Ontological Politics in the Brazilian Cerrado and the A'uwe-Xavante: a methodological investigation

• Grant number: 24/05556-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: August 14, 2024
• End date: June 13, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Joana Cabral de Oliveira
• Grantee: Eduardo Santos Gonçalves Monteiro
• Supervisor: Marisol de La Cadena
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Davis (UC Davis), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/04360-3 - The Buritis and the Auwe: an ethnography of plants, landscapes and other Cerrado peoples, BP.DR

Abstract

This internship project aims to contribute with methodological reflections for my Doctoral research, whose main objective is to produce an ethnographic description of the complex relationships between the A'uwe people (also known as Xavante) of the central Cerrado, the Brazilian savanna, and the buriti palm (Mauritia flexuosa), an extremely important plant for this people and deeply linked to the waters of this biome. Throughout the research and in my experience as officer of the Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai), I have been mapping emerging tensions that permeate the dispute over the life of waters and wetlands and all the more-than-human set that resides there and depend on them. From this context, I highlight a set of resistance movements, the formation of alliances, but also of contradictions and silencing, which permeate the defense of life of Rio das Mortes, or Öwawe, the main river that crosses and connects the A'uwe territory, currently fragmented by the history of advance of the colonizing fronts, and threatened by plantation and dam projects for the production of electricity. By identifying several resonances between the ethnographic material of my research and the reflections and questions raised in the work of Dr. Marisol de la Cadena, supervisor of this project at the University of California at Davis (UCD), I propose as the objective of this project to carry out a methodological investigation on the field of reflections of Ontological Politics as a methodological, conceptual and practical proposal. I consider that systematic reading and discussion of the bibliography on the subject, the dialogue with UCD peers and participation in academic events during the internship can bring great contributions to my doctoral research and my academic training.