“Living Libraries: Documenting Endangered Munduruku Materiality, Brazilian Amazonia” aims to produce audiovisual, cartographic, illustrated and written documentation of elements of Munduruku material culture that have been elected by the Munduruku people themselves. The Munduruku Wakoborun Women’s organisation is a partner to the project.

We aim to undertake four field expeditions to visit villages where specialists and elders live, and where the elements we wish to document are still in use or are kept. Prior to the first field trip, we will conduct an audiovisual training workshop for Munduruku research assistants.

The project will focus on components of Munduruku material culture that relate to their cosmology and social organisation: the men’s house (uk’sa); sacred flutes; ceramics and the practice of tattooing. The project aims to involve a number of Munduruku researchers and specialists not only as interviewees but also in the documentation process, as consultants and translators and in the video editing process.

 

PI:
Bruna Rocha

Collaborators:
Fernanda Cristina Moreira
Rosamaria Santana Paes Loures
Thaís Borges

Location of Research:
Brazilian Amazonia

Host Institution:
The National Museum in Rio de Janeiro

 

 

Top Banner Image: Mangabal rapids, Tapajós River. Photo: Morgan Schmidt