For a reversed “verandah anthropology”: ethnographying an encounter between indigenous peoples and children in a school in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This work is based on the ethnography of an encounter between chil-dren in a school in Rio de Janeiro and two former residents of Aldeia Maracanã.One of the key points of this school’s pedagogical proposal is the “valorisationof the Brazilian culture”, taking into consideration its diverse manifestations andespecially invoking elements of indigenous cultures. As part of this project, oneof the school’s initiative was to invite two defenders of the indigenous cause to“present their people and their culture” to the children from the second grade ofelementary school. This article aims to explore the approximations, distances andquestionings provoked in this contact – in which, as in verandah anthropology,the indigenous peoples come to the whites to explain their culture.