O potencial interpretativo dos artefatos cerâmicos: a tradição Tupiguarani na Amazônia

Abstract

This dissertation discusses the archaeological interpretation of material culture remains related to Tupi-guarani linguistic family; such vestiges were classified as belonging to an archaeological tradition named Tupiguarani. A criticism of the normative approach of culture that supported such interpretations (and conceived the tupi-guarani as resilient to change) departs from a review of the ethnohistorical and ethnographic sources that supported them. Since the ethnohistorical and ethnographic accounts were employed to justify a historical continuity between the archaeological and historical Tupi-Guarani – considering settlement patters, spatial mobility, correspondence between language, material culture, and ethnic identity – the use of such sources are analyzed and the achieved results are discussed. From the examination of archaeological studies in Amazonia, the supposed homogeneity and immutability of Tupi culture in time and space is challenged.