El arte de la apropiación. Libros de texto y tradiciones locales en el Alto Xingu

Abstract

Does the circulation of school books cause a homogenizing process of art production in the region of Alto-Xingu? This was one of the questions, the author of this article found herself confronted with after having collected about 100 drawings on paper by persons of varying age and gender in the village of the Mehinako (Alto Xingu) in September/October 2000. In earlier collections of drawings on paper, especially those made by Heloisa Fénelon Costa and Vera Penteado Coelho, it seems that there exists more freedom in presenting different designs, ornaments and "bichos" (ambiguous beings of varying appearance). In comparison, the drawings collected in September 2000 showed a clear tendency to depict persons and objects of ritual activity – subject matters that preferably appear in the schoolbooks of the Alto-Xinguanos. Some of the artists even traced the contours of the schoolbook representations. Can this process be described in terms of consequences of indigenous education as a homogenizing factor and do schoolbooks even more represent a "disciplining" factor in indigenous art production? Looking more closely at the process of art production in the village of the Mehinako, the homogenization concept does not fit well. It is the idea of "appropriation" that corresponds much better to the "case" of the Mehinako: the author traces the process of art production, bringing out the different and creative ways of "appropriation" Mehinako artists make use of. Schoolbook images and signs are transformed and adapted to local and personal taste and get a new reading. They combine and interrelate together to create something new: the so-called "tradition".