Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T15:56:46.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Mobility and Territorial Occupation of the Asurini do Xingu, Pará, Brazil: An Archaeology of the Recent Past in the Amazon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Fabíola Andréa Silva
Affiliation:
Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo. Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 1466. Cidade Universitária. CEP 05508900. São Paulo, Brazil
Francisco Silva Noelli
Affiliation:
Universidade Estadual de Maringá.Rua Alberto Nascimento Jr. 178. Ap. 113. Bl. 04. CEP 05595-040. São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

In recent decades, archaeology has provided evidence of the diverse nature of colonialism as well as of the specific local histories associated with this globalizing process. Archaelogists have also investigated the strategies of interaction and resistance adopted by indigenous peoples when faced with attempts at economic, political, and social domination. This article presents data about the dynamics of mobility and territorial occupation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of the Asurini do Xingu, an indigenous group living on the middle Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest, in the southern portion of the Brazilian state of Pará. We show that these dynamics represent a conscious and strategic choice by the Asurini to preserve their way of life in the face of colonialism and the expansion of capitalism.

Resumen

Resumen

En décadas recientes se han llevado a cabo estudios arqueoloógicos para proporcionar evidencias de la diversidad y de las especificidades históricas y locales del colonialismo. Estos también han investigado las estrategias de interactión y resistencia de los pueblos indigenas a lo largo de este proceso, caracterizado por relaciones de poder y tentativas de dominatión económica, polttica y social. Este artículo presenta datos sobre las dinémicas de movilidad y ocupación territorial de los Asurini do Xingu en los siglos diecinueve y veinte. El objetivo es mostrar que esta dinámica representa una opción estratégica para asegurar el mantenimiento de su forma de vidafrente al colonialismo y la expansión capitalista en el río medio Xingu, en el Amazonas.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Adalbert of Prussia 1849 Travels in the South of Europe and in Brazil with a Voyage up the Amazon, and Its Tributary the Xingu, Now First Explored. Vol. 2. David Bogue, London.Google Scholar
Almeida, Fernando O. de 2013 A Tradição Polícroma no alto rio Madeira. Ph.D. dissertation. Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balée, William 2000 Antiquity of Traditional Ethnobiological Knowledge in Amazonia: The Tupí-Guaraní Family and Time. Ethnohistory 47(2):399422.Google Scholar
Balée, William 2013 Cultural Forests of the Amazon: A Historical Ecology of People and their Landscapes. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.Google Scholar
Balée, William, and Campbell, David G. 1990 Ecological Aspects of Liana Forest, Xingu River, Amazonian Brazil. Biotropica. 22(1):3647.Google Scholar
Banning, Edward B. 2002 Archaeological Survey. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York.Google Scholar
Barnard, Hans, and Wendrich, Willeke 2008 The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology/University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Basso, Keith 1996 Wisdom Sits in Places. Landscape and Language among the Western Apache. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Bowser, Brenda J., and Zedeño, María N. (editors) 2009 The Archaeology of Meaningful Places. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Cameron, Catherine M., and Tomka, Steve (editors) 1996 Abandonment of Settlements and Regions: Ethnoar-chaeological and Archaeological Approaches. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Carrol, Alex K., Zedeño, María N., and Stoffle, Richard W. 2004 Landscapes of the Ghost Dance: a Cartography of Numic Ritual. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 11(2): 127156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambouleyron, Rafael, and Alonso, José L. R. (editors) 2010 T(r)ópicos de História. Gente, Espaco e Tempo na Amazônia (Séculos XVIIa XXI). Açaí, Belém.Google Scholar
Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip, and Ferguson, T.J. (editors) 2008 Collaboration in Archaeological Practice. Engaging Descendent Communities. Altamira Press, Lanham, Maryland.Google Scholar
Corrêa, Ângelo A. 2014 Pindorama Mboîa e îakaré: continuidade e mudança na trajetória das populações Tupi. PhD dissertation, Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Coudreau, Henri 1977 Viagem ao Xingu. Itatiaia/EDUSP, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Fausto, Carlos 2001 Inimigos Fiéis. EDUSP, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Ferguson, T. J., and Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Chip 2006 History Is in the Land. Multivocal Tribal Traditions in Arizona's San Pedro Valley. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Fisher, William 1991 Dualism and Its Discontents: Social Process and Village Fissioning among the Xikrin-Kayapó of Central Brazil. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University. Cornell.Google Scholar
Flexner, James L. 2014 Historical Archaeology, Contact and Colonialism in Oceania. Journal of Archaeological Research 22(1):4387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
funari, pedro P., Hall, Martin, and Jones, Sian (editors) 1999 Historical Archaeology: Back from the Edge. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Garcia, Lorena 2012 Arqueologia na região dos interflúvios Xingu-Tocantins: a ocupação Tupi no Cateté. Master's thesis. Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Ingold, Tim 2000 The Perception of the Environment: Essays in Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Kristensen, Todd, and Davis, Reade 2013 The Legacies of Indigenous History in Archaeological Thought. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22(2):512542.Google Scholar
Laraia, Roque 1967 Os Suruí e Akuáwa-Asurini. In Índios e Castanheiro. A empresa extrativa e os índios no médio Tocantins, edited by Roque Laraia and Roberto da Matta, pp. 59112. Difusão Européia do Livro, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Kent 1995 Culture Contact Studies: Redefining the Relationship between Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology. American Antiquity 60(2): 199217.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Kent 2006 Missions, Furs, Gold, and Manifest Destiny: Rethinking an Archaeology of Colonialism for Western North America. In Historical Archaeology, edited by Martin Hall and Stephen W. Silliman, pp. 272292. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lorimer, Joyce 1989 English and Irish Settlement on the River Amazon (1550–1646). The Hakluyt Society, London.Google Scholar
Lukesh, Anton 1976 Bearded Indians of the Tropical Forest. The Assurinis of the Ipiaçaba. Akad. Druck und Verlag Anst, Graz.Google Scholar
Mayne, Allan 2008 On the Edges of History: Reflections on Historical Archaeology. The American Historical Review 113(1):93118.Google Scholar
Mills, Barbara 2008 How the Pueblos became Global: Colonial Appropriations, Resistance, and Diversity in the North American Southwest. Journal of the World Archaeological Congress 4(2):218232.Google Scholar
Muller, Regina P. 1990 Os Asurini do Xingu (História e Arte). Editora da UNICAMP, Campinas.Google Scholar
Muller, Regina P. 2002 As Criancas no Processo de Recuperação Demográfica dos Asurini do Xingu. In Crianças Indígenas. Ensaios Antropológicos, edited by A. Lopes da Silva, A. V. Lopes da Silva Macedo, and Â. Nunes, pp. 188209. MARI/FAPESP, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Nimuendajú, Curt 1948 Tribes of the Lower and Middle Xingu River. In Handbook of South American Indians, v. 3, edited by J. Steward, pp. 213242. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Nimuendajú, Curt 1952 Os Gorotire. Revista do Museu Paulista 6:427459.Google Scholar
Nimuendajú, Curt 1993 Carta de Belém, 23 de julho de 1920. In Etnografia e Indigenismo. Sobre os Kaingang, os Ofaié-Xavanle e os índios do Pará, edited by C. Nimuendajú, pp. 141153. Editora da UNICAMP, Campinas.Google Scholar
Oliver, Jeff 2010 Landscapes and Social Transformations on the Northwest Coast. Colonial Encounters in the Eraser Valley. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Ribeiro, Berta 1982 A Oleira e a Tecelã. Revista de Antropologia 26:2561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodrigues, Aryon, and Cabral, Maria S. 2012 Tupían. In The Indigenous Languages of South America, Vol. 2, edited by Lyle Campbell and Verónica Grondona, pp. 495574. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston.Google Scholar
Rubertone, Patricia 2000 The Historical Archaeology of Native Americans. Annual Review of Anthropology 29:425446.Google Scholar
Schiffer, Michael B. 1987 Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
Sellet, Frédéric, Graves, Russell, and Yu, Pein-Lin (editors) 2006 Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephen W. 2001 Agency, Practical Politics and the Archaeology of Culture Contact. Journal of Social Archaeology 1(2):190209.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephen W. 2005 Culture Contact or Colonialism? Challenges in the Archaeology of Native North America. American Antiquity 70(1):5574.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephen W. 2006 Struggling with Labor, Working with Identities. In Historical Archaeology, edited by Martin Hall and Stephen W. Silliman, pp. 147166. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephen W. 2009 Change and Continuity, Practice and Memory: Native American Persistence in Colonial New England. American Antiquity 74(2):211230.Google Scholar
Silliman, Stephen W. (editor) 2008 Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge. Teaching and Learning in Indigenous Archaeology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
Silva, Fabíola A. 2008 Ceramic Technology of the Asurini do Xingu, Brazil: an Ethnoarchaeological Study of Artifact Variability. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15(3):217265.Google Scholar
Silva, Fabíola A. 2013 Território, Lugares e Memória dos Asurini do Xingu. Revista de Arqueologia 26(1):2841.Google Scholar
Silva, Fabíola A., Appoloni, Carlos R., Quiñones, Fernando R. E., Santos, Ademilson O., da Silva, Luzeli M., Barbieri, Paulo F., and Nascimento, Virgílio 2004 A Arqueometria e a análise de artefatos cerâmicos: um estudo de fragmentos cerâmicos etnográficos e arqueológicos por fluorescência de Raios X (EDXRF) e transmissão Gama. Revista de Arqueologia 17:4161.Google Scholar
Silva, Fabíola A., Bespalez, Eduardo, and Stuchi, Francisco F. 2011 Arqueologia Colaborativa na Amazônia: Terra Indígena Koatinemo, Rio Xingu, Pará. Amazônica: Revista de Antropologia 3(1):3259.Google Scholar
Silva, Juliana de Paula 2012 A avaliação da diversidade de padrões de canais fluviais e da geodiversidade na Amazônia: Aplicação e discussão na bacia hidrográfica do rio Xingu. Ph.D. dissertation, Departamento de Antropologia. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Smith, Nigel 1980 Anthroposols and Human Carrying Capacity in Amazonia. Annals of the Association of American Geography 70 (4):553566.Google Scholar
Snead, James E., Erickson, Clark L., and Andrew Darling, J. (editors) 2009 Landscapes of Movement. Trails, Paths and Roads in Anthropological Perspectives. University of Pennsylvania. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Souza, César M., and Cardozo, Alírio (editors) 2008 Histórias do Xingu: fornteiras, espacos e territorial-idades (séculos XVII – XXI). Editora Universitária UFPA, Belém.Google Scholar
Steinen, Karl von den 1942 O Brasil Central. Companhia Editora Nacional, São Paulo.Google Scholar
Stewart, Andrew M., Keith, Darren, and Scottie, Joan 2004 Caribou Crossings and Cultural Meanings: Placing Traditional Knowledge and Archaeology in Context in an Inuit Landscape. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 11(2): 183211.Google Scholar
Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. B. 1986 Araweté: Deuses Canibais. ZAHAR/ANPOCS, Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Whitridge, Peter 2004 Landscapes, Houses, Bodies, Things: Place and the Archaeology of Inuit Itnaginaries. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 11(2):213250.Google Scholar
Zedeño, María N. 2008 The Archaeology of Territory and Territoriality. In Handbook of Landscape Archaeology, edited by Bruno David and Julian Thomas, pp. 210217. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek.Google Scholar