The Other's Tongue: Place, Perspective, and the Desire to Speak Portuguese among the People of the Xingu Indigenous Territory

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the frequently expressed desire among people of the Xingu Indigenous Territory living in the city of Canarana, Brazil, to learn Portuguese. It examines such statements of intent, which are typically presented as a reason for indigenous urban migration. I argue that the desire to learn Portuguese is itself in need of investigation, to which end I turn to two Upper‐Xinguan Carib myths and a conversation at the headquarters of the Xingu indigenous land association. The indigenous presence in urban spaces offers evidence of the ways in which place serves as a perspectival stabilizer for them, in a world where perspective determines the body's form and, by extension, ontology. Based on long‐term fieldwork and the application of a technique of ethnographic imagination, adapted from Strathern, the article demonstrates how modulation of the tongue is a means of preserving autonomy in relations with Whites and a survival strategy.