Territorialisation, circulation and ethnic-political mobilization processes of the Guarani (Mbya) of the coast of Costa Verde
mobility; Guarani-Mbya; spatiality; territorialization; associativism
The term Guarani is a category that encompasses many ethnic singularities, such as the Mbya, the Ava, the Nhandeva, the Tupi and the Kaiowa, occupying various territories in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. This work is dedicated to the study of the Mbya, residents in the villages located on the Southern coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro and in a village on the North coast of São Paulo. The focus of the research is the territorialization processes undertaken over the decades of 70, 80 and 90 by the mentioned group. The stage for such processes were the profound political, economic, cultural and social changes that occurred in the Costa Verde and North Paulista regions, especially with the construction of the Rio-Santos highway in the 1970s. The process of territorializationongoing through the decades that followed 1970 is the starting point for the developed reflection. Its pointed out that throughout the struggle for the territory the Guarani build their networks of alliances with white people and with other indigenous people, in a similar situation of litigation for land in the coveted areas of the Atlantic Forest. Nowadays, the mobilization of the Guarani is marked by the circulation and activation of interethnic networks, leading the way in political struggles for land, health, education, sanitation, etc., as an indigenous ethnic group, or as a traditional community at The framework of the Forum of Traditional Indigenous Communities –FCT. This work demonstrates that coastal walks have become the driving force of ethnic-political mobilizations and through them constitute themselves as vectors for the promotion of diverse exchanges and for the intensification of kinship relations.