“Futuro ancestral”: identidade e temporalidade indígena nos escritos de Ailton Krenak

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the meanings that Ailton Krenak attributes to the identity and temporality of the Krenak people in a selection of his texts published from 2019 onward, utilizing discourse analysis under the epistemological perspectives of decolonialism and Epistemologies of the South. Our theoretical-methodological approach is grounded in Stuart Hall’s (2014) reflections on identity, which posit that identities, as well as the identifications subjects manifest throughout life, are constantly under construction, being fluid and subject to change and transformation. From this perspective, identities are constructed through relations with the Other, as these relationships define the differences between groups. Furthermore, we employ the regimes of historicity proposed by François Hartog (2021) as an analytical tool to understand how different human groups assign meaning and order to time. We also draw upon the categories of "space of experience" and "horizon of expectation," developed by Reinhart Koselleck (2006), to guide our understanding of human relationships with the past and the future, respectively. The timeframe was chosen in light of the Mariana (MG) disaster in 2015. This event caused the death/coma of the Watu (Doce River), a fact that led Ailton Krenak to intensify his critiques of the Western, capitalist, colonialist, and presentist world in which we live. The author demonstrates a clear nonconformity with the linear idea of time and the Anthropocene, particularly regarding a human experience detached from the Earth and other living beings in nature. The sources selected for this research include the books: Ideas to Postpone the End of the World (2020a); Life Is Not Useful (2020b); Ancestral Future (2022); and the texts: On Reciprocity and the Capacity to Join Worlds Together (2021a); Indigenous Territories as Places of Origin (2021b). In his writings, Ailton dialogues with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors, fostering reflections in search of an alternative proposal that allows for new relationships between humans and the Earth. In his view, to ensure human survival on Earth, we must discard anthropocentrism—especially exacerbated consumerism, one of its defining traits—and replace them with a culture where humans maintain a horizontal relationship with other living beings, and where the expectation of the future is guided by ancestral traditions of protection and non-destructive coexistence with the natural world. Thus, we argue that at many points in his writing, Ailton identifies with the philosophy of Buen Vivir (Good Living), common among the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Ancestry, as a technique for survival and the preservation of peoples' memory, forms the foundation of the Buen Vivir philosophy and the temporal order inherent to Ailton's discourse. Ancestral thought envisions a fluidity between past, present, and future. In this thesis, we conclude that the order of time that gives meaning to Ailton's discourse is cyclical.