The Paresi Indians, from Tangará da Serra, in the State of Mato Grosso, although greatly attached to elements of their cultural tradition, experience a process of intense relations with the society by which they are surrounded, giving new meaning to their traditions and to those incorporated from the westernised culture. In this process, formal schooling has proved an essential instrument for the transmission of symbolic codes of westernised culture. In a phase of transition from a traditional school model to a model which attends the specificities of local reality, this paper proposes a reflection, in the light of cultural studies, on the discourse which values the use of Portuguese language in school routine, not understanding this option as an imposition on the values of the traditional culture as part of a process of homogenisation but as a tool and powerful instrument which aims to establish the place of the Paresi in the surrounding society.
indigenous education; hybridisation; language