The occupation of indigenous land Kaiabi (MT/PA): indigenous history and etnoarcheology.

Author(s)

Francisco Forte Stuchi

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE)
• Defense date: 2010-04-12

Examining board members

Fabiola Andrea Silva; Maria Clara Migliacio; Rui Sergio Sereni Murrieta

• Advisor: Fabiola Andrea Silva

Abstract

Beginning from an ethnoarchaeological perspective this thesis presents historical, ethnographic, and archaeological data that contributes to the construction of an indigenous history of the Kaiabi. The region studied is the lower course of the Teles Pires River that covers the actual Kaiabi Indigenous Territory, located within the Jacareacanga and Apiacás counties in Pará and Mato Grosso states, respectively. The results demonstrate that this Indigenous Territory configures itself as a case of the palimpsest of the trajectories of indigenous and non-indigenous occupations of this region. The pre-Colonial occupation is evidenced to by the archaeological remains (ceramics and lithics) at 34 visited sites, within these at least 25 are associated with Amazonian dark earths (terras pretas). The Kaiabi, who historically inhabited the middle Teles Pires river basin in Mato Grosso state, moved and began to occupy the lower portion of the Teles Pires when pressured by colonial processes in central Brazil at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Kaiabi occupation organized itself with priority given to areas that were previously managed. The data presented here show how the processes of occupation, reoccupation, and abandonment practiced by the Kaiabi in the formation of territory historically serve as a marker of continuity in the modern world, thus vindicating their rights. (AU)