Série Antropologia é editada pelo Departamento de Antropologia da Universidade de Brasília, desde... more Série Antropologia é editada pelo Departamento de Antropologia da Universidade de Brasília, desde 1972. Visa a divulgação de textos de trabalho, artigos, ensaios e notas de pesquisas no campo da Antropologia Social. Divulgados na qualidade de textos de trabalho, a série ...
Don Bosco’s messengers among the Masiripiwëiteri. Missionary impact on the social and cultural sy... more Don Bosco’s messengers among the Masiripiwëiteri. Missionary impact on the social and cultural system of the western Yanomami (state of Amazonas, Brazil). This article describes the effects of Salesian missionary activities upon the Yanomami Indians who live in the Maturacá region in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. After decades of sedentarization, the missionaries altered the settlement pattern of the Masiripiwëiteri community, and encouraged the influx of newcomers from neighboring communities. In this way they inverted the group’s traditional reproduction dynamics. The Masiripiwëiteri were thus faced with the problem of having to transform potential enemies into co-residents which in turn meant they had to reshape their system of sorcery accusations. The replacement of cremation with burial also led to a drastic change in the Yanomami traditional funerary practices, causing the blurring of the spaces set up for the living and the dead, hence jeopardizing this fundamental opposition besides putting the Masiripiwëiteri in the position of having to resolve an insoluble problem of cosmological reconstruction.
From 1996 to 1998 I carried out research in three main bases of the Distrito Sanitário Yanomami (... more From 1996 to 1998 I carried out research in three main bases of the Distrito Sanitário Yanomami (Yanomami Health District – a government division of the Brazilian National Health Foundation) assisted, then by the Fundação Nacional de Saúde (FUNASA) and by the Comissão Pró-Yanomami (CCPY). In October 1999, I returned to the Yanomami Indian Lands as an assessor for the Instituto pelo Desenvolvimento Sanitário em Meio Tropical (IDS – Institute for Health Development in Tropical Environments), to do field work in the region of the upper Cauaburis river and help in implementing a health project in that region. I propose, here, to reflect on the role of the anthropologist in implanting a differentiated system of health attendance, aiming to understand to what degree this action is constrained by our institutional ties and to what degree it reflects principles which guide our professional practice. With this objective, I shall confront here my experience with multiprofessional health teams in two distinct situations: as an academic in field work and, thus, an external element to the team, and as an anthropologist who is assessing a health project as an integral part of the team.
The analysis of the imaginary and scientifically founded reports of the travellers who traversed... more The analysis of the imaginary and scientifically founded reports of the travellers who traversed the Amazon region between XV1 and X1X centuries permits the discernment of a relation between the different ideological configurations and the “civilizing practices” aimed at the domination of the indigenous peoples.
Série Antropologia é editada pelo Departamento de Antropologia da Universidade de Brasília, desde... more Série Antropologia é editada pelo Departamento de Antropologia da Universidade de Brasília, desde 1972. Visa a divulgação de textos de trabalho, artigos, ensaios e notas de pesquisas no campo da Antropologia Social. Divulgados na qualidade de textos de trabalho, a série ...
Don Bosco’s messengers among the Masiripiwëiteri. Missionary impact on the social and cultural sy... more Don Bosco’s messengers among the Masiripiwëiteri. Missionary impact on the social and cultural system of the western Yanomami (state of Amazonas, Brazil). This article describes the effects of Salesian missionary activities upon the Yanomami Indians who live in the Maturacá region in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. After decades of sedentarization, the missionaries altered the settlement pattern of the Masiripiwëiteri community, and encouraged the influx of newcomers from neighboring communities. In this way they inverted the group’s traditional reproduction dynamics. The Masiripiwëiteri were thus faced with the problem of having to transform potential enemies into co-residents which in turn meant they had to reshape their system of sorcery accusations. The replacement of cremation with burial also led to a drastic change in the Yanomami traditional funerary practices, causing the blurring of the spaces set up for the living and the dead, hence jeopardizing this fundamental opposition besides putting the Masiripiwëiteri in the position of having to resolve an insoluble problem of cosmological reconstruction.
From 1996 to 1998 I carried out research in three main bases of the Distrito Sanitário Yanomami (... more From 1996 to 1998 I carried out research in three main bases of the Distrito Sanitário Yanomami (Yanomami Health District – a government division of the Brazilian National Health Foundation) assisted, then by the Fundação Nacional de Saúde (FUNASA) and by the Comissão Pró-Yanomami (CCPY). In October 1999, I returned to the Yanomami Indian Lands as an assessor for the Instituto pelo Desenvolvimento Sanitário em Meio Tropical (IDS – Institute for Health Development in Tropical Environments), to do field work in the region of the upper Cauaburis river and help in implementing a health project in that region. I propose, here, to reflect on the role of the anthropologist in implanting a differentiated system of health attendance, aiming to understand to what degree this action is constrained by our institutional ties and to what degree it reflects principles which guide our professional practice. With this objective, I shall confront here my experience with multiprofessional health teams in two distinct situations: as an academic in field work and, thus, an external element to the team, and as an anthropologist who is assessing a health project as an integral part of the team.
The analysis of the imaginary and scientifically founded reports of the travellers who traversed... more The analysis of the imaginary and scientifically founded reports of the travellers who traversed the Amazon region between XV1 and X1X centuries permits the discernment of a relation between the different ideological configurations and the “civilizing practices” aimed at the domination of the indigenous peoples.
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