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The ninth volume of GIS - Gesto, Imagem e Som - Journal of Anthropology of the University of São Paulo is now available.

We invite you to visit the GIS website and read the articles, essays, reviews, translations and interviews published in this volume, available at: https://www.revistas.usp.br/gis/issue/view/13258.

Enjoy your reading!

Folha de S.Paulo highlighted the exhibition "Trajetórias Cruzadas", which brings together, for the first time, the records of photographers Maureen Bisilliat, Claudia Andujar and Lux ​​Vidal about Brazilian indigenous peoples.

These three foreigners arrived in Brazil in the 1950s and, during the dictatorship, dedicated their lenses and research to portraying indigenous cultures ignored by the government. Bisilliat, who photographed the Xingu at the invitation of indigenous people, summarizes her approach: “My talent was to enter without disturbing and be accepted. If I was good at photography, it’s because I knew how to enter something new without being noticed.”

In the BBC article, the highlight is Claudia Andujar, the article mentions both the exhibition “Trajetórias Cruzadas” and “Claudia Andujar - My life in two worlds”, exhibited at the Pinacoteca of São Paulo.

"They are polyglots, they never lost their accent, but they don't exactly have a mother tongue. They experience the Second World War, and then they move to the United States."

The exhibition “Trajetórias Cruzadas” takes place at Centro MariAntonia, in São Paulo, until 23/02, with free entry.

Read the full articles on Folha de S.Paulo and BBC.

The way of Alabê - Rhythms of the orixás and the Brazilian music" taught by Vitor da Trindade and Elis Trindade

The second edition of the course on culture and university extension entitled The way of Alabê - Rhythms of the orixás and Brazilian music, promoted and held at the Sound and Image Laboratory in Anthropology (LISA) and at the Popular Theatre Solano Trindade (TPST), with support from the Department of Anthropology at USP. The course was coordinated by Rose Satiko Gitirana Hikiji, professor at USP’s Department of Anthropology (DA-USP) and coordinator of LISA, and taught by Vitor Israel Trindade de Souza, musician, master in ethnomusicology from the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) of USP, president and artistic director of Teatro Popular Solano Trindade, and by Elis Sibere dos Santos Monte Trindade de Souza, Afro-Brazilian dance teacher, choreographer and cultural coordinator of Teatro Popular Solano Trindade.

The activities took place between 12/09 and 14/11 in a face-to-face manner and were based on the Raquel Trindade method, which is born with the ancestors of the Trindade family and unites theory and practice, and the motion proposal, sound and well-being as epistemology. The course addressed the rhythms of orixás, dances and manifestations, as well as the influence of these elements in Brazilian musicality, with reference to instrumentalists and priests of the orixás. 

Ogans and Musicality

Vítor and Elis addressed the functions of the ogan, instrumentation, sound and dances in rituals, parties and ceremonies. The communications were based, especially, on the role of music and the ringtones in the cult to the orixás, its importance, particularities and complexities around the different sonorizations, ways of playing and occasions. Among the roles highlighted, there is the ogan alabê, which gives name to the course and also the book Oganilu, The Path of Alabê and O Ogan Alabê, Priest and Musician, authored by Vitor da Trindade. The Ogan alabê is responsible for the maintenance and conservation of sacred instruments, as well as for playing in moments of rituals and festivals.

As Ogan Alabê Omoloyê of the Ilê Axé Jagun, with the help of Elis, Vítor demonstrated some orixás touches, their sonority, particularities and representative forms of dances. Besides highlighting the uniqueness of the atabaque in ceremonies, because it is he who gives the course and rhythm to the cult, should be played only by specialized people and be careful and prepared for each type of event.

The initiative supports the dissemination of ancestral knowledge and African matrix, institutionalized by Law 10.639/03, which makes compulsory the teaching of "Afro-Brazilian History and Culture" in elementary and high school.

For more information about the activities, visit the site: https://sce.fflch.usp.br/node/5676. To know more about the Popular Theatre Solano Trindade, visit the social networks of the theater by link: TPST.

It is with great satisfaction that we communicate that the doctoral thesis "Ijã Mytyli: The Manoki and the Mỹky in their new audiovisual-stories" of the researcher André Luís Lopes Neves, under the guidance of professor Renato Sztutman, received the USP Outstanding Thesis Award in the area of knowledge of Innovation.

André defended his PhD thesis in Social Anthropology at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2023 and, since 2008, has been researching and working with the peoples Manoki and Mỹky, in the state of Mato Grosso. In addition, since 2011, has been conducting audiovisual workshops with five other indigenous peoples of Brazil, with activities involving production, filming, editing and directing videos in a shared way. 

During his doctoral research, André produced two feature films and five short films co-directed by indigenous people, which are part of his thesis. Besides method, the use of audiovisual resources was a form of mediation of the study and presentation of its results. The researcher chose to use audiovisual tools so that the research could be better shared with groups, as well as to offer a form of counterpart for communities. 

The methodological proposal of the study was to displace the principle "evans-pritchardiano", according to which the anthropologist should study what he finds in the field, to choose to study and deepen in the topics that indigenous filmmakers choose to film in the field, above all the elements that are edited and included in the films. Several subjects were topics of the anthropological research, such as the 'ãjãí' parties, which are the ball games (a new theme in the ethnographic literature), and the rituals of initiation of boys to the house of the spirits Jeta.

With the increase of interest of young people in audiovisual production, during the research was created the Ijã Mytyli Collective of Cinema Manoki and Mỹky, as a way of continuity and dynamization and indigenous protagonism of the activities that were already happening, above all the training of new filmmakers within the communities, directors who tell their own stories with their equipment of capture and editing. 

The film 

The uses, meanings and agencies attributed by the Manoki and Mỹky to audiovisual resources have shown that they operate as amplified cosmopolitical mediators of interspecific relations. The cinemas (in plural) made by indigenous peoples have offered a viable way to get to know their worlds closely and learn how to better care for our relations between humans and non-humans that co-inhabit our planet.

The award included theses defended between January 1 and December 31, 2023, which within their areas of expertise, dialogue with the areas distributed in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Some of the films produced are available on LISA’s website