Mbyá-guaraní­ territoriality within the urban space of the Lomba do Pinheiro community, in Porto Alegre: A research experience in Tekoá Anhetenguá

Abstract

Territory and space are essential to understand the complex situation of Latin American native peoples, as they involve various dimensions of analysis. Through them, we can articulate both the material (social, economic, etc.) and the symbolic dimensions (political, cosmological, cultural, etc.) of space appropriation and of a certain territorial construction, also paying attention to the concrete tension contexts which condition them. The urban characteristics of many native communities and the transformations that they entail can be approached from a materialistic concept of culture, as in Guillermo Bonfil Batalla's theory of cultural control. This study of the Tekoá Anhetenguá, the mbyá-guaraní­ community of Lomba do Pinheiro, in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), attempts to create some tension between these elements in concrete socialization spaces, both outside and within the community, where the members of this community live and develop. There will also be a political and methodological reflection upon the field work experience.