De Awaete a Asurini: histórias do contato (1971-1991)

Abstract

The history of contact between indigenous people and national society shows the totalitarian practices undertaken since the sixteenth century in Brazil. The interethnic contact undertaken by the Brazilian State toward the people Awaete/Asurini do Xingu was made in a context that prioritized the occupation and economic exploitation of the region of the Middle Xingu through major projects, during the period of military dictatorship in the country. The contact was a way to control indigenous peoples through the actions of the state. The stories of contact are analyzed from the theoretical reference of Structural Anthropology and Analysis of Speech and reveal the persistence of colonialism between the years 1971 and 1991, after the advent of the Citizen Constitution (1988), which formally recognizes the rights and autonomy of indigenous people in Brazil. The practice of ethnocentrism as a radical negation of alterity remains until the present, even within the discourse of multiculturalism.