“Aldeados” versus “Desaldeados”: dinâmica territorial, parentesco e ecologia doméstica entre os Potiguara da Paraíba

Abstract

This undergraduate senior thesis aims to describe and analyze the territorial dynamics of the Potiguara indigenous people between two spaces (the city and the indigenous village), based on the analysis of the life story of a domestic group that used to live in Silva da Estrada – a village located in Potiguara Indigenous Land – and now lives in the urban area of the municipality of Mataraca. In this work, we focus on the mobility of this group due to family ties in search of resources, which enables them to circulate in both spaces. The work also shows how the State classifies indigenous people as those who live in indigenous villages (“aldeados”, in Portuguese) and those who do not (“desaldeados”, in Portuguese), which determines and differentiates the access to public policies, and favors discrimination. The analysis establishes a dialogue with João Pacheco de Oliveira about the phases of the process of territorialization (1998), responsible for increasing the indigenous’ occupation of territory in several spaces, resulting in territorial dynamics. Reflecting on such events, and the interlocutors’ life story reports obtained through “participant observation”, favored a reflection on culture, not only as a process in constant transformation as mentioned by Barth (2005) but, rather, as a construction, as we understand that being indigenous, identifying oneself as indigenous, and being identified as indigenous by others depend on some conditions.