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The culture‐conscious Brazilian Indian: Representing and reworking Indianness in Kayabi political discourse
Author(s) -
Oakdale Suzanne
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.2004.31.1.60
Subject(s) - indigenous , politics , context (archaeology) , sociology , meaning (existential) , ethnic group , focus (optics) , gender studies , media studies , social science , anthropology , political science , epistemology , law , history , ecology , philosophy , physics , archaeology , optics , biology
In this article, I examine a Brazilian indigenous people's self‐conscious use of the ideas of “culture” and “Indian ethnicity.” Whereas analysts usually discuss indigenous use of these concepts in the context of high‐profile national or transnational intercultural events, I look at how retrospective accounts of participation in such events are woven into local political discourse. I focus on how two Amazonian leaders represent their participation in past events of cultural display as a means of mounting very different arguments about their eligibility for positions of authority in their community. I argue that local frames of reference, for example, those relating to the culturally appropriate conduct of politics, must be considered in assessing the significance and meaning of cultural performances, even when the staging of indigenous culture is performed principally for a nonlocal audience.