The heritage-making of the Yaokwa ritual: entanglements and possibilities of symbolic and material reparation for the Enawene Nawe

Abstract

This article is the result of a broader research, developed at the Master’s level in Anthropology, on the heritage-making process of the Yaokwa ritual, a cultural practice of the Enawene Nawe people from the Juruena River region, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Based on ethnographic data, an anthropological reflection is proposed to analyze heritage-making as a mechanism of symbolic and material recognition in a context of vulnerability. Methodologically, it was a documentary research with a non-linear approach, by refusing institutional and chronological organization. The research corpus consists of administrative processes, dossiers, technical opinions, institutional reports, specialized collections, journalistic sources, and non-institutional records. The research adopted conflict as a methodological and narrative principle to map categories of the heritage-making process and to articulate dispersed records. The results demonstrate that disputes between the State, Indigenous actors, and other stakeholders are recorded in a discontinuous and relational manner, and mediated by different regimes of state classification. The hypothesis raised was that, although heritage policies are not formally framed as reparative measures, they function as instruments of recognition for Indigenous peoples, especially in the absence of specific public policies of reparation for such purpose. The Yaokwa, inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-UNESCO in 2011, is the only element of Brazilian heritage in this category identified as in need of urgent safeguarding. By connecting theoretical reflection and practical considerations of public policies, the study emphasizes the urgency of understanding heritage-making as symbolic recognition and as a potential instrument of material reparation. It is concluded that heritage policies act as instruments of recognition in the face of the absence of specific reparative measures and expose heritage as an arena of political management and the challenges within state networks in the administration of peoples and territories in Brazil.