Research
Projects

Coordinators: Antonio Guerreiro, Marina Pereira Novo e Ugise Kalapalo

Funding agency: Endangered Material Knowledge Programme/British Museum (UK)

Abstract: This project aims to document the traditional fishing technologies of the Kalapalo, a Carib-speaking people from the Southern Amazon who inhabit the region known as the Upper Xingu, in Central Brazil. The Kalapalo have chosen fishing as the pivot of their way of building relationships with nature and with other peoples. Their traditional fishing technologies are based on fish traps, dams and fishing nets made from different plant materials, comprise a vast ecological knowledge of the fish species of the Xingu River basin, and are intertwined with intangible knowledge such as songs and prayers. However, this system of material knowledge is severely threatened by environmental changes resulting both from human actions affecting the headwaters of their rivers and from climate change. With fishing and its traditional technologies threatened, not just a way of subsistence is at risk, but an entire way of life. Through audiovisual recordings, the production of maps and ethnographic descriptions, this project aims to document this threatened system of traditional fishing technologies, in all its dimensions, in order to contribute to its preservation for future generations.

Website: access here.