O exercício da tutela sobre os povos indígenas: Considerações para o entendimento das políticas indigenistas no Brasil contemporâneo

Abstract

The aim of the present text is to provide some elements for thinking about the ways in which the transmission of knowledge, as a constitutive part of the exercise of State power, occurs. Here, I look at forms that go beyond those molded or excercized by the school system, whether these are conceived of as formal organizations of teaching and learning, or in specific processes of training characteristic of bureaucratic organizations, the guides of which generally consist of written codes. Intending to provoke evocations and reasoning through homologies, I take as the starting point for my study, in terms of a historical model, an analysis of tutelage as means of exercising power. I also engage with what I call “traditions of knowledge in the management of colonial inequality”, looking at how these are employed in training the cadres of government agencies for direct action among indigenous peoples. My empirical focus in this endeavor is the training technicians of Brazil’s National Indian Foundations (Funai) received in “indigenism” during the decade stretching from 1970-80.