Identidade e alteridade em wayana. Uma contribui o linguística

The Amazonic region can be considered as a pluricultural and multilinguistic arena where local groups can express their own representations about their social and linguistics features. In eastern Guyana, the individual identity is strongly bonded to ancestry and to the territory of origin, what is particularly evident among the Wayana (a Carib-speaking people). It is also strongly linked to the language that was transmitted by the ancestors. Sociocultural and linguistic relationships involving the exchange of goods shape a social network throughtout this region. The linguistic behavior, particularly, is an important component of this web of political and social representations, since speaking other languages implies an association with the traditional network of sociability which, in turn, is anchored in a political web. Adopting an ethnolinguistic perspective, this study addresses the representation of “Self” and “Other”, and the close link among identity, geographical locus, and attributions to social categories.