Os Yanonami e o projeto Yaripo: transformações e turismo em Maturacá

Abstract

This dissertation is the result of field research whose objective was the study of the Yanomami of Maturacá (Rio Negro region, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas) participation in the elaboration and implementation of the Projeto Yaripo, which is an ecotourism activity proposal whithin the Terra Indígena Yanomami and the Parque Nacional do Pico da Neblina. Beyond the indigenous participation, the project counts with the envolvement of many state institutions and a non-governmental organization – Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), Exército Brasileiro and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA). Thus, the etnography focused on the relations between the Yanomami and the “partners” of the project – in other words, on the intensification of a wide interethnic network of interactions –, on the political relations internal to the yanomami communities and on the local understandings about the tourism activity and about the places reserved for it. Although the beginning of visitation to Yaripo – as the Yanomami call the Pico da Neblina – had not begun during the fieldwork, I suggest here that the indigenous participation in the Projeto Yaripo has already produced multiple effects in Maturacá.