Performing Dreams: Discourses of Immortality Among the Xavante of Central BrazilOver several centuries, the Xavante of Central Brazil have maintained an invincible sense of identity and feeling of control over historical processes, despite repeated invasions by colonists and settlers, capitalist commercial ventures, and most recently, an enormous government-sponsored agricultural project. In this discourse-centered study, Laura Graham explores how the Xavante use the ritual performance of myths and dreams to maintain their culture despite these disruptive forces. At the heart of the book is an extraordinary performance, in which a community elder tells his dream of an encounter with the creators. Graham analyzes the various components of his performance--narrative, myth-telling, song, and dance--and considers the entire community's participation in the preparations, rehearsal, and public performance of the dream, including their adaption to her presence and modern technologies. From this analysis, Graham demonstrates how the practice of myth-telling is an essential element in cultural continuity and the creation of social memory and how it also provides a kind of immortality for the myth-teller. Her findings will be of interest not only to students of South American cultures and linguistics but also to everyone intrigued by the role of myth and dreams in social life and social change. |
Contents
Brazil | 26 |
Area of Xavante Reserves | 30 |
Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Reserve | 33 |
Copyright | |
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according acoustic age grade age-set Agostim Ai?rere ancestors Apöwe Areões babaçu bachelors Barra do Garças began body paint Brasília Brazilian buriti central plaza ceremonial Cipassé continue da-ño?re performance da-praba dance David Maybury-Lewis descendants discourse discursive practices discussion dream narrative dream performance dreamed songs elders Etepa example experience expressive faction forever formal FUNAI gathered Goiânia hedza höimana?u?ö immortal creators in-laws individual initiation jabiru Kuluene listen living Lopes da Silva male Marcos Matinha Maybury-Lewis men's council moiety move myth telling novitiates participants pattern phrases Pimentel Barbosa pitch pre-initiate Pritai?wa ranchers relationship represent reserves rice Rio das Mortes Riridu São Marcos senior sharing Sibupa singing social society song sound speak speaker sponsors Supto Suptɔ Suyá tape recorder tion tsada?ro Tsõrepre utterances vante village voices wadzapari?wa wapte waptɛ warã Warodi Warodi's dream women Xavante communities Xavante leaders Xavante's Xerente Xokleng young youths