Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
a mile) from the city garbage dump. In another hammock lay Jurandir da Silva, age
one and a half, who had just returned from the Mongaguá Municipal Hospital, where
he was treated for second degree burns on his back, chest, and head. An albino,
Jurandir's skin could not tolerate an entire day in the sun at the dump, where both his
parents scavenged for food. The child was only given antibiotics when I personally
took him to the City Hospital of Mongaguá, after two unsuccessful visits his mother
had previously made.
Dr. Pedro, the physician in charge of the office the day I took Jurandir in, said
he had not paid any attention to the boy the day before because to him “the boy
did not even look like an Indian, but like a
mendigo
[homeless].” The man went
on to say that “had [he] known that the boy was a real Indian, [he] would have
seen him promptly.”
2
Dr. Pedro was afraid that I, as a doctor myself, would file a
complaint against him, since the Fundação Nacional de Saúde (Funasa), responsible
for Indigenous health in Brazil, requires that “Indians” be given priority treatment.
3
He added that, maybe, as an anthropologist, I could help him learn “how to identify
Indians from whites, since now that they don't go around naked anymore or wear
feathers, it is hard to tell.”
These children, however, are indeed 21
st
century Indigenous Brazilians, associates
of the largest Indigenous nation in Brazil, the 40,000-member Tupi-speaking
Guarani. In their play, they demonstrate a systematic response to the dehumanizing
conditions under which their parents live and work on the reservation, at dumpsites,
in hospitals, and as cheap labor force for missionaries, farmers, tourists, and
government officials. Their games, three of which I describe here, interpret the
everyday experiences of life in this coastal village in the southern state of São Paulo
through a radical reinterpretation of the Guarani religious concept of
Ywy Marae'y
.
4
Figure 3.2. Indigenous communities in São Paulo State, and the Itaóca Village, just
outside of the São Paulo City metropolitan area.
