**Meet the editor**

Massimo Canevacci is Professor of Cultural Anthropology in the University of Rome "La Sapienza" (Italy) – Now is Professor in the University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ-Brazil). Visiting Professor in many Brazilian Universities - CUCN University of Nanjing (China). Fieldworks: visual communication – native ethnography - digital cultures - urban anthropology - theoretical

anthropology. The President of the Republic of Brazil gave him the Ordem Nacional do Cruzeiro do Sul for his researches.

Contents

**Preface IX** 

**Part 1 Anthropology and Theory 1** 

**of the Heathen Peoples 3**  Maria Stella Ferreira Levy

**A Commentary in the Anthropology of Borders 19** 

**and Knowledge About the Syncretism 33** 

**On One Strand of Kant's Anthropology 57** 

**Anthropological Origins of Psychotherapy 81** 

**of Organization: The Case of Funeral Home 93** 

**and Privatization on Worker Subjectivity –** 

**Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis:** 

Chapter 6 **Contributions of Anthropology to the Study** 

**A Study of Iron Ore Mine Workers in Itabira – Minas Gerais, Brazil 111** 

Claudia Patricia Vélez-Zapata

Chapter 7 **Imprints of the Entrepreneurial State** 

Maria Cecilia Minayo

Chapter 1 **The Matter of the Sovereignty** 

Chapter 2 **Frontier Effects and Tidemarks:** 

Cláudio Márcio do Carmo

Chapter 5 **The Relationship Between Clinical** 

Mareike Wolf-Fedida

**Part 2 Ethnographic Fieldwork 91** 

Cosmin Radu

Chapter 4 **To Experience Differently:** 

Motohide Saji

Chapter 3 **Culture, Language,** 

### Contents

#### **Preface XI**

	- **Part 2 Ethnographic Fieldwork 91**

X Contents


	- **Part 3 Bio-Physical Anthropology 217**

### Preface

The concept of polyphony was incorporated by many anthropologists thanks to Mikhail Bakhtin's work. Analyzing Dostoevsky's literature, Bakhtin conclusion was the following: he was the first to multiply any character; so the relationship between *hero* and *author* was decentralized. Before him, the writing was a monological projection of the author's psychology and style on the hero and, consequently, the making peripheral all the other characters. Polyphony is a method that multiplies the researcher's glance, the style of representation, the presence of several subjectivities inside the text expressing their own voices. Polyphony is in the *object* (the fieldwork), in the *subject* (the ethnographer and the informants), and in the *method* (different styles of representation).

It is possible to read this book as a polyphonic textualization, in which every author has his/her own way to elaborate contemporary anthropology. Polyphony is inside the anthropological corpus. Such an "undisciplined discipline" has an articulated complex of focuses: physical, cultural, social, psychological, communicational and so on. Many of these approaches are present here. In the same time, the concept of anthropology itself is a polyphonic junction between two different words: *anthropos* meaning human being (not "man") and so it refers to any gender; *logos* may be translated by logics, i.e. a rational system of human thought based on the principle of identity and so of objectivity; or yet with discourse, making explicit both subjectivity and intersubjectivity dialogical imagination.

My final translation of anthropology is a *dialogical* research on human being through a *polyphonic* inter-subjectivity representation; and a *syncretic* mix of writing, visual, musical, performative multi-sensorial and multi-logical textualization.

As other human sciences, recently cultural anthropology has been suffering hard challenges. A radical mutation happened about its traditional "object" of study. The so called "natives" cultures are changing their life system in many different ways. They are rejecting both the homologation and museification; they are facing a process of criticizing the same concept of "native", the one that has a problematic and perhaps colonial matrix. Many so called "native" persons are affirming their de-nativization claim as a political and cultural statement. Everybody is native in his/her own place. So there is no need to employ such a term only for Cherokee, Xavante, Txotxil, Bororo. It is more correct to use their own system of calling themselves: Cherokee or Bororo.

#### XII Preface

They are using digital technology in order to represent their own rituals as well as to represent anthropologists. So, the fundamental concept of representation is going to change: there is a political and communicational *self-representation* growing practice. This concept is a key-word in order to develop a relation with such changing cultures. This same process has been changing *Cultural Studies* paradigms: every young person at any central metropolis or peripheral places has the power both to represent him/herself and to interpret the "other": the ethnographer.

Preface XI

d. Prof Saji Motohide*, To experience differently: on one strand on Kant's Anthropology*: this paper will present a connection between a philosophy and anthropology, focusing

e. Prod Wolf-Fedida Mareike, *The relationship between clinical phenomenology and psychoanalysis: anthropological origins of psychotherapy*: in the beginnings of clinical psychology, physicians referred to philosophy and "psychology of the depths". At this stage, human condition and what we might call "anthropology" will become more

2. **Ethnographic Fieldwork** is the second one. Ethnography as a method of research was initiated by antropologists. Now is a fundamental trans-disciplinary method for

a. MSc. Velez Claudia, *Contributions of anthropology to the study of organization: the case of funeral home*: this paper will focus contemporary world and the new conception of the dead, dying and death, its ritual and its ceremony, which allows the existence of companies engaged in the handling of the corpse, its final disposal and holding of the

b. Dr. De Souza Minayo Maria, Imprints of the entrepreneurial state and privatization on worker subjectivity. A study of iron ore mine workers in Itabira – Minas Gerais – Brazil: this paper presents a study on changes in subjectivity of a segment of workers from a Fordist mode of production to a Toyotist or post-Fordist model in the iron ore

c. Joana Stingel Fraga - Rogério Ribeiro de Oliveira*: Social metabolism, cultural landscape, and social invisibility in the forests of Rio de Janeiro*: the authors are examining these interrelationships through the study of the paleo-territories of charcoal producers in the XIX/XX centuries in secondary forests in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

d. Dr Romano Angelo, *Which interdisciplinaridy? Anthropologist, Architects and the City*: his focuses are the political, economic and cultural perspectives employed up to now have shown themselves incapable of grasping the ways in which cities are changing

e. Dr. Aya Chacar Kauffman - Celo Sokol, *An Anthropological approach to understanding the process of legitimating : an examination of major league baseball emergence*: this paper will study the process by which organizations gain legitimacy, focusing the Major League Baseball. So, Baseball is a microcosm of USA moral and Taylor's scientific

f. Dr Smith James, Ethnic Identities, Social Spaces and Boundaries: Habitus and Fundamentalist Doxa Among Second-Generation Chinese American Evangelical: the recent resurgence of ethnicity has surprised social theorists who expected culturallyarticulated group association to diminish with the rise of modernization and its

and their inhabitants are reinterpreting these urban transformations.

about methodology, concepts, reason, sensibilities, and arts.

mining and processing industry in Minas Gerais.

funeral rite.

management principles

complex and only philosophy will help us to understand this situation.

scholars who wants to make innovative and empirical researces on fieldwork.

At the same time, digital culture and communication has been transforming not only traditional way of life, but also psychologies, styles of writing and knowledge, bodyscape and gender relationships, the way one works, territorial friendship and so on. Ubiquity is another key-word if you want to understand the psycho-cultural context of any subjectivity nowadays. "Identity" has become always less singular and every time more plural. Is it possible to understand contemporary cultures without penetrating into digital communication?

Finally, another hard crisis grows inside the classic space of university: the traditional system of defining faculty and department does not work anymore. It is urgent favoring trans-disciplinary for students, scholars, researchers, professors. This problem also directly affects our anthropology: but, at the same time, it is possible to discover that any reader of this book has to cross philosophy, anatomy, psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, architecture, archeology, biology and urban rituals, systemic sports, working class struggle, a tropical forest inside Rio de Janeiro or Chinese immigrants in USA…. I believe in an *anthropological* mutation inside anthropology discipline. And I hope this book may face such a challenge.

"Polyphonic Anthropology" has three sections:

**1. Anthropology and Theory** is the first one. I think is still important to present at the beginning five essays that are offering different theoretical perspective about our book:

a. Prof. Ferreira Levy Maria Stella, *The matter of the sovereignty of the heathen peoples***:** in this ethno-historical excursus about the conquest of the American peoples, the kings of Portugal and Spain, the Catholic Church and the colonists of the New World were the main players, in the sense that they all subjugated the natives of Brazil.

b. Prof Radu Cosmin, *Frontier effectand tidemarks: a commentary in the Anthropology of Borders*: this paper is dealing with the transformation of the borders. It claims that the border is not just enacted, but an actant. Consequently, the border is considered beyond the territorial dimension - a multiplicity of spaces imbued with subjectivity reflected in areas of crossing and dwelling, a space in its continuous becoming: a tidemark.

c. Dr. Do Carmo Claudio*, Culture, language , and knowledge about the syncretism*: his paper intends to review the phenomenon called syncretism in Brazil in its possible relation to the racial issue, presenting previous studies on the subject within the social sciences, particularly anthropology in an interdisciplinary way.

d. Prof Saji Motohide*, To experience differently: on one strand on Kant's Anthropology*: this paper will present a connection between a philosophy and anthropology, focusing about methodology, concepts, reason, sensibilities, and arts.

X Preface

They are using digital technology in order to represent their own rituals as well as to represent anthropologists. So, the fundamental concept of representation is going to change: there is a political and communicational *self-representation* growing practice. This concept is a key-word in order to develop a relation with such changing cultures. This same process has been changing *Cultural Studies* paradigms: every young person at any central metropolis or peripheral places has the power both to represent

At the same time, digital culture and communication has been transforming not only traditional way of life, but also psychologies, styles of writing and knowledge, bodyscape and gender relationships, the way one works, territorial friendship and so on. Ubiquity is another key-word if you want to understand the psycho-cultural context of any subjectivity nowadays. "Identity" has become always less singular and every time more plural. Is it possible to understand contemporary cultures without

Finally, another hard crisis grows inside the classic space of university: the traditional system of defining faculty and department does not work anymore. It is urgent favoring trans-disciplinary for students, scholars, researchers, professors. This problem also directly affects our anthropology: but, at the same time, it is possible to discover that any reader of this book has to cross philosophy, anatomy, psychology, psychoanalysis, sociology, architecture, archeology, biology and urban rituals, systemic sports, working class struggle, a tropical forest inside Rio de Janeiro or Chinese immigrants in USA…. I believe in an *anthropological* mutation inside

**1. Anthropology and Theory** is the first one. I think is still important to present at the beginning five essays that are offering different theoretical perspective about our book:

a. Prof. Ferreira Levy Maria Stella, *The matter of the sovereignty of the heathen peoples***:** in this ethno-historical excursus about the conquest of the American peoples, the kings of Portugal and Spain, the Catholic Church and the colonists of the New World were the

b. Prof Radu Cosmin, *Frontier effectand tidemarks: a commentary in the Anthropology of Borders*: this paper is dealing with the transformation of the borders. It claims that the border is not just enacted, but an actant. Consequently, the border is considered beyond the territorial dimension - a multiplicity of spaces imbued with subjectivity reflected in

c. Dr. Do Carmo Claudio*, Culture, language , and knowledge about the syncretism*: his paper intends to review the phenomenon called syncretism in Brazil in its possible relation to the racial issue, presenting previous studies on the subject within the social

anthropology discipline. And I hope this book may face such a challenge.

main players, in the sense that they all subjugated the natives of Brazil.

areas of crossing and dwelling, a space in its continuous becoming: a tidemark.

sciences, particularly anthropology in an interdisciplinary way.

him/herself and to interpret the "other": the ethnographer.

penetrating into digital communication?

"Polyphonic Anthropology" has three sections:

e. Prod Wolf-Fedida Mareike, *The relationship between clinical phenomenology and psychoanalysis: anthropological origins of psychotherapy*: in the beginnings of clinical psychology, physicians referred to philosophy and "psychology of the depths". At this stage, human condition and what we might call "anthropology" will become more complex and only philosophy will help us to understand this situation.

2. **Ethnographic Fieldwork** is the second one. Ethnography as a method of research was initiated by antropologists. Now is a fundamental trans-disciplinary method for scholars who wants to make innovative and empirical researces on fieldwork.

a. MSc. Velez Claudia, *Contributions of anthropology to the study of organization: the case of funeral home*: this paper will focus contemporary world and the new conception of the dead, dying and death, its ritual and its ceremony, which allows the existence of companies engaged in the handling of the corpse, its final disposal and holding of the funeral rite.

b. Dr. De Souza Minayo Maria, Imprints of the entrepreneurial state and privatization on worker subjectivity. A study of iron ore mine workers in Itabira – Minas Gerais – Brazil: this paper presents a study on changes in subjectivity of a segment of workers from a Fordist mode of production to a Toyotist or post-Fordist model in the iron ore mining and processing industry in Minas Gerais.

c. Joana Stingel Fraga - Rogério Ribeiro de Oliveira*: Social metabolism, cultural landscape, and social invisibility in the forests of Rio de Janeiro*: the authors are examining these interrelationships through the study of the paleo-territories of charcoal producers in the XIX/XX centuries in secondary forests in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

d. Dr Romano Angelo, *Which interdisciplinaridy? Anthropologist, Architects and the City*: his focuses are the political, economic and cultural perspectives employed up to now have shown themselves incapable of grasping the ways in which cities are changing and their inhabitants are reinterpreting these urban transformations.

e. Dr. Aya Chacar Kauffman - Celo Sokol, *An Anthropological approach to understanding the process of legitimating : an examination of major league baseball emergence*: this paper will study the process by which organizations gain legitimacy, focusing the Major League Baseball. So, Baseball is a microcosm of USA moral and Taylor's scientific management principles

f. Dr Smith James, Ethnic Identities, Social Spaces and Boundaries: Habitus and Fundamentalist Doxa Among Second-Generation Chinese American Evangelical: the recent resurgence of ethnicity has surprised social theorists who expected culturallyarticulated group association to diminish with the rise of modernization and its

#### XIV Preface

society. Social research that conceptualizes identities as a dynamic motivating force for actors can shed a light on contemporary challenges of multi-ethnic societies.

g. Prof. Gaël Brulé and Veenhoven Ruut, *Why are Latin European less happy? The impact on Social Hierarchy:* life in Mediterranean countries is often characterized by the term *dolce vita* (sweet life in Italian), which carries the idea of a pleasurable life in the sun, with good food and rich cultures enjoyed by friendly relaxed people. This stereotype fits the experience of tourists fairly well, but contradicts with the results of survey research on happiness.

3. **Bio-Physical Anthropology** the last one. Finally I would like to stress the immanent importance and deep connection between abstract theories, empirical researches and the biological dimensions in order to understand human beings:

a. Nazarova Ariadna, Biological, Archeological and Culturological Evidences of Paleoasiatic Origin of Northern Mongoloids, Caucasoids and American Indians: this paper presents a dendrogram of the relatedness of the population from the data of the matrix of genetic distances of the human populations of Europe, Asia and America. She made the assumption that the differentiation from the common ancient Asiatic population of ancestors of American Indians (Amerinds) probably occurred around 50,000 years ago.

b. Katrina E. Wendel-Mitoraj – Michael E. Osadebey, *Applying Craniofacial Metrics to Adapt 3D Generic Head Models*: this final chapter introduce an integration of how anthropology can lend to and improve a personalized neuromedicine through the study of physical characteristic, the relationship between race and gender.

> **Massimo Canevacci** University of Rome "La Sapienza Italy

University of Florianopolis (UFSC-Brazil) Brazil

**Part 1** 

**Anthropology and Theory** 

**1** 

*Brasil* 

**The Matter of the Sovereignty** 

*Epidemiology Department, School of Public Health of The University of Sao Paulo (USP)* 

The objective of this study is to provide as evidence certain facts and legal provisions in which, since the conquest of the American peoples, the kings of Portugal and Spain, the Catholic Church and the colonists of these matrices in the New World were the main players, in the sense that they all subjugated the natives of the Americas, in our case Brazil. We begin our considerations with the controversy surrounding to whom the "discovered" territories belonged and how the inhabitants and their lands were to be treated. This is followed by the ambiguous and contradictory positions of the Church, the king's letters, the regulations and authorizations of the metropolis and the laws of Brazil and its governments

Lastly, we turn to the rebirth of the indigenous peoples that survived and that still try to

The question of the sovereignty of heathen peoples following the Iberian territorial conquests in North Africa and South Asia is to be found in the ecclesiastical milieu since long before the "discovery" (finding, as some would have it) and conquest of America, and was fundamental in the argument about the legitimacy of Spanish and Portuguese title

With the arrival of the Spaniards on the Islands, the controversy about their inhabitants begins, namely that if they were not Hindus but rather Aruaks, they should be treated as infidels or heathens since if they were unfamiliar with the "good word" they should be persuaded and there would be no place for the "just war"1, unless they remained deaf to the word of God. A huge theological, moral, intellectual and legal debate takes place in the conquering/colonizing nations, above all on the Iberian Peninsula, especially given the symbiotic relationship between those royal households and the Catholic Church. There were

1 The " just war" was defined in Mércio Pereira GOMES, Os Índios e o Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Vozes, 1988, page 69:"declaration of war based on a joint decision made which ruled on the correctness of the

war it was intended to wage against a given indigenous people".

since the time of the "conquest" up to the Federal Constitution of 1988.

exist and survive through an endless struggle.

**2. Discovery or invasion?** 

to the New World.

**1. Introduction** 

**of the Heathen Peoples** 

Maria Stella Ferreira Levy
