abstract
The land struggle movement between the Kaiowa and Guarani has been active since the 1980s in a process of reclaiming spaces traditionally occupied (called tekoha) by these communities in the south of Mato Grosso do Sul. These are spaces where indigenous people enter in search of self-determination and autonomy and as such they need to undergo a transformation of cosmic dimensions in order to effectively become a tekoha – “a place where we can live our own way”. In this sense, the chants of the “prayers” (rezadores) – nhanderu and nhandesy – are a fundamental part of this process. From the experience of the indigenous researcher as a member of a family network associated with a land reclamation, the article offers a reflection that elucidates how, from the point of view of the prayers, this process of constitution of the tekoha takes place.
keywords
Autonomy; tekoha; land reclamations; kaiowa chants; cosmopolitics