Tecnologias em transformação: Inovação e (re)produção dos objetos entre os Asurini do Xingu

Abstract

The meanings and implications of cultural transformations related to the processes of continuity and change in production technologies and use of objects, in various social contexts, are the subject of several studies in recent decades. These researches revealed that the continuities and changes in production technologies and use of objects occur at different scales over time and result of social, economic, political and cultural factors specific to the context. They also showed that understanding the transformations in technology means the apprehension of the conditions that led to change, or, the analysis of innovation processes. This article contributes to this debate by describing and analyzing some aspects related to the production and use of objects by Asurini do Xingu, a Tupi people living on the banks of the Xingu River in the state of Pará, Brazil. I demonstrate how innovations, in their technological practices, and appropriations of Western goods (objects and raw materials), during the post-contact period, can be understood as a possibility of aesthetic and creative expression, and as a form of symbolic action loaded with identitarian meanings.