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Mobility and Territorial Occupation of the Asurini do Xingu, Pará, Brazil: An Archaeology of the Recent Past in the Amazon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Fabíola Andréa Silva  and
Francisco Silva Noelli
Fabíola Andréa Silva
Affiliation:
Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia, Universidade de São Paulo. Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 1466. Cidade Universitária. CEP 05508900. São Paulo, Brazil
Francisco Silva Noelli
Affiliation:
Universidade Estadual de Maringá.Rua Alberto Nascimento Jr. 178. Ap. 113. Bl. 04. CEP 05595-040. São Paulo, Brazil
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Abstract

In recent decades, archaeology has provided evidence of the diverse nature of colonialism as well as of the specific local histories associated with this globalizing process. Archaelogists have also investigated the strategies of interaction and resistance adopted by indigenous peoples when faced with attempts at economic, political, and social domination. This article presents data about the dynamics of mobility and territorial occupation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of the Asurini do Xingu, an indigenous group living on the middle Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest, in the southern portion of the Brazilian state of Pará. We show that these dynamics represent a conscious and strategic choice by the Asurini to preserve their way of life in the face of colonialism and the expansion of capitalism.

Resumen

Resumen

En décadas recientes se han llevado a cabo estudios arqueoloógicos para proporcionar evidencias de la diversidad y de las especificidades históricas y locales del colonialismo. Estos también han investigado las estrategias de interactión y resistencia de los pueblos indigenas a lo largo de este proceso, caracterizado por relaciones de poder y tentativas de dominatión económica, polttica y social. Este artículo presenta datos sobre las dinémicas de movilidad y ocupación territorial de los Asurini do Xingu en los siglos diecinueve y veinte. El objetivo es mostrar que esta dinámica representa una opción estratégica para asegurar el mantenimiento de su forma de vidafrente al colonialismo y la expansión capitalista en el río medio Xingu, en el Amazonas.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 493 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1999

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