Ethnography and cultural translation in Amazonia

Priscila Faulhaber (Museu Goeldi – Belém / Brasilien)

Email: priscila@mast.br

ABSTRACT:

The objective of this communication is to correlate ethnography and cultural translation, comparing the trajectories of authors such as the Breton ethnographer Constant Tastevin (1880–1962) and the German ethnographer Curt (Unkel) Nimuendaju (1883–1945) who lived in the Brazilian Amazon during the first half of the 20th century Although their practices have been linked in part to naturalist ways of thinking and to 19th century romanticism, both of these ethnographers were in contact with people who where at the vanguard of contemporary scientific thought in the 20th century. Ethnographers translated illiterate cultures and local lore, transposing oral speech into written language. In their published articles, they furnished detailed information about the Amazonian frontier to European readers. In the early 20th century, the asymmetry of relations between the countries of the northern and southern hemispheres configured the division of labor in the anthropological field. The persistence of colonial practices conditioned the collection of texts and artifacts to the production of anthropological generalizations in European countries. However, southern ethnographers’ sympathy for indigenous peoples and their preoccupation with their translations’ fidelity to observed realities meant that they would be inclined to be eye witnesses to the situation and world view of the Indians and to record regional vernacular languages. Nevertheless, these ethnographers were dependent upon their northern counterparts for anthropological advice. With an epistemological approach I think it is important to explicit the contexts of ethnographic encounters, and the social handicap present in the collection of texts and artifacts.