Stones, Clay and People Among the Laklãnõ Xokleng Indigenous People in Southern Brazil

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the results of a collaborative indigenous archaeology project especifically through a multivocal construction with two archaeological studies developed by Laklãnõ Xokleng researchers, who focused on the study of lithic and ceramic artefacts associated with their people. Our intention here is to consider the dissensions between the status of these objects based on their native perceptions and scientific classifications. If the analysis of indigenous production of the “elders”/ancestors can be understood based on the processes of subjectification commonly attributed to the objects of Amerindian ontology (as also appears to be the case among the Laklãnõ Xokleng), how can we understand the contemporary production of this materiality? We also reflect on the production of objects linked to the idea of “tradition” as an updating of a cultural continuum. That is, a creation of continuity that can (and should) open itself to incorporate the new, the other and thus transform, but simultaneously maintain a connection with the past. The crafts, the festivals for Indian Day and for the commemoration of the 100 years of resistance, the clothes used in presentations, the objects exhibited in their cultural spaces reinforce an intertextuality of what it is to be Laklãnõ Xokleng today. In this sense, we must understand the production of objects/crafts as a form of resistance, of engagement with a broader movement of this population to strengthen their cultural identity and a political strategy to guarantee their future.