SOCIEDADES TRADICIONAIS E ESTADO: UMA ANÁLISE DO PODER POLÍTICO E CULTURA JURÍDICA

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the Juridical’s system of power and culture in traditional societies along side with the effective rights instituted by the State, starting from the analysis of traditional decentralized power, as per insights of Pierre Clastres, passing through the analysis of the circumstances and processes that led to the centralization of power in the state structure and the consequent advent of the organization of what would than be called Western civilization. Therefore, by bringing the debate to contemporary times, indigenous societies in the Brazilian territory were analyzed - especially the Kamaiurá and Ingarikó societies -, which have their own well-defined juridical culture and social structure, opposing to the state control in an attempt to establish a centralizing and uniform dynamic of power, ignoring the cultural and legal specificities of these communities. Such action by the Brazilian State can be verified by analyzing the legal protection of indigenous people in legislation prior to the Federal Constitution of 1988, and even after this legislation through the overlapping of state norms above the traditional juridical system. However, indigenous societies resist this process of state assimilation by strengthening group unity and their legal systems.