DE SELVAGEM A XOKLENG:

NOMEAR PARA CONTROLAR

Abstract

This article analyzes the way in which indigenous people in the Itajaí Valley region of Santa Catarina came to be described by regional society. In this way, the act of classifying others is associated with power relations. Bugre, “savage”, among other pejorative denominations reveal a prejudiced society that, when naming, intends to create both the representation of the indigenous person and establish a social place for them. Currently, the Xokleng people recognize themselves as Laklãnõ, a self-identification that promotes an indigenous perspective regional past, including denouncing the power relations that began with colonization. To understand this process, utilized sources ranges from the construction of the first names given by Europeans, through definitions developed by anthropologists, and finally the self-identification constructed by the indigenous people themselves.