Words That Erase, Bodies That Recall: Making and Unmaking Families with Indigenous Ancestry in Northeast Brazil

Abstract (English)

In the Brazilian state of Piauí, in line with 20th-century local historiography (Nunes 2014), my research interlocutors with Indigenous ancestry often elide their connection to their "Indian grandmother" or "great-grandmother." When asked about their Indigenous relatives, they offer little information, portraying their ancestors as "Indians" who lived in the bushes, led "uncivilized" lives, and were marked by distinctive food and clothing habits as well as a lack of Portuguese language proficiency. However, as my fieldwork progressed, I not only heard stories from these families but also observed what they had to show me. Pointing to photographs, videos, and the bodies of their living relatives, my interlocutors frequently commented on physical traits associated with their Indigenous ancestry. Thus, family ties that are erased in oral histories become visibly inscribed in the bodies of family members themselves. This paper ethnographically explores this dual process of obliteration and display of family ties, shedding light on the process of how memories make and unmake family ties. By focusing on the materialized and embodied dimensions of memory, it further highlights the racialized dimensions of indigeneity – an aspect often overlooked in anthropological discussions on Indigenous identities in Latin America (Hooker 2005; Wade 2010).