On Tradition and Translation - rereading of Nós Paiter of Betty Mindlin by Suruí students

Abstract

For the Cultural Studies the identities in the current world have a direct relation with the cultural changes resulting from globalization. This understanding guided the construction of this text, produced in the first semester of 2021, in the state of Rondônia. It deals with the interpretation extracted from the book Nós Paiter by Betty Mindlin (1985), an anthropological study on the Surui Indigenous People located in the Brazilian Amazon. It was one of the basic readings developed in the Research Project: Intercultural Literacy - studies on the processes of understanding written culture in indigenous schools of Rondônia (2020-2021) under the Institutional Program of Scientific Initiation Scholarships (PIBIC). This paper sought to analyze the changes and cultural permanences among the Paiter based on the publication cited, from the perspective of indigenous undergraduate students. The theoretical foundation wasanchored in the contributions of Giddens (1990) and Hall (2006) regarding the discussion of the concepts of Tradition and Translation. The results indicated that, from the perspective of the three university students of the Suruí People, a significant part of the activities discussed continue to be practiced in the Paiter villages, within the scope of Tradition, but not in exactly the same way as before which refers to the explanations of the Translation. It means to affirm that the existing cultural practices have been altered in some way and these effects affect their current identifications. We conclude that the reading of the book Nós Paiter made possible the exercise of student protagonist Surui, a moment that provided relevant intercultural learning about the dynamism of cultures in contemporary times.