ETHNOGRAPHIC CHRONICLES ON PROMISE RITUALS OF THE KOIUPANKÁ, KARUAZU, KATÓKINN AND KALANKÓ PEOPLES

Abstract

This article aims to expose a few events that have occurred during the field word on ritualistic “arrangements” and indigenous promises in the process of resistance and etnic self affirmation of the Koiupanká, Karuazu, Katókin and Kalankó people. Facing these “arrangements” or ritualistic promises, these people have experienced an arduous process of “relearning” -- therefore, internal conflicts between different religious practices, ritualistic rescue and (re)appropriation. In this process of resistance and etnic affirmation, they have had to negociate and lose cosmic space between the dominant rituals of African and indigenous matrixes. Based on the presented images and ethnographic data, we intend to contribute to comprehension of rituals of promises and indigenous identity self affirmation in the Alto Sertão of the state of Alagoas during the contemporary process of indigenous and etnic resistance.