Ethnography in the Amazon and Cultural Translation: comparing Constant Tastevin and Curt Nimuendaju

• Main Author: Priscila Faulhaber
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi 2008-04-01
• Series: Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas
• Subjects: Amazonian ethnography; Cultural translation; Ethnographic collections; Historical actualization; Anthropological comparison; Cultural appropriation
• Online Access: http://www.museu-goeldi.br/editora/bh/artigos/chv3n1_2008/etnografia(faulhaber).pdf

Both Constant Tastevin (1880-1962) and Curt (Unkel) Nimuendaju (1883-1945) translated detailed information collected in the Amazon during the first half of the twentieth century. They published their translations into French, English and German, in specialized periodicals in Europe and North America. By transposing the native knowledge to a “civilized” language, they participated in the dynamic of appropriation, as seen through the asymmetrical relationships with authorities and institutions in the international scientific field. Nimuendaju interacted with Robert Lowie, who advised him in his ethnological collection of data on Ticuna mythology and social organization. Collecting words among the Indian elders, Tastevin shared Paul Rivet`s fear of the loss of indigenous languages. I correlate the collection of texts and artifacts with practices initiated by Franz Boas to stimulate the formation of inventories. Today ethnographic research cannot be restricted to data on the basis of collected information. The anthropology of translation implies the actualization of ethnographies conducted in the past, with the goal of comparing the results of these records with today`s data and considering the possibilities of re-appropriating knowledge into the scope of indigenous thinking and movements.