Performing dreams: discourses of immortality among the Xavante of Central Brazil

Abstract

"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