O ritual da moça nova do povo Tikuna: diálogo intercultural e os direitos dos povos indígenas no Brasil

Abstract

This research addresses the Ritual of the Young Girl and its importance for the Tikuna ethnic group, the largest indigenous population in Brazil, as well as the right of indigenous peoples to their cultures, traditions, and customs. The people in question understand that the Ritual of the Young Girl is the guarantee of protection for their communities, and for this reason it is held frequently. The difficulty for non-indigenous people to understand the Ritual comes from the fact that it contains elements that, practiced outside the ritualistic context, can be understood as violent. The main argument defended is that Brazilian and international legislation guarantee the right to culture, customs and practices of traditional peoples, imposing to legal authorities the understanding and respect of their ways, autonomy and self-determination. Thus, in addition to the description of the Tikuna People, the research contains a report on how the Ritual of the Young Girl is performed when Tikuna girls reach menarche, explaining the symbology of the body, especially the feminine. It proposes an intercultural dialogue between the surrounding society and indigenous cultures. Then, the thesis presents the development of the Latin American New Constitutionalism, from the Constitutional Charters edited from the 1980s onwards, which recognized to the original peoples their rights to social and political organization, customs, beliefs, traditions and the use of their language. Finally, a theoretical basis is proposed for the recognition of the Tikuna’s right to the ritualistic practice, as a guarantee of the right to culture, provided for not only by the Brazilian Constitution but also by the Maria da Penha and the Child and Adolescent Statutes. Even in the situation where the Tikuna girl refuses to submit to the Ritual of the New Girl, the application of Brazilian legal dispositions cannot disregard the condition of being indigenous and the constitutional rights to their traditions and customs. It is concluded that, even when there is a manifestation of will on the part of the girl not to submit to the Ritual of the New Girl, we are faced with a hypothesis of limited or weighted application of the foreseen legal provisions that should take into consideration the indigenous identity and the constitutional rights to their traditions and customs.