Back to the original people

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When Jamille Lima began her field activities to develop her thesis in the Geography Postgraduate Program at the Unicamp Institute of Geosciences, she did not imagine the changes in the history of the Payayá people that she would help to promote. The doctor is a professor at the State University of Bahia (UNEB) in Jacobina, municipality of Chapada Diamantina. Her students had names, like Yara, Iatita, Anairan. She constantly heard expressions like “take the noose” or “the dog’s teeth”. Walking around the city, she noticed listed buildings with many indigenous references. But she asked herself: 'where were these people and who were they?'. Collecting information, she discovered that those expressions dated back to the colonial past. “Take the noose” was a reference to the way colonizers persecuted indigenous women who tried to hide in jabaquaras, a term used for hidden places, common in Chapada Diamantina with its karst relief full of caves. After being raped, a mixed family emerged. “Understanding this problem, I tried to raise this story”, says Jamille. 

The thesis “The geographical sense of identity – metaphenomenology of Payayá alterity”, guided by professor Vicente Eudes Lemos Alves, addresses the geographical sense of identity of these indigenous people who, before colonization, occupied an estimated area of ​​300 thousand km² in Bahia, especially the backlands of Chapada Diamantina. With the arrival of the Portuguese and consequent seizure of the land, these Indians were practically decimated. Jamille sought to problematize the representations of what it means to be indigenous and, above all, sought to rethink how science itself has conceived discussions about identity in Brazil and how this impacts indigenous people in a quarterly way. “Even if it is not the purpose of science, there is a denial of these indigenous peoples through stereotypical representations. I tension this representation based on history and geography, showing another sense of being indigenous based on the experience with the Payayá,” she says. 

To support his thesis, Jamille resorted to field activities with indigenous people. Over the four years of writing the thesis, he was constantly with the Payayá, following and participating in different activities and spending continuous periods in their village, in the town of Cabeceira do Rio, in the municipality of Utinga, to understand a little more about their culture. and collect data according to the oral memory of the remainder. Based on these conversations, the researcher searched for official documents from the time of colonization that would help to understand the geography and historicity of the Payayá, seeking to pay attention to geographic aspects, places and the spatial distribution itself in the advance and resistance movements of the Payayá. colonial intent. In the survey, around 30 thousand pages were found with many references to the Payayá in documents and manuscripts originating from museums in São Paulo, the National Library of Rio de Janeiro, and Spain. Such records are reminiscences that help to understand the colonial process and the history of the Payayá itself. “They were surprised, because I found documents and manuscripts from Spain that mentioned, since the XNUMXth century, what is now their village with the same name they currently use. There are several records in these documents from the village of Utinga, which gave the name to the Bahian municipality and which means white water,” she says.  

The Payayá who managed to escape the decimation process resisted in an attempt to recover the cultural and geographic identity of their ancestors. One of them was chief Juvenal Payayá, who came to Unicamp to defend Jamille's thesis at the end of July. This research gave new impetus to the reconquest of the territory of his people. The documentary survey carried out by Jamille, demonstrating the historicity and geographicity of the Payayá, played a role in the Bahia government's decision to negotiate the cession of the Payayá Indigenous Territory, ratifying its recognition by Funai in 2012. At the beginning of 2019, the Payayá finally received the concession for the use of a 45-hectare area near Utinga that belonged to a defunct Bahian company, where around 100 indigenous people live. Jamille had an active voice in the ceremony to transfer ownership of the territory, which brought together secretaries of state, mayors and councilors from the region, leaders, cooperative members and quilombolas. The ceremony includes an excerpt from the thesis. 

 “This research has a positive impact on the group studied, which serves to guide public policy aimed at a greater number of interested parties. The role of the university has been questioned and this is a clear example of how knowledge can become public policy. The university is producing research, but it is giving back to society, in the specific case of an ethnic group that lost its territory during the historical process”, comments thesis advisor Vicente Eudes. “The Payayá have been raped since the beginning of Portuguese colonization. They lost their territory. Now, the research provides the opportunity to recover it thanks to the work of Jamille, who rescued the history of these people, their area of ​​coverage and the presence of these people”, he added. The Payayá have a concession from the State to use the land for a period of 10 years, as stated in the document signed in January. During this period, Funai must recognize them as indigenous territory. If this does not happen, the concession will be renewed for the same period until the Funai process is completed.  

Ceremony to transfer ownership of the territory to the Payayá people
Ceremony to transfer ownership of the territory to the Payayá people 

Stereotypes and the metaphenomenology of Payayá otherness 

Otherness is based on the assumption that every social human being interacts and is interdependent on the other. However, in indigenous otherness, according to Jamille, “it is necessary to strip ourselves of stereotypical representations and this coloniality of thought. There is a deconstruction of the representation used as a form of denial of what is indigenous. The stereotype is the naked Indian, with high cheekbones, straight hair and living in hollows. In Brazil, today the majority of indigenous people do not have this condition.”  

The researcher proposed to treat the research interlocutors not as objects of study, which is common in science. “Phenomenology tries to dismiss this idea of ​​objectification. The meta, which means beyond, gives meaning to an ethics of alterity, which is the other in its most radical sense in which I cannot understand it. They are the interlocutors who strip us of our own egoity. There is an egological trauma that reverberates in the very way of doing research. There is an ethic in which I do not try to capture the other by bringing them into our field, but in a way that allows them to mobilize us and create a release from our own 'self'”, explains Jamille. 

The geographical perspective of the research is manifested through the Utinga River, which they understand as a source of energy. “Their relationship with the place and the geography of the semi-arid region is disconcerting. You don't hear that they are suffering from the drought. They are seeking to reforest the area with native plants, thus dealing with semi-aridity”, he is impressed.  

Memory as a way of documenting 

Jamille was in Utinga during all the years of the thesis, which began in 2015, for long periods always towards the end of the year. She managed to experience some rituals, such as those performed on New Year's Eve. “I didn’t arrive with theoretical references ready, because it wouldn’t work. I would go to the field first to look for their narrative,” she says. She looked for people's oral memory. “Although I had goals and aspirations, I allowed myself to be affected, to listen. After I met them in person, my research took on a different character,” she comments.  

“The dynamics of the research meant that it took different paths all the time. It is important for the researcher to also have this sensitivity. It was a work that brought together theory and practice, but without imposing one on the other. We do not place science above what is being studied. The Payayá contributed a lot through oral memory. There was also geographic memory. They know, for example, where the 18th century Payayá cemeteries are. There was a collective memory of the group, even if dispersed”, mentions Vicente. It was from these informal conversations that the need for documentary research arose.  

Chief Juvenal Payayá and Jamille. Oral memory that helped search for documents and manuscripts
Chief Juvenal Payayá and Jamille. Oral memory that helped search for documents and manuscripts 

Where are the indigenous people of Brazil? 

It is imagined that most indigenous people are in the Amazon, but they are, in fact, in the Northeast and Southeast regions. “The Payayá are dispersed throughout Brazil. They are in São Paulo and Bahia in municipalities such as Morro do Chapéu, Porto Seguro, Salvador, Jacobina and Utinga. From the 50s onwards, they came to the state of São Paulo to work, living in peripheral regions and maintaining contact with the Guaranis. They came here on foot from Bahia”, says Jamille. According to the researcher, “almost half of the Brazilian indigenous population, which reaches 800 thousand according to the Census, is in urban regions and the majority of them do not have land”.  

“Brazil has advanced a lot due to the struggle of these people who live in cities because it was deterritorialized. This process is a way for the Brazilian state to recognize that they are indigenous and that it is necessary to create their own public policies. Some of the indigenous people who entered Unicamp's first entrance exam are not from villages. When we reach the point where the Brazilian state recognizes this population, we will take an important step in our social, economic and cultural history”, says Vicente. 

DINTER 

Jamille is part of a group of eight professors from the State University of Bahia who are part of the Interinstitutional Doctorate (DINTER) carried out in partnership with Unicamp. The classes were taught in Bahia by IG teachers who had the opportunity to learn about the reality of these students. The group is completing its doctorate in August through a sequence of thesis defenses. “This is an important initiative for inter-university dialogue. Researchers come to complete their training at Unicamp, which has a well-structured research area. This gives us the possibility of talking to more mature professionals, most of whom are already teachers at higher education institutions”, concludes the advisor. 

Learn more about the Payaya: https://ige.unicamp.br/news/2019-08/em-palestra-no-ig-cacique-payaya-fala-sobre-dizimacao-e-reconquista 

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Audio description: in a forest area, image in perspective and medium shot, man standing, looking to the right of the image, keeping his left arm stretched forward and upward, with the palm of his hand open over a woman's head in front of him, almost touching her. In the background, an area with grass and trees. He wears glasses, a short-sleeved shirt and has a necklace around his neck and another on his raised hand, wrapped around his fist. The woman in front of him, looking to the right, writes with a pen in a notebook. Image 1 of 1.

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