Alteridades, relações, afetos e envolturas : a arqueologia ontológica recursiva como ferramenta de relações com as alteridades do passado .

Abstract

How can we investigate the ontologies and the otherness of the peoples of the past? How can such an exercise enable the creation of new concepts about the archaeological materials studied? This research tries to answer these questions and propose the development of a theoretical and methodological approach based on a discussion about the approach called recursive ontological archaeology. Previously proposed by Benjamin Alberti, this approach seeks to study the ontologies of peoples of the past from reflections on the materials themselves and the use of indigenous theories. It is structured from a process of reconceptualization of materials from ethnographic information, with the development of a reflexive movement, in which things become the empirical source of the conceptualization. With this approach, the ultimate goal is to think about the otherness and to perceive the subjectivities and the other ontologies present in the material manifestations of the past. To discuss the use of this approach, I will present case studies working with the concept of wrapped objects among the Mayas. I will analyze how the idea of wrapped present among contemporary Maya peoples can be used to reflect on the role and the materiality of textile wraps present since pre-Hispanic times. In addition, in working with the recursive ontological archaeology, I also propose how an ethnographic concept can return to the archaeology to rethinking of some theoretical notions. Thus, this investigation was conceived as an exercise of care and commitment to other ontologies and other epistemologies constantly forgotten by the western thought, in an attempt to contribute to a rupture of the epistemic violence suffered by non-western peoples throughout the history of archaeology.