Spells and Anti-Spells in the Licensing Ritual of Small Hydroelectric Stations in Southern Brazil: Mbya and Kaingang’s Cosmopolitics in the Struggle Against the jurua Unifying Reason

Abstract

The present article analyzes the conflict among Kaingang, Guarani and individuals who represent the attempt to build four small  hydroeletric stations (PCHs) at the Jacuizinho river/RS. The analyses focuses on  one of the stages of the environmental permission for the construction: the elaboration of the Indigenous Component, which on theory should be done along with environmental impact studies. The permission will be analysed under a ritual perspective, as an  event lived as a social drama, with stages more or less formalised. Each one of the parties involved (environmental institutions,  indigenous institutions, enterprises, intermediary enterprises, local political leaderships, the Kaingang and Guarani communities and their allies) occupy a part (or  are driven to do that) in order to  develop actions and strategies to defend the same territory against  symbolic and material appropriation.