Processo de formação de novas categorias conceituais e as agências linguísticas dos Mẽbêngôkre Kayapó (Família Jê)

Abstract

Historiography has traditionally seen native peoples of Brazil as passive victims of Brazilian colonialism. However, despite the genocide and the adversities they experienced, these peoples have not just watched or remained static in the process of European colonization. On the contrary, they have established complex networks of resistance and negotiations in search of autonomy, survival and commercial participation in the construction of Brazilian history. Based on this scenario, this dissertation aims to describe and analyze the morphological structure of new conceptual categories of Portuguese origin inserted in the Mẽbêngôkre (Kayapó) language. This goal is pursued through an interdisciplinary research focusing on the linguistic processes involved in the neological formation and in the semantic fields (worldviews) where the entry of these new concepts occurs. The work aims to establish a relationship between the formation of neologisms and the internal language policies of the Kayapó, according to the agencies, attitudes and experiences of our interlocutors. To this end, the following activities were carried out: (i) survey of lexical items of the language (artifacts); (ii) description and analysis of the types of linguistic processes (composition) involved in the formation of new lexical items; (iii) study of the processes of conceptual resignification and semantic neologism; (iv) reflections about the relationship between the process of forming new categories and the sociocultural dynamics of the group from its linguistic agencies. The methodological procedures were carried out through bibliographic research and a lexical ethnographic study in a virtual environment for data collection. Data analysis followed a descriptive approach, supported by linguistic anthropology, according to Duranti (1997), to understand the lexical-cultural universes of this language. The studies by Oliveira and Isquerdo (2001) provided theoretical support on the sciences of the lexicon: lexicology and lexicography. For understanding of the Mẽbêngôkre (Kayapó) language, we used the studies of Borges (1995), Salanova (2001), Reis Silva (2001), Salanova & Nikulin (2020) and Silva da Costa (2015). The works of Viotti (2020) and Carneiro da Cunha & Cesarino (2014) served as a basis for discussions on cultural policies by and for the Indians. And, for the methodological support of the ethnographic essay in a digital environment, we used the studies of Ramos and Freitas (2018) and Ferraz (2019). The present study presents an analysis of the Kayapó social forms and organizations, based on the understanding of the Mẽbêngôkre language as a set of articulated codes that expresses the history, beliefs and cosmology of its people, in addition to being an instrument of defense, of ethical positions and the manifestation of the identity of its speakers. The results of this work are relevant because they contribute with original data from an aspect of Kayapó language and culture that, analyzed from the perspective of linguistic anthropology, can be an important tool for understanding the dynamics of natural languages, processes of resistance and their cosmolinguistic agencies.