Os contos do povo indígena Pataxó Hãhãhãi: um diálogo intercultural

Abstract

Indigenous Formal Education has been seeking to develop pedagogical practices that contain, in their curriculum, universal contents that dialogue with the many indigenous cultural cosmovisions. The knowledge of written and oral Portuguese is considered one of the means indigenous people have to know their rights in Brazil and a way to socialize their cultural memory to the surrounding societies. It is relevant, thus, to elaborate teaching strategies that contemplate the many textual genres that are used by those societies and circle in many different social contexts, among them the local folktales. This research aimed to analyze the functions that fantastic folktales have in the Pataxó Hãhãhãi culture. In order to do that, it was necessary to understand the act of narrating in that culture, collect the tales among the members of that community and identify the sociocultural and linguistic aspects of the tales. The methodology was ethnographic and consisted, in the beginning, of the geographical mapping of the Pataxó Hãhãhãi territory, as well as a survey of some elderly people and adults’ names, considered the holders of the local narratives in those communities. The research sought to contemplate the several ethnic groups that form the Pataxó Hãhãhãi people: the Baenã, the Pataxó Hãhãhãi, the Tupinambá, the Kariri-Sapuiá, and the Kamacã, among others. In order to collect the data, several investigation techniques were used, such as observation, field journal, semi-structured interview and a questionnaire. The analysis developed, in a first moment, an identification of the sociocultural and linguistic aspects of the fantastic folktales of the Pataxó Hãhãhãi, revealing their functions. In consequence, the following functions of the folktale were identified: it is a social organization mechanism, which works through the socialization of cultural values among its members; a psychosocial organizer that enables the expression of human psychological conflicts, in the form of a speech organized in a structural Portuguese language identity. It is understood that the fantastic tales of the Pataxó Hãhãhãi present in their content a set of knowledge of the local community, also thematizing personal and collective existential conflicts. On the other hand, the same tales prove the use of a formal structure of narrative language, which other linguistic investigations already stated.