NATURE-CULTURE

The prayer to the moon is always the first prayer in all Poranci (ritual) by the Tupinambá. They sometimes chant it in portuguese but mostly they chant in Tupi.

Prayer to the moon written in Tupi
JACY AE ANDE JACY.

MBA EPE MOINDY IANDE TABA
TUPÃ OUR TYM.

ISAPE IANDÉ TABA…

 

IXÉ ASÓ XE SY JACY,

TOURI PETIBÕ.
IXÉ ASÓ XE UBY TUPÃ,

PE IANDÉ TABA BY…

 

AMA AEBAÉ TABA AMA,

ÇUPY ATÃ TUPÃ
AMA AEBAÉ TABA AMA,

UMAE TUPÃ PIAIN NDÊTÁ
AMA AEBAÉ TABA AMA,
AMA PAUÍ BETÃ

AMA AEBAÉ TABA AMA,
TABA TUPINAMBÁ.

Translation to english of the prayer to the moon

JACI IS OWR MOON

THAT LIGHTENS OUR VILLAGE

TUPÃ (GOD) COMES TO CHANT

ENLIGHTEN OUR VILLAGE…

 

I’LL ASK MY MOTHER JACI,

THAT SHE COME AND HELP US

I’LL ASK MY FATHER TUPÃ

FOR OUR VILLAGE TO RISE UP…

 

RAISES VILLAGE RAISES

WITH THE FORCES OF GOD.

RAISES VILLAGE RAISES

GOD LOOKS AT YOUR CHILDREN.

RAISES VILLAGE RAISES

RAISES WITHOUT DELAY.

RAISES VILLAGE RAISES

VILLAGE TUPINAMBÁ.

Among the Tupinambá, as well as in most indigenous communities, the lines that tie nature, culture and spirituality are built by strong ties, anchored in daily practices. The Indigenous people are an essential part of the environment that surrounds them, giving birth to a spacial knowledge that interrelates the social, natural and spiritual elements, that is, the production of life takes place through a complex cultural system, permeated by ways of doing and not doing things. The skin of the tree used to make medicines can only be removed in its hillside, facing the rising sun. Each fish has its season and the agriculture moves from one place to another, always giving enough time for the land to regenerate.

The intimate relationship with nature in Tupinambá life goes also through the ritual. The spirits are in the forests. The Tupinambá life an tradition put the rite, the men and the spirits of nature in the same place, the indigenous territory. A tradition that is not necessarily associated with the primitive and limited possibilities of adaptation and transformation, the originality of the Tupinambá tradition is that it always reinvents itself. It is a living tradition, where the nature is spiritual and cultural and the culture is natural and human.

In this perspective, we should not understand the Tupinambá culture as something that is “equal” to nature, that could to be preserved along with it. On the contrary, to relate to Tupinambá culture-nature is precisely about learning from the indigenous world view and reverse the process of separation between nature and culture.

Some Relationships

WE ARE TUPINAMBÁ HANDICRAFT MOUTH AND LANGUAGE POISON AND MONOCULTURE CAPITALIST LOGIC LIVING CULTURE CULTURAL IMAGINARY BOUNDARIES