Native and National in Brazil: Indigeneity After Independence

Abstract

This book addresses the ways in which Brazilian society has represented its Indians for the last century and a half. Using the concepts of Indianness (“imagined representations of difference” [p. 14]) and indigeneity (“lived experience” [p. 14]) as the backbone of her analysis, the author explores various facets of indigenism and a wide range of situations, from ludicrous pop shows, operas, and novels to the Paraguayan War, interethnic marriages, education, land rights, legislation, state policies, and the thorny issue of authenticity. All this is based on solid documentation, including some outstanding illustrations. Both her extensive research in archives and interviews bring about crucial problems of representation that have plagued interethnic relations since the sixteenth century and have kept the Indians in a continuous state of domination and subalternity vis-à-vis the national society. The book makes theoretical incursions into history, anthropology, education, and philosophy, sometimes with rather dense language but never losing sight of the realities inherent to interethnic inequality. Each of the five chapters, plus the introduction and epilogue, focuses on a specific aspect of the trajectory of indigenism in the recent history of Brazil. The introduction gives an overview of the domination of indigenous peoples by analyzing a children's television show that degrades the image of the Indian, while the epilogue highlights the achievements of indigenous personalities, national leaders, and intellectuals toward raising national conscience regarding the dignity and legitimacy of the Indian as a social and political actor. In the words of indigenous activists, their “traditional knowledge can bring about a better world” (p. 200). In between, Tracy Devine Guzmán examines the consequences of indigenous exploitation and subordination in a number of different contexts, namely the nineteenth-century Paraguayan War (to which a number of Terena Indians were recruited), development schemes in the Amazon, the positivist style of official colonization, the remarkable national repercussions of a mixed marriage (a white man with an Indian woman), and, in chapter 5, the contemporary indigenous movement, both in Brazil and abroad, which has critiqued the notion of national sovereignty and how it denies indigenous autonomy.The book presents materials very rarely used in analyses of indigenism in Brazil, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the complex field of interethnic relations in a country (or a world) where indigenous peoples have mostly been relegated to national irrelevance. The strategy of beginning some chapters with vignettes that serve as mottos for serious analysis about the place of the Indians in the popular imagination, in state policies, and in journalistic portrayals is effective and methodologically sound. However, one would like to know more about how the author developed her research, particularly regarding fieldwork among indigenous peoples, whether all her interviewees spoke Portuguese, in what contexts the interviews were carried out, how long she stayed in the villages (or elsewhere), and other details relevant to data collecting. Particularly useful would be an account of the author's relationship with the indigenous intellectuals who play such a significant role in the book.In the context of the growing literature on indigenism, Devine Guzmán makes a fine contribution, particularly in working with nineteenth- and early twentieth-century documents and with the written production of indigenous intellectuals. There is, however, a tendency to collapse events of different periods into the flow of analysis, producing a flattening effect and giving the false impression that nothing has changed over 160 years. In fact, what is missing in the book is the exploration of the difference between phenomena of the longue durée surviving across decades (the issue of tutorship, for instance) and those that change as policies, dispositions, and expectations change (for example, the condition of indigenous education today as compared to some 30 years ago). Equally absent is a discussion of the fundamental role of the church, both in the past and in contemporary indigenism. Indigenism is made up of both continuities and changes in a dialectical relationship, which defies any ultimate prognostics.With its wide range of themes, rich documentation, and detailed analysis, Native and National in Brazil is a welcome addition to the growing literature on indigenism in Brazil and the Americas. It is of interest to students of Latin American history, anthropology, native studies, and, especially, the study of indigenism both in Brazil and in general. Finally, the author's credit to Brazilian nonindigenous authors (not always the case) and her respect and praise for indigenous voices are worth acknowledging.