Video in Villages 2

8/2/2019 Video in Villages 2

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VIDEO IN THE VILLAGES:THE WAIPI EXPERIENCE

Dominique T. Gallois*Vincen Carelli**

"It was hard when we didn't have TV. We had to go a long way tomeet others. Today it's easy, because television brings the person and his wayof speaking ... It is good to get to know others through TV."

"Show them our pictures! In the city they'll ask where we live andthen say, "Oh! They're the Indians who don't want trespassers on their land,they're the ones who take care of their area. If you don't show these images,they'll never get to know us!" (Waiwai, February 1990)

Over the past several years, the Video in the Villages Project,

sponsored by the Centro de Trabalho Indigenista (CTI) has been visiting variousindigenous groups. This encounter of Indians with images of themselves andothers has rendered extremely entertaining, informative, thoughtful and creativemoments in which they can observe the image others have of them and use thatdocumentation for their own cultural projects (1).

It is clear that each group's unique culture and particular historicalexperiences produce different reactions and interests in relation to video. Inthis article, we will attempt to illustrate how the Waipi Indians of the Brazilianstate of Amap have interpreted the information they have received throughvideo, as well as what they have taken from these experiences.

I. A WAIPI VIDEO CENTER

Due to frustrating experiences with film and video -- commercialand ethnographic shootings produced in their villages which they were nevershown -- the Waipi formulated a demand in relation to the use of video, initiallyfocused on the issue of recording aspects of their traditional way of life, janereko (our way of being) to be shown in other areas as a means of asserting theirunique cultural identity within the sphere of inter-ethnic relations. At this stage,the Waipi idealized their self-representation through this type of documentationin ways resembling their construction of speeches and demands for thedemarcation of their lands.

The CTI Video in the Villages Project began its activities among theWaipi in January 1990. We had arranged to take the video equipment and toreturn with video recordings made during the previous year when Captain

Waiwai, chief of the village of Mariry, asked us to show footage of his recent tripto Braslia during a visit he was going to make to several villages in the area (2).The idea of documenting how Captain Waiwai intended to use the video for hispolitical campaign and the Indians' responses to it surfaced during this trip (3).

During the presentations, videos and unedited footage fromnumerous other groups (Nambiquara, Xavante, Kaiap, Gavio, Guarani, Enaun- Naue, Krah, Parakan, Zor) selected from the CTI video archive were shown,as well as television news broadcasts about the Yanomami and the Tupi Indiansof Cuminapanema.


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Following this initial experience, the video unit (generator, recorder,television and a number of video tapes) was left under the Indians' care. It isnow installed in Mariry, in a house Captain Waiwai had built in his courtyard.The CTI continues to supply materials to be shown in the village.

The desire to be near the "TV house" was one of the principalreasons practically all of Mariry's residential groups constructed new lodgings

around that courtyard. There, public screenings regularly take place, especiallywhen members of the community receive visits by relatives from other villagesor when new video materials arrive. More recently, opportunities have beenestablished for more isolated individuals and families to watch the videoprograms when they have free time.

II. ETHNIC AFFIRMATION: IMPACTS ON POLITICAL STRATEGIESThe Waipi's current historical phase has stimulated them to

appropriate from their experience with the Video in the Villages Project. Forexample, the threat of reducing the land they now occupy in order to create aNational forest has been followed by increased invasions of the area bygarimpeiros (gold and mineral prospectors). In this context, more and moreWaipi representatives have traveled to Brazilian cities such as Macap, Belm

and Braslia. It has likewise intensified the need for collective discussionsconcerning land rights and other types of assistance.

The introduction of the Video in the Villages Project, particularlyduring its first phase, has created a new space for reflections and joint decision-making. It has also greatly increased the Waipi's initial expectation of using thevideo as a conduit for messages to the whiteman.

The project has led to the creation of novel forms of discussion inrelation to traditional patterns of decision-making and disseminating information.Within these formats, the restrictive forms of dialogue in which hierarchicalpositions are well defined, and in which members of the audience do notparticipate directly -- though they may indirectly pass on information obtained inthese situations in other dialogues --, has remained intact.

Simultaneously, the video sessions promote a form of collectivereflection which is distinct from occasions when Waipi representatives meet todiscuss questions of collective interest. For example, at indigenous assembliesin Macap or Oiapoque, or meetings at the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI)post, the format and time are determined by whites. On these occasions,Indians are forced to adopt the whiteman's rhetorical format, a form of argumentvery different from that used in meetings among themselves during which theycan plan their strategies on their own terms and, therefore, create rhetoricalstrategies for dealing with "the whiteman".

During successive meetings with authorities from the state of Amapin 1990 and 1991, Waipi leaders linked their appearance with the dynamicpower of their speech. Using elaborate ornamentation and body-paint, theyaffirmed their cultural identity while brandishing borduna clubs to reinforce their

arguments before offering these clubs as presents. Older leaders made no effortto present their demands in Portuguese. Instead, one after another, they madelong speeches in their native language, commencing by blaming the whitemanfor the Indians' tragic situation before launching into a series of threats designedto emphasize their strength and autonomy. The task of translating thesespeeches inevitably fell to members of the younger generation who, in theprocess, tended to dilute the elders' demands by returning to a previous form ofargument that asserts the rights of indigenous peoples.

By means of these performances, largely inspired by images of theKaiap, the Waipi are succeeding in their attempts to attract the attention of


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authorities and journalists who consider them representatives of the Indians ofthe state of Amap, as, for example, has been the case in news broadcasts. Dueto their high profile, the Waipi have been given preferential treatment,compared to other Indians in the area, receiving a truck, increased fuelallotments and assistance from governmental agencies.

The effect of their speeches and the posture they have assumed has

also led the Waipi to assume a position as representatives of other indigenousgroups in the area (Karipuna, Galibi and Palikur, Wayana, Aparai and Tiriyo)whose own representatives generally participate in collective gatherings in amuch more discrete manner, principally because they do not assert their culturaldistinctiveness. As a result of the Waipi's success, other groups have requestedthem to intervene before authorities on their behalf, as well as asking for theirhelp in other matters.

The collective debate that has taken place as a result of theirinteraction with the video has significantly enriched their political discourse andhas led them to develop a new rhetoric for dealing with the whiteman (4). Thisstyle incorporates elements of fierceness the Waipi have seen other indigenousgroups use, particularly the Kaiap, in their dealings with outsiders.

But this is not the only style that the Waipi use today. A recent

episode in the expulsion of garimpeiros who invaded the eastern limits of theirarea confirmed, in the Indians' eyes, their interventions' broadening impact oncontrol over their lands, specifically because more information has been broughtby the videos. When two garimpeiros were captured and forced to explain theirpresence in the Indian area and to identify who they worked for, the Waipidiscovered that they were part of a group, recently arrived, which had workedamong the Yanomami. The first impulse of the Waipi who had prepared theambush was to kill the trespassers, but the chief who was present preferred touse another strategy, forcing the garimpeiros to talk for hours. During thisperiod, all of the arguments they presented -- for example, that they had "helped"the Yanomami and that they had not cut down much of the forest -- were refutedwith detailed explanations of the tragedy that prospecting activities had causedthe Yanomami. They used, with tremendous impact, the images they had seenin the videos. According to the Indians who participated in this episode, it wasmuch better than "wasting them", as they had customarily done when theyencountered garimpeiros. According to them, these garimpeiros will not beback because they understood that they can no longer fool the Waipi. Thegarimpeiros have perceived that the Waipi now know the artifices they use toenter Indian lands.

These two manifestations of how the Waipi have appropriated thepossibilities offered by video as a means of political strategy demonstrate thecatalyzing effect of the reflections produced during and after the Project'sbeginning (5). Beyond contributing to a new position in inter-ethnic relations,video produces reflections at various other levels. In the following, we willanalyze the cultural conditionings that sustain this appropriation by the Waipi.

III. THE SPIRIT OF THE TV

In some of the villages in which the TV circulated, everyone paintedthemselves with annatto before watching the programs. In another, a woman inseclusion because of mourning was unable to resist her curiosity andapproached the TV house. In the following weeks, she suffered successiveattacks of anguish and great pain that her parents and the village shamanattributed to the spirits of distant people that had "passed" through the TV.


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The experience of inter-personal approximation the televisionprovided was immediately perceived by the Waipi as a truly physical contact.When they state that TV "brings the person", they are not only referring to thenon-material manifestations present in the portrait (ra'anga) and in the discourseretransmitted by the TV, but to the substantial part of the life principle (a)contained "within" everyone's image. The Waipi, furthermore, establish a clear

difference between the two forms of presentation: the copy (drawing, symbol,etc....) that does not bear life elements of the being represented, and thelikeness itself, which represents the person in his totality. Photography andvideo images are complete reproductions, making physical approximationpossible. For the Waipi, as for the majority of South American indigenoussocieties, contact with alterity always represents a danger that must be mediatedby protective practices -- specifically involving body painting -- and rules ofbehavior.

Thus, the fact that TV transports the "spirit" of the people portrayedto the village courtyard made individuals place themselves so as to avoid thephysical aggressions which could result from the screenings.

This became particularly evident in the successive showings ofscenes of Guarani shamanism in Mariry. The first time they saw these images,

the Waipi immediately related the execution of the ritual -- with songs andshaking rattles that signify the arrival of auxiliary spirits -- with those spirits'"passage" through the TV screen. The sparkling and flickering colors on thescreen (when the TV is turned on or off) were interpreted as substances that theshamans manipulated in their rituals -- substances which, when strikingunprepared people, definitely kill. For instance, in his dreams the followingnight, a man felt the presence of aggressor agents against whom he could notstruggle, except by staying awake, in a state of readiness. In subsequentscreenings, due to commentaries resulting from the first screening, womencontinued identifying the presence of these aggressive substances and wereprotected by a young shaman who stood in front of the screen and declared thathe would be a shield.

The emotion that physical approximation via TV provides is,

undoubtedly, a momentary impact. But, even after several months of theroutine in the Mariry "TV house", we observed that people in liminar statescontinued staying away from the set, watching the screenings from afar. Thisfact did not pass unperceived by the Waipi from French Guiana who werevisiting the villages of Amapari. Accustomed to dealing with Western forms ofreproducing images and having desacralized their significance, they thoughttheir relatives reactions were strange and made fun of the "fear" they stilldemonstrated. In comments made among themselves, some Waipi once againtook up the discussion that had surfaced, months earlier, with the first showingof Guarani shamanism and concluded that they would "get used to" the presenceof TV.

At that moment, they made an interesting association with the

change in behavior in relation to photography and to proper names. If todaythey still feel ashamed of seeing their own image on TV -- several times weobserved that the people portrayed lowered their eyes in order "not to be seen" --, it corresponds to the same affront that they had previously perceived uponhearing their names spoken.

Just as desacralization of the use of proper names and reducing therestrictions about the circulation of photographs came about, this experienceallowed us to document that the incorporation of TV and video is taking place inaccordance to traditional interpretations about images.


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IV. THE WAIPI AND THEIR IMAGE

The Register for Themselves

Access, even though limited, to their image confirmed the Waipi'sexpectations in relation to documentation on video. According to them, it

should be extended to "all" of the villages, "all" of their festivals, the speech-images of "all" the elderly, etc. This demand means not only guaranteeing thememory of the ethnic group's current situation for future generations, but alsobeing able to appreciate a panorama of the totality they represent, in a whollynew way.

The approximation among villages, individuals and repertoriessuggested by video has been greatly commented upon, especially in theeducational aspects it represents. Considering the different local groups'dispersion in the Waipi area, everyone would be able to know the distantvillages, where most youth, and even some adults, have never been; or theywould be able to see determined festivals that are only performed by specialistsand are, therefore, not accessible to everyone.

But, while watching them, the Waipi demonstrate more interest in

seeing films about other indigenous peoples than seeing unedited material withscenes recorded in their villages. Among these, they prefer the chiefs' speeches.Those scenes proportioned developments at the internal political level, both inthe act of filming and, later, as a consequence of the images' return.

Captain Waiwai's preeminence has already been mentioned. He isconsidered one of the only leaders having broad knowledge of his people'shistory and concerns about their future -- so much so that, in order to maintainhis role, he has gone so far as to state that "TV alone does not help" and that agood leader must be permanently involved in passing those traditions on. Thisis because, during the documentation stage, in which we basically presentedimages of the village and Waiwai's speeches, the villages' other chiefs insisted onspeaking for TV, recording long speeches; when these were reproduced, theywere comparatively evaluated on the force of their arguments and their postureduring the filmings. As takes place with other indigenous groups, theappropriation of video among the Waipi has intensified tensions that make uppart of traditional inter-community relations.

By the same logic, images of the Waipi leaders' visit to Braslia are judged from two different perspectives. Firstly, by women, child and youngpeople's curiosity -- they rarely go to the city -- upon seeing airplanes, cars andstreets full of people.

Secondly, on the part of the chiefs, there was interest in hearing andcommenting upon their speeches in Braslia, emphasizing the educationalaspects that reproducing these speeches allows, as well as the competitiveeffects among leaders. In recent months, these leaders have demanded thatwhenever they make speeches to the whites -- whether in their villages or

elsewhere -- that some documentation, at least a tape recording, be made.The Image for Whites

The Waipi manifest their principal expectations in relation to theuse of the image at the external political level. Their initial demand, pointed outabove, was that of having a "film" in which a whiteman presented them to otherwhites.

They only gauged the implications of that presentation when, forexample, they saw images in which everyone, being drunk, sang in a caxiri (a


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fermented manioc drink) festival in Mariry. This image was immediately vetoedby Captain Waiwai: according to him, it should not be shown to garimpeiros,because they would see an opportunity to attack the village while the Waipi areinebriated.

In discussions about "what" to show, the difference in positionsbetween the tribe's older and younger members becomes clear. Less committed

to traditional parameters of opposing whites, younger people do not alwaysabide by the elders' suggestions. For the elders, any form of weaknessrepresents an opening for aggression from outside. However, many youngerindividuals believe the drinking festivals should be shown, because they are"pretty" and show the Waipi's cultural specificity.

In the material filmed during the Project's first stage, it is clear thatthe camera's presence encouraged the directioning of Waipi attitudes andspeeches to spokespersons that had been favored for some time, but whichwere not always defined at the time of the documentation. For the Indians, it isobvious that these images would be shown to authorities and to the FUNAI.Watching the tapes, they selected specific targets, detailing the destination ofthe arguments contained in the speech-images taking place during the process;this argument is for the garimpeiros, that one for the FUNAI, and the other for

the government in Braslia.The Waipi, furthermore, remain very interested in knowing the

reactions to these messages; they want to know who, among the categories of"whites" to whom their speeches-images are destined effectively have seen themand how they responded to them.

At this time there is a certain agreement about the image's contentthat should be presented, preferably to the whites; scenes and speeches thatshow their strength (jane pojy -- we are dangerous) and demonstrate that theWaipi are numerous (jane ate -- there are many of us). The weight given to thisargument grows out of its historic and political significance in that it representsthe people's vitality (showing many children), the characteristics of the Waipi'ssocial and political organization (showing many villages) and that they still havea determining weight in the political question of demarking their land. The

impact of videos about other tribes, particularly the images that associatenumerous groups and warrior strength, as in Kaiap and Zor tapes -- alwaysappreciated and commented upon -- weigh heavily in these choices.

Image for Other Indigenous Peoples:

As for presentations of their images to other indigenous groups,restrictions were also made that affect which groups they will be shown to,rather than the images' contents. They basically have proposed an "exchange";the Waipi's image must be shown to the groups they "met" through video.

In these restriction, the concepts -- already mentioned -- about thedanger of reproducing images also bore weight. Thus, when we asked them to

which groups they wanted their images shown, some Waipi -- including CaptainWaiwai -- excluded the Aparai, to whom the Waipi of Amapari attribute themajority of diseases and deaths diagnosed by the shamans.

Several alternatives were proposed during the discussion: theAparai could see the videos about the Waipi only after the Waipi had seenimages of them. As the result of other images, they decided to allow thepresentation of the videos, which could be shown but not be left in Aparaivillages. At that point, they compared the risks involved in the presentation ofvideo images or photographs: because they consist of a material support that


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can be effectively controlled, the former are much more dangerous, as they canbe manipulated for aggressive ends.

The ideal occasion for showing their image to the Aparai occurred inApril 1990, during the Week of the Indian in Macap. The leaders Waiwai andKumai, who had just received tapes of the Tur festival filmed two monthsearlier, used the presentation they made of this material as a political resource

of affirmation that is being developed in these inter-tribal encounters. It wasused as an argument to show their culture's vitality and to refute the Aparai'sposition, which frequently claims they have "lost the things of the elders".

VI. VIDEOS OF THE OTHER INDIANS

The Waipi's reaction to the videos of other indigenous groups wasextremely interesting at the various levels of understanding and interpretation inwhich this totally new experience of inter-tribal approximation has been studied.

As was expected, the tapes the Waipi most appreciated were thosemaking direct identification possible -- through comparison or opposition -- be itthrough the image, the discourse or in revealing combinations of theappropriation of information provided by the video.

The Guarani tapes were successful principally because the language,which demonstrated similarities to Waipi cosmological concepts -- especially inthe discourse about whites and the end of the world --, could be understood.Identification at this level led them to revise their image of the Guarani, whoseevident marks of acculturation had led the Waipi to disqualify this tribe as"quasi-white"; likewise, the Guarani's position as possible aggressors -- suggestedby the intensity of the shamanistic rituals -- was also revised, being evaluated incomparative terms and as a technique in the struggle against whites.

Of the various tribes portrayed in the Xingu documentary, the Waurwere immediately identified as "relatives", through the mythical association theirimage suggested. The portrayal of daily life, nudity and, above all, women'sdancing in the Jamarikum ritual were viewed in Waipi traditions as a "visual"version of the myth about the destiny of the first women taken down the

Amazon river by the mythical armadillo.Contrary to this, videos in which neither the images nor speech (or

manner of speaking) could be understood, because they were totally distantfrom Waipi reality (for example, the Krah, Xavante and Parakan tapes), didnot arouse the interest that we would have hoped for, considering the material'sexpressiveness from the point of view of image. But, as a whole, the elementsof identification present in these videos resulted in the construction of apanoramic vision of the others, reinforcing associations contemplated in themythical traditions which account for inter-ethnic differences and the centralplace the Waipi occupy in the universe, as representatives of "true humanity".

Those elements continue being carefully evaluated and discussed inthe Waipi villages. Linguistic or technological aspects, features of physical

appearance and the content of rites and speeches reinforce the traditionalinterpretation according to which the Waipi are situated as "creators" of theother tribes, which arose from the transformations that their creator-heroesprovoked. For example, the Nambiquara, due to their use of nose ornaments,were identified as originating in the transformation of the trumpeter. The Waurwomen, who still dance as in the time of genesis, represent the first humans.The Kaiap were identified as enemies due to the reading that the videoprovided of the almost complete conjunction of the signs of aggressiveness seenin Waipi traditions: initiation by marimbondo wasp stings, the apparently dailyuse of borduna clubs, deformation of the ears, etc.


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It was clear that appreciation of the image of others was filteredthrough elements of the Waipi world view. The interpretations to which theygave rise matched this retrospective plan with a more prospective plan, turnedtoward a re-reading of different indigenous groups' experiences of inter-ethniccontact -- which is why reaction to the videos of other indigenous peoples cannotbe analyzed apart from a new reading that these documents provided about

inter-ethnic contact. Likewise, the knowledge about themselves that the videomade possible for the Waipi fundamentally grows out of comparisons with thesituation of other indigenous groups.

VI. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The reconstruction of the very image that the Video in the VillagesProject suggested or motivated among diverse indigenous peoples is occurringamong the Waipi. The revision and affirmation of a new self-representationinvolves cognitive aspects specific to the appropriation that Indians make of thevideo and that should be analyzed. In the following, we will indicate someelements of this process.

The specific nature of the experience of the Video in the Villages

Project is found in the irreversible change in the form of knowledge that manyvaried and repetitive screenings provide, corresponding to an effectivetransformation in the logic of knowing. This occurs not only because the videoprovides associations that greatly increase information about indigenouspeoples, but because it provides a change in the form and in the content of theassociation involved in the production of self-representation. The video imagepresents indigenous peoples in situations that associate all aspects of thecultural reality that oral traditions normally separate: technological, linguisticand physical traits, the position of each tribe in relation to others, mythicaldiscourses imbedded in speeches about the whiteman.

A second aspect refers to the manner how, by means also motivatedby the appropriation of the image, the new construction that the video makespossible leads to new forms of action.

The conflicts and invasions portrayed in the videos, the damageprovoked by machinery in prospecting areas, highways and deforestation had agreat impact among the Waipi. It is the case, for example, of the concomitantinterpretation of the Yanomami's situation, whose land is being destroyed, andthe Guarani, on whose lands trees and hunting no longer exist. In one and theother, these examples form a scale that permits reflection about the "Indians'"lack of preparation for confronting whites at the beginning of contact: theGuarani did not know, the Yanomami still do not know, thus they will loseeverything.

The same type of interpretation was given in the reading of the"theft" demonstrated by the videos about the Gavio, Nambiquara, Kaiap andothers, from which the Waipi discussed the lack of experience "Indians"

customarily demonstrate in their negotiations -- a reflection that, obviously, ledthe Waipi to plan more efficient ways of negotiating than those they had beenusing in recent years.

And it is in this sense that, in an absolutely new and specificmanner, the experience of the Video in the Villages Project provided the Waipiwith the opportunity for a change in the course of their relations with thewhiteman, to the extent that, in their most recent interventions, theyemphasized confrontation and difference, aside from the recourse to techniquesand knowledge that contact with "Indians" brought them.


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The video permit the construction of a new image of themselves,articulated with that of the whites and of Indians, more "detailed" than theprevious image, which was defined by the Waipi's mythical criteria and specifichistorical experiences. This "detailing" was possible through the incorporationother tribes experiences which gave the Waipi not only more information aboutthe effects of contact, but furnished new keys for understanding the alteration

that contact with whites provoked in their life and in that of other indigenousgroups. The video provided, in a unique manner, the consciousness of change,indispensable for creating ways to control social interaction among diverseethnic groups.

NOTES* Anthropologist, Department of Anthropology, University of So Paulo.** Coordinator, Video in the Villages Project, Centro de Trabalho Indigenista

1) "Vido dans les villages: un instrument de rafirmation ethnique", VincentCarelli, CVA Newsletter, October 1988.

2) Geoffrey O'Connor, of Realis Picture Inc., supported by the authors, filmed

in villages in the northern part of the Waipi Indian Area in 1989. At thattime, he offered the community of Mariry the recorder and television thatcomprise the unit currently installed in that village. That same year, hedocumented a visit by Waipi representatives to Braslia. These were thefirst images returned to the villages and permitted the initiation of thework described in this article.

3) The summary of this work is found in the video "O Esprito da TV" (18',1990), produced by the authors. The following phase of the experiencewas observed by the anthropologist D.T. Gallois, during her visits to theindigenous area and to Macap.

4) The content of this argument is described in the article "Imagens docontato no discurso poltico dos Waipi do Amapari", D.T. Gallois, 1991(UNB/ORSTOM).

5) It is important to point out that, up until this time, a single unit consistingof a TV and video library is kept in Mariry, where Waiwai, the Waipi's mostprestigious leader, lives. That limitation did not impede impact on theother villages (11, at this time) described in this article. This also does notexclude the possibility of the Waipi becoming interested in otherdevelopments anticipated by the Project.

Documents

Video in Villages 2