Ritual architecture: indigenous peoples territory and identity in the stone jungle

Abstract

This article is a thoughtful consideration of rituals as a significant form of cultural resistance and religious survival. In the case of Brazilian indigenous peoples, what we consider here as an architecture of ritual has revealed, through its genetic appeal, a singular capacity to preserve, from cultural extinction, highly threatened peoples. In order to keep themselves as Indians – culturally speaking – Indian populations living in huge cities, as in the case São Paulo, have adopted a relentless involvement with lore and ritual practices transmitted by local shamans. Through them, the Indian learns to settle down symbolically as well as physically in a cosmologically hostile environment