Abstract
This article analyzes the sui generis performance of Ubiratan da Silva Rondon, who between 1958 and 1962 traveled the south of the former state of Mato Grosso mimicking the tutelary power of the Indian Protection Service (SPI), the Brazilian state agency responsible for the implementation of indigenist policies. Using categories related to anthropology of the state, the analysis is based on the notions of mimesis, ambivalence and agency. It is argued that Ubiratan, through the illicit mimesis of the official symbols, and by failing to correspond to the pure images of the “Indian” and the “Civilized” elaborated by the tutelary discourse, produced a double sense of ambivalence that transformed him into a threat to the SPI authority. In addition, this article highlights the agency of the indigenous people in the region who, in a context of a violent agricultural frontier formation, appropriated the figure of Ubiratan as a vehicle for carrying out his own political projects.
Keywords:
mimesis; ambivalence; indigenous agency; SPI