Video-ritual: Imagery Circuits And Ritual Filming Among The Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) - Dossier Intersecting Eyes

Abstract

This article, presenting networks of imaginal and ritual relations among Mebêngôkre villages, continues the work of describing and analysing contemporary cultural (and ritual) production by this Jê-speaking, Amazon forest-dwelling, indigenous people. It thus builds on results obtained previously in published research on the intricate relationship between video production and production of ritual. Given that image reproduction technologies were appropriated by the Mebêngôkre more than thirty years ago, the intention is to reveal not only the specific features of contemporary imagery circuits, but also the specific characteristics of the visual product that circulates most in this vast network: filmed rituals. The dual aim of this work is thus to demonstrate the importance of the circulation of images among Mebêngôkre villages and to answer the question of why filmed rituals are the chief imaginal artefacts circulating in this network. Lastly, the article proposes the idea of a transgenerational Mebêngôkre ethic present in the production and circulation of filmed rituals.