Signos de identidade na linguagem dos grafismos Guarani e Kaiowá: uma perspectiva semiótica

Abstract

This research focuses on the investigation of Jegua, the Guarani Kaiowá Indigenous body paintings, through the lens of Lotmanian semiotics. Its purpose is to reflect on the process of meaning construction by analyzing the paintings used by the Guarani-Kaiowá people living in the Dourados Indigenous Reserve (RID), Mato Grosso do Sul (MS). This ethnic group shares the same reserve with other indigenous people, forming a community culturally marked by interculturality, heterogeneity, and polyglotism, which emerges in the in-between space of cultures. The methodology adopted for this study is grounded in the semiotics of culture, specifically in the concept of the Semiosphere—the space where semiosis and meaning-making processes occur, within which texts circulate and interact to compose a given culture. In this sense, the Semiosphere is linked to a continuum of semiotic formations that produce different types and levels of organization in meaning-making processes, supporting the investigation of how Indigenous graphic expressions manifest as cultural texts, that is, as a complex system of signs and meanings.The main strength of this research lies in deepening knowledge about Guarani-Kaiowá culture, exploring its practices, values, and traditions. By applying theoretical concepts related to the semiotics of culture, the study seeks to broaden the semiotic understanding of contemporary cultural representations and meanings. Qualitative bibliographic and ethnographic research techniques were employed in this work.