O movimento do mundo: Cosmologia, alteração e xamanismo entre os Akw-Xerente

Abstract

This text is the result of a research conducted among the Akwe-Xerente, Jê-speakers and inhabitants of the state of Tocantins. It develops an analysis of how these people deal with otherness, and how shamanism and processes related to body and person construction emerge in this connection. The relationship with otherness is thought from the Xerente impetus to circulate beyond the boundaries of their villages, emphasizing the incorporation of knowledge, things and people as an inherent part of the Akwe condition. The notion of movement is one of the guidelines of this reflection: it is present in different ways in the daily life of these Indians. The text is part of a broader theoretical debate around the division, established in the anthropology of the South American lowlands, between Central Brazil and Amazonia. There is a special interest in the critics that have been made to this perception. The discussion we propose here dialogue with the approaches that criticize the image of Jê societies as self-sufficient and forming an isolated cultural complex.