. Specifically, I intend to understand how the Xikrin do Cateté people coexist with mining from their cosmological parameters and have mobilized to access the state apparatus and claim their rights. The mining company has been present in the region for about 40 years, since the inauguration of the Grande Carajás Project (PGC), which was a milestone in the advances of large development projects in the Amazon region promoted during the military regime. I believe it is of fundamental importance to consider this capacity to restructure a world heavily impacted by actions aimed at promoting capitalist accumulation, in the current context in which we seek to compose ways to confront the advances of the present environmental and climate crisis. (AU)