Colonial Numbers in Indigenous Worlds: Statistical Appropriations and Native Demography

• In Event: Indigenous Knowledges and Technologies - I

Abstract

The relationship between indigenous peoples and the colonial State is marked by the negotiation about the meaning of official data production processes on native populations. A new stage in this process begins with the redemocratization of Brazil: the first National Demographic Census conducted after the military dictatorship (the 1991 Census) adopts the "indigenous" category as a possible answer to identify the color and race of the interviewee, aiming to understand the demographic characteristics of indigenous peoples. In the subsequent censuses (2000 and 2010), changes occurred in order include information on ethnicity and indigenous languages spoken. Widely discussed by the press and academics, these data inform public policies and the dispute over the rights of traditional populations in Brazil. They also raise questions about what it means to transform the experience of indigenousness and ethnicity into a set of numbers that intend to create objective reality. From the dialogue with indigenous students and interviews with traditional leaders, this paper analyzes how official statistics on race and ethnicity are appropriated by indigenous populations. In doing so, we consider the contexts in which such appropriations occur, the meanings produced from this relationship with the State, and how they connect with the historical struggle of the indigenous for recognition and visibility. The dialogue with the indigenous on statistical data also reveals how they conceive the production practices of scientific knowledge, and contrast them with the native demographic experience (focused on the dynamics of kinship, the creation of new villages, and space management).

Authors

• Bruno Nogueira Guimaraes, Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz

• Ricardo Ventura Santos, Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz

• Alessandra Traldi Simoni, Universidade Estadual de Campinas