Image, imitation, presentification: ambiguity and agency in the images produced by the technologies of non-indigenous people

Abstract The purpose of this work is to understand how the images produced by the technologies of non-indigenous people, such as photographic and audiovisual, are perceived and understood by the thought process of the Xingu Asuriní, an indigenous group living in the middle course of the Xingu River, in the Brazilian state of Pará. Starting from the recognition that the very idea of image can be problematic, I attempted to examine its use in research and the ways it can be translated. As a way of understanding the domain of the image among the Asuriní, I investigate certain native concepts, particularly the idea of ayngava, which refers to imitation, presentification, a term used in reference to photography and film. Imitating, in this context, is far from being a mere reproduction of that which is absent, and points to the status of the live image in which the referent becomes presentified or evoked. Finally, I introduce the idea of ambiguity in order to think about the relationship of indigenous people to photography and moving images, and also of themselves in relation to others, including to non-indigenous people. (AU)