The alive cultural heritage of the Munduruku, Apiaká and Kayabi ethnic groups

Abstract

Apiaká, Munduruku and Kayabi, between the years 2010 and 2019, claimed the right to own twelve funerary urns of their ancestors who - after the archaeological rescue of the archaeological artifacts that were in the area directly affected by the construction of the Teles Pires hydroelectric plant - were stored at the Alta Floresta Museum (MT). Their dispute for the right to vote is within the scope of a broader struggle: the right to territorial autonomy, thus, in different manifestos and interviews, indigenous people question not only the idea of ​​development engendered by the State in the Amazon territory, but the way it was / the preservation of cultural heritage in Brazil is considered and, in these terms, they make a point of establishing a distinction in relation to the cultural heritage of the non-Indian: the indigenous heritage is alive and, therefore, is not preserved in Museums, but in the very relationship of the indigenous people with nature and the imagined national community