Entre l’image et l’écrit. La politique tukano de patrimonialisation en Amazonie

Abstract

This article analyses a remarkable series of publications, the Coleção Narradores Indígenas do Alto Rio Negro (henceforth NIRN), published over the past ten years by Tukanoan indigenous authors from the Brazilian Upper Rio Negro region. These books are financed by the Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Alto Rio Negro (FOIRN) and the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a Brazilian NGO dedicated to protecting the environment and defending the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. Each book contains the origin narratives, myths and recent history of a particular upper Rio Negro group, usually told from the point of view of one of its clans. The appearance of this indigenous literature, exceptional in the Amazonian context, can be explained by the particular conjunction of several historical and cultural features. The desire to write down and thus « rescue » an oral tradition under threat from the pressures of urbanisation and education of the younger generation makes sense in the context of Brazilian and international policies that favour claims to separate identity. But this is but one important factor. Tukanoan groups have been familiar with the power of the written word since the end of the 19th century, first in Salesian boarding schools and more recently through contact with anthropologists and the state. But the ceremonial use of books as material objects by certain patrilineal clans also makes sense in relation to much older religious practices and political strategies. At a deeper level still, this article also argues that given social groups may have a particular cultural predisposition towards the reification and patrimonialisation of their culture. Thus there appears to be an elective affinity between the importance that Upper Rio Negro populations attach to esoteric knowledge and their liking for books, just as there may be an elective affinity between the Kayapo emphasis on the aesthetic effects of their political ceremonies and their enthusiasm for video cameras.

Keywords

• indigenous peoples
• heritage
• Tukano
• books
• intangible heritage
• education