Vereadores Kaiowá e Guarani na política: Alianças, conexões e contradições entre política indígena (Teko joja) e política partidária (Karai política) em Tacuru, MS

Abstract

This research describes the processes of election for councilor in the Kaiowá indigenous communities, in the municipality of Tacuru, seeking to understand how these processes are negotiated internally in the communities, considering that they bring together several kinships that among themselves form networks of alliances that are unstable over time, in tune with the Kaiowá and Guarani political form - teko joja. Each family articulates exclusive interests, generating the expectation that the elected councilor will prioritize their demands and, to a lesser extent, those of the network of allied family groups. However, the number of votes for the election requires garnering votes from family groups that are not always solidly accommodated in the network. This generates intense internal political movement around the election and the exercise of the council position. In turn, party affiliation requires the candidate to be included in political networks involving politicians from the municipality in which the indigenous land is located, imposing the need to deal with the politics practiced by non-indigenous people – karai politics. The objective of the research is to reflect on the alliances, connections and contradictions that emerge at the interface of these two ways of doing politics. The network of interlocutors for the research is formed primarily by current and former councilors, kinship leaders, pastors, prayers and indigenous politicians who participate in the processes of indigenous elections and the exercise of their mandates. The hope is, therefore, to better understand these processes that are fundamental for the communities that live in the Jaguapiré village and in the Sassoró reserve.