The return of relatives: processes of mobilisation and village construction among the Tupinambá of Serra do Padeiro, southern Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract The article examines land reclamations, actions of territorial recovery engaged in by the Tupinambá of the village of Serra do Padeiro, in southern Bahia, Brazil. It focuses on the return of relatives - i.e. the return of expropriated Indians as part of the reclamation process -, and seeks to examine the construction of the collective political subject that has engendered the reclamations, as it is engendered by them. The text presents a brief history of the process of territorialisation, indicating how the reclamations have become the group’s main form of political action. I argue that the process of land recovery is based on kinship, and is capable of activating latent ties or lead to the weakening or rupture of ties between relatives in opposing positions. I also propose that the reclamation process has extended the meaning of relative, providing nuance to the emphasis on blood and moving towards a definition of relative as those with whom you fight together.