In the tracks of the kadïka: ethnographing the relations between Yudjá people and the living forests of Xingu

• Grant number: 23/05820-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: February 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Joana Cabral de Oliveira
• Grantee: Dannyel Sá Pereira da Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project intends to investigate the relations between Yudja indigenous people and the forests at Xingu Indigenous Territory (TIX), Mato Grosso. The life cycle of an important set of trees classified by the Yudja as kadïka will track a multispecies ethnography taking into account the cosmopolitical aspects of these relationships. I look for contribute to the interdisciplinary dialogue between anthropology and biology studiyng plants, focusing on the discussion of topics such as: the production of ecological knowledge from Amerindian peoples; the centrality of plants in the production of more than human sociality; a non-anthropocentric and decolonial ecology; and indigenous strategies for adapting to climate emergency as a consequence of the domination relations undertaken in the modernity through the continuous process of colonization, impacting the lives of the Yudja, the plants and beings more than humans. The articulation between these themes will have the indigenous 1) management dynamics and 2) territory occupation as a backdrop.