Ethnohistory, economics and other human sciences: the symbolic repertoire that marks ethnic graphic systems in the visual arts applied to indigenous basketry

Abstract

The following article will analyze the relations of knowledge regarding the Kaingang’s basketry in Paraná from the end of the 20th century until today. It will investigate the meaning behind the impressions applied to the Kaingang baskets, filled with principles, knowledge, history, and values. Through Ethnohistory, we sought written sources, such as the documents and reports from Curt Nimuendaju (1883-1945), which highly contributed to the field. Telemâco Borba’s writings (1840-1918) from 1904 also revealed a vast experience of living with the Kaingang. Observing the significance behind basketry allowed us to find out about the tribe’s day-to-day life as the colonizing fronts approached their areas. As we approach other moments in history, new factors come into play in the intercultural process. Among those, we highlight tensions caused by economic interest, which historically silenced the Kaingang. While analyzing the ethnic aspects of the repertoire’s visuality, with multiple braids marked by specific diacritic from basketry, we may also notice the tactical resistance resources’ transformation. According to Henry H. Manizer, basket weaving traditions are ancient, and each group of people has its handle and meanings. Consequently, we present a selection of graphics based on the cosmology and symbolic properties of the Kaingang and their identification. Bruce Graham Trigger (1982) shows that indigenous people have acted as their agents to writing their own ethnohistory. Reflections on their territoriality are connected to Kaingang’s traditional cosmology. Thus, ethnohistory is a tool that aims, above all, to contribute to the recording and recovering of basketry. Today, it is classified as an endangered art, threatened by de-characterization and by the culture of oblivion. Symbolical violence is responsible for imposing such a culture, for which we must pressingly find an antidote. We must stimulate ethnohistorical research while also encouraging the study of economic aspects and how they affect material culture, always looking for a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach throughout all the fields in human sciences