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"Discourse-centered approach to Xavante culture focuses on the performance of songs, the telling of dreams, and the transmission of culture. Principal arguments are that the meaning of expressive practices is constructed through performance; that dreams may be seen as communicative and hence social processes; and that discursive practices are essential to the process of cultural transmission"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57

Focusing on the communities of Eténhiritipa-Pimentel Barbosa of eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil, this article considers the tremendous shift that has taken place over the last twenty-five years in A'uwẽ-Xavante peoples' use of audio-visual media to achieve greater representational sovereignty. It discusses the adoption of video in the context of A'uwẽ-Xavante ideologies and gendered patterns of dealing with the outside and their prior use of cassette technology. This case demonstrates that, while the adoption of new media has not proven to be the final assault in a Faustian bargain with modernity, media makers face a number of significant challenges and dilemmas, specifically curating, archiving, and also securing and sustaining financial and technological support. Partnerships and collaborations are essential but
their often-precarious nature presents difficulties. Dedication, persistence, creativity and adaptability are assets community members draw upon in responding to challenges. Media makers are increasingly gaining more control and are now training the next generation of youths; young people are using new social media, as well as video and film, to achieve greater representational sovereignty. (author's abstract)

At the Edge of Conquest: The Journey of Chief Wai‐Wai. 1992. 28 minutes, color. Produced by Geoffrey O'Connor .Realis Pictures Inc. Distributed by Filmaker's Library, 124 East 40th Street, Suite 901, New York, NY 10016.212/80&4980.Amazon Journal. 1996. 58 minutes, color. Produced and directed by Geoffrey O'Connor. Realis Pictures Inc. Distributed by Filmaker's Library, 124 East 40th Street, Suite 901, New York, NY 10016. 212/8084980.

AbstractsOver the past decade in Brazil, the convergence between international environmentalism and indigenous cultural survival concerns led to an unprecedented internationalization of local A native struggles. The Indian‐environmentalist alliance has benefited both parties, but recent events suggest that it may be unstable and may pose political risks for native people. The limitations of transnational symbolic politics as a vehicle for indigenous activism reflect tensions and contradictions in outsiders' symbolic constructions of Indian identity.

"This engaging collection of essays discusses the complexities of "being" indigenous in public spaces. Laura R. Graham and H. Glenn Penny bring together a set of highly recognized junior and senior scholars, including indigenous scholars, from a variety of fields to provoke critical thinking about the many ways in which individuals and social groups construct and display unique identities around the world. The case studies in Performing Indigeneity underscore the social, historical, and immediate contextual factors at play when indigenous people make decisions about when, how, why, and who can "be" indigenous in public spaces. Performing Indigeneity invites readers to consider how groups and individuals think about performance and display and focuses attention on the ways that public spheres, both indigenous and nonindigenous ones, have received these performances. The essays demonstrate that performance and display are essential to the creation and persistence of indigeneity, while also presenting the conundrum that in many cases "indigeneity" excludes some of the voices or identities that the category purports to represent. "--

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Studying Indigenous Activism in Latin America -- 2. The Indigenous Public Voice:The Multiple Idioms of Modernity in Native Cauca -- 3. Contested Discourses of Authority in Colombian National Indigenous Politics:The 1996 Summer Takeovers -- 4. The Multiplicity of Mayan Voices:Mayan Leadership and the Politics of Self-Representation -- 5. Voting against Indigenous Rights in Guatemala: Lessons from the 1999 Referendum -- 6. How Should an Indian Speak? Amazonian Indians and the Symbolic Politics of Language in the Global Public Sphere -- 7. Representation,Polyphony, and the Construction of Power in a Kayapó Video -- 8. Cutting through State and Class: Sources and Strategies of Self-Representation in Latin America -- Contributors -- Index