O feitiço do fio e a busca do manto Tupinambá

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand the symbolic, cosmological, and political roles of the tupinambá mantos, highlighting them as entities endowed with spiritual agency. Authored by Célia Tupinambá, the dissertation employs an anthropological approach from the indigenous perspective on their own history. The research prioritizes documentary, iconographic, and field sources to reconstruct the narrative from the tupinambá viewpoint, including the hearing of mantos housed in European museums. The text elucidates the central role of tupinambá women as bearers of the mantos and as protagonists in indigenous governance and diplomacy. Additionally, this study explores tupinambá self-governance and higher governance structures, underscoring the ancient practices of this people in both internal management and international diplomacy. The dissertation contributes to the establishment of a dialogue between museums and indigenous communities, proposing an expansion of access to collections holding sacred objects of indigenous peoples and the valorization of ancestral indigenous knowledge.