Sepultamento dos mortos entre antigas populações do Tronco Tupi: confrontando arqueólogos e cronistas quinhentistas

Abstract

The present research is related to the burials and other mortuary practices of the ancient populations of the Tupi trunk, that were developed in the territory that today comprises Brazil. The temporal clash contemplates from the 1st century of the Christian Era to the beginning of the colonization by Europeans. The work was divided in two parts, the first one is composed of two chapters, both entirely dedicated to archaeological bibliographical sources and their respective mortuary data; The second part, in turn, is composed of two other chapters, one exclusively interested in the 16th-century sources, produced by travelers and chroniclers in contact with Tupinambá, and the other at the junction between ethno-historical and archaeological data; This last chapter also contains other problematizations of the Tupi mortuary universe. Each part of the work has a specific theoretical reference: the first uses key concepts of Archeology of mortuary practices, and the second part of the concepts of History, capable of provoking reflection on the rhetoric of otherness. As a result, the research points to the validity of the dialogue between Archaeology and History, capable of clarifying the understanding of ancient Amerindian practices.