MAKING THE ANTHROPOLOGIST AND THE RESEARCH: REFLECTIONS ABOUT 30 YEARS OF ETHNOGRAPHY WITH THE XIKRIN OF BACAJÁ

reflexões a partir de 30 anos de etnografia com os Xikrin do Bacajá

Abstract

30 years of conducting anthropological research with the Xikrin residing in the Terra Indígena Trincheira-Bacajá, not only the contents and questions raised were modified along the strengthening of our relations and the historic changes we shared, as the anthropologist herself were built to become, in a certain way, more mebengokre, or Xikrin. Furthermore, their perceptions about my skills and the role I played changed through time, transforming the relations, research and how they expected me to act on their behalf. This text reflects upon how academic research and political actions were, more than built from a dialogue with them, built by them. As such, it proposes a contribution to a critical reflection about what it is to do ethnography, pointing to the part played by the peoples we do ethnography with in the definition of the research itself as well as the formation of the researcher.