The birth of a nation: power, imaginary and indigenous images

Abstract

In a context of growing presence of indigenous peoples in the Brazilian national public sphere, questions about the reception of their statements become central. This reception, however, is largely defined by the representations that the non-indigenous world makes about the value of truth, the authors and the world from which such statements come. Given this panorama, The Birth of a Nation: Power, Imaginary and Indigenist Images intends to reflect on the concepts that operate in such representations and their formative force for a certain national imagination. Using conceptual instruments developed by Gilles Deleuze in his philosophy of difference, we will take the photographs and films produced during the first contact with the Panará (1973), the Enawenê-Nawê (1974) and the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau (1980) peoples as non-philosophical intercessors that serve as a field opening, in order to think the conceptual machines that operate in these representations. Our hypothesis is that, within a social contract defined by internal colonialism, it is possible to approach first contact visual documents as capable of illuminating a relevant conceptual field for thinking about the relations between the indigenous and non-indigenous worlds - in which stand out an idea of nationality and the power relations that found it - and, consequently, the aesthetic-political potencies of images, seeking to contribute to a future reflection on the contact. (AU)