References under study: Controversies about nature, culture, and ethnicity of uncontacted indigenous peoples in Rondônia

• Autor(a) principal: Vander Velden, Felipe
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/ling/article/view/43435
• topic: Povos isolados; Rondônia; Natureza; Cultura; Etnicidade; Uncontacted Peoples; Rondonia; Nature; Culture; Ethnicity

The forests of Rondônia harbor a significant number of references to uncontacted indigenous peoples. As the region is home to considerable linguistic and cultural diversity, the definition of the ethnolinguistic belonging of these peoples-references is quite problematic. In addition to this lack of definition at an ethnolinguistic level, several of the references to uncontacted peoples – especially those “under study” or “not confirmed” or those called simply “information” – have also lent themselves to discussions at levels that we will call interethnic and specific, which discuss both the indigeneity and humanity of these collectives. These are cases in which the ghostly character of these peoples seems even more pronounced, and discussions happens not only about whether traces are indigenous products, but whether they are the result of human actions. However, the so-called “unconfirmed references” have been little studied in their multiple dimensions. This article advocates for greater attention to such scenarios as a way of expanding our reflection on the nature of what can constitute an indigenous and a human collective.