Epistemologias indígenas: a língua kokama para além do léxico e da sintaxe

Abstract

Currently, the Kokama population is estimated at approximately 19,052 individuals (SIASI/SESAI, 2020), and this number has been increasing. For example, the COPIME report (2022) states that around 10,000 Kokama live in Manaus (AM) alone. The presence of the Kokama extends across several regions, including the Upper, Middle, and Lower Solimões, the Lower and Middle Rio Negro, as well as other states in Brazil, such as Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, many others. The topic chosen for my dissertation is the linguistic resources activated by the Kokama language to express the unique conception of the transformation processes of beings, here referred to as "Indigenous Epistemologies: The Kokama Language Beyond Lexicon and Syntax." It is a specific way of thinking about cognition, conceptions of image, color, and the definition of the elements that make up the language—what is truly extralinguistic. In this sense, we start from the concept of language-spirit, a union, an existence, a statement that leads us to consider a new epistemic reality. Since it is not visible, it compels us to adopt new forms of understanding because "the spirit" cannot be seen; however, it is always present in rituals, songs, birds, animals, rivers, forests, traditional knowledge, and the worldview of Indigenous peoples. In every healing, in every teaching, the spirits of languages are present. The terms ‘spirit’ and ‘spirituality’ are present in various religious conceptions. However, the notion of spirit presented here is that of the original peoples of the Abya Yala continents (Amazonian, Andean, and Mesoamerican). The interweaving of language and spirit forms the foundation of the concept of an Indigenous person among many Amerindian peoples. The objective is to analyze the linguistic forms mobilized to describe the transformation processes of beings in the Kokama language beyond lexicon and syntax, demonstrating that, at a conceptual and logical level, Kokama follows the structure of "Amerindian thought" developed by the Tupí peoples, in which mythological, shamanic, cosmological, and linguistic systems share common principles, just as the struggle for land does. Thus, the research will involve firsthand data collection of the Kokama language and bibliographic material concerning linguistic resources (semantic fields, syntagms, morphology) used to express processes related to development, state change, and transformation in humans and non-humans. This will be supported by ethnographic research concerning the ontology of the Indigenous people. As a result, this research will produce a didactic unit for the teaching and learning of the Kokama language.