a mapping out of, and an exercise in, the research possibilities on the ceremonial activity of the Mebengokre (Kayapó) Native Brazilians

Author(s)

Francisco Simoes Paes

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2006-03-10

Examining board members

Lux Boelitz Vidal; Cesar Claudio Gordon Junior; Sylvia Maria Caiuby Novaes

• Advisor: Lux Boelitz Vidal

Abstract

This dissertation is intended to be a mapping out of, and an exercise in, the research possibilities on the ceremonial activity of the Mebengokre (Kayapó) Native Brazilians, especially the subgroup known as Xikrin do Cateté, in southeastern Pará, Brazil. Based on a bibliographical revision on the music-ritualistic Native Brazilian expression and on the socio-cosmological processes which support it, the main themes dealt with in this paper revolve around the Xikrin notion of person, his or her construction, classification and transformation. The backdrop of this paper is the hypothesis, present in the literature, that the production of the Mebengokre identity congregates various spatial-temporal dominions and possibly different alteritys of the cosmos. In the first part of this dissertation, I accompany two discussions: (1) the place of \"music\" in the anthropological studies on Native Brazilian experience and (2) the papers on the Mebengokre in light of contemporary debates on the Amazonian ethnology. Both discussions converge to the possibility of the above-mentioned hypothesis. In the second part, I explore three contexts in which the identity-alterity in the construction of the person, especially one\'s body, is verified: (1) the notions related to the sensitive faculties of the body and the manner in which they take measure with different socio-cosmological dominions, (2) the possibilities or impossibilities, throughout the cycle of life, of an individual having a relationship with his or her alterity, and (3) the collective context in which these contacts become potentialized throughout the ceremonial periods. (AU)