Culturas do escrito nas associações e projetos sociais indígenas: um estudo sobre os Xakriabá, Minas Gerais

Abstract

The article analyses the place that the written word has been occupying in everyday life of Xakriabá communities, especially in situations related the preparation and development of social projects, in indigenous associations. The work is based on an ethnographic study of three villages. The results indicate that, among Xakriabá, the ability to read and write is performed not as an attribute restricted to the individual, but as a skill available to the collective. In this framework, orality is crucial in the negotiation between different subjects and the writing process. The uses and functions of writing that has been produced daily by Xakriabá establish and sometimes assume differences between the subjects involved. These differences, however, does not necessarily result in inequalities among them. Finally, Xakriabá see, on one hand, the situation of interacting with a mode of writing characteristic of the national society, and, on the other hand, do assigning uses and functions in accordance with local traditions.