IS AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF SCHOOLS POSSIBLE? THE CASE OF THE AMAZONIAN BRAZIL-COLOMBIA BORDER AND THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TICUNA AND MURUI-MUINA

Abstract

This article explains the ethnographic use of language analysis through collected data in indigenous schools during fieldwork, as part of the post-doctoral research project entitled “The education of indigenous women: identity contradictions in the schools of the Murui Muina and Ticuna people in the Amazonas River Basin, in the border between Colombia and Brasil”, within the Núcleo de Antropologia das Sociedades Indígenas e Tradicionais, PPGAS-UFRGS. The article presents interviews with indigenous school’s teachers in order to explain experiences that determine indigenous identity and its relation to gender identity, based in an ethnographical analysis of language within the context of indigenous schools. The articles suggests challenges for future research on indigenous school education in the Amazonas region. In order to understand the inequality between indigenous and “universal” forms of knowledge, the article commences by summarizing the background of language analysis in anthropology; next, it explains the relation between ethnic and gender identity and language; finally, it describes the language used by indigenous teachers in order to understand how schools shape indigenous experiences, presenting, thus, the main challenges for future research.