Master of Arts Bigá Jimena

Multispecies Heritage – Indigenous Heritage Practices and Values in the Brazilian Northeast

Tieteellinen tutkimus / siihen pohjautuva työ | Nelivuotinen

In times when ecosocial awareness is needed, the purpose of my dissertation is to evidence the Multispecies heritage in community-based approach for an ethical dialogue between Indigenous peoples and state authorities. Multispecies Heritage emerges as a new concept as a dynamic process of relationality between humans and more-than-humans, affecting the ways of knowing, being, and experiencing. In Indigenous context, these relationalities (re)generate knowledge, which is also framed as Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), becoming a big part of the Indigenous heritage. Thus, the main research question is: What is Indigenous Multispecies Heritage and how it is evidenced in practices and values? Based on earlier studies that stress forest restoration and environmental care, I find a gap in Indigenous multispecies heritage, its practices, and values. Thus, I suggest a decolonial critical discussion of Cultural Heritage to expand these notions. The preliminary assumption is that Indigenous Multispecies Heritage considers all the entities (including more-than-humans) as active and irreplaceable participants in the construction of the land and human life. Furthermore, Multispecies Heritage would evidence the socio-environmental resilience in the face of environmental changes and species decline. The material collection is based on multivocality and sense of community: dialogue-based interviews, exchange of ideas, and participant observation. The analytical approach is biosemiotics which will enter a dialectic interaction with the Indigenous Knowledge to enrich the research results. The case study is with the Tuxá peoples in Northeastern Brazil, with whom I have collaborated since 2018. This bold and in-depth study covers a multidisciplinary range and promotes academic freedom using Indigenous methodologies and multispecies ethnography, which will result in unique conclusions, showing the broad diversity involved in it.