Indigenous stories and indigenism: (re)readings of historical experiences in Latin America

Abstract

The field of New Indigenous History, now well established, emerged from the demands of indigenous peoples for their memories and histories, at a historic moment of struggle for their constitutional rights and a break with state guardianship, when scientific production, contrary to this process, still treated them as victims of historical processes or peoples doomed to inevitable disappearance. The consolidation of this field of study, witnessed by the growing interest in indigenous issues in postgraduate programs across the country, goes hand in hand with the improved political organization of indigenous peoples in Latin America in general, in Brazil in particular, by breaking with the persistent ties of the tutelary regime legally abolished by the 1988 Constitution and affirming the defense and promotion of their rights, systematically, outside and within state institutions.