Home > Tipití > Vol. 4 > Iss. 1 (May 2006)
Abstract
In this article I analyze Bororo funerals as moments of defacement and refacement. Death triggers a series of transformations that involve the dead person, the corpse itself, the soul, the making of the deceased’s representative, and the relationships among the living. All these transformations—which are the object of public secrecy—take place during the various rituals that compose the funerary cycle. The text is accompanied by a selection of photographs taken during thirty years of field research among the Bororo Indians of Mato Grosso, Brazil, in order to illustrate Bororo funerals as moments of re-creation of the world, following the theoretical perspectives of both Taussig and Overing.
O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar os funerais Bororo como momentos de desfiguração e refiguração do mundo. Entre os Bororo a morte dá início a uma série de transformações que envolvem o morto, seu corpo, a alma, a escolha e investidura do representante do morto, assim como transformações nas relações sociais entre os vivos. Todas estas transformações, que são objeto de segredo público, são elaboradas ao longo dos rituais que fazem parte do ciclo funerário. O texto é acompanhado por uma seleção de fotos por mim captadas a longo de 30 anos de pesquisa entre estes índios, de modo a ilustrar os funerais Bororo como momentos de recriação do mundo, a partir das perspectivas teóricas elaboradas por Taussig e Overing.
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments. I would like to thank Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji and especially Andréa Claudia Marques Barbosa for their comments relating to this paper. I would also like to thank Fernando Santos-Granero and George Mentore for their comments after this paper was presented in the Conference “In the World and About the World: ‘Amerindian’ Modes of Knowledge” that was held in the University of Virginia in November 2005 in honor of Joanna Overing.
Recommended Citation
Caiuby Novaes, Sylvia
(2006).
"Bororo Funerals: Images of the Refacement of the World",
Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America:
Vol. 4:
Iss.
1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70845/2572-3626.1030
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol4/iss1/9
