Asurini do Xingu

The Asurini do Xingu are a Tupi-Guarani speaking people that occupy a village on the right bank of the Xingu River, in the Katinemo Indigenous Reserve, near Altamira, Pará state. They were officially contacted only in the 1970s, when, after forced relocations and epidemics, they were almost extinct, reduced to less than fifty individuals. Today, the population has tripled.

The Asurini are known for their pottery with geometric designs and a shiny finish. The vessels are made according to a standard of technical mastery that is passed on to girls from a very young age. The result is a varied range of vessels, all with very fine yellow sides, covered in one or more designs and finished with a layer of jatobá resin that gives them their characteristic shine. Besides ceramics, the material culture includes weaving (hammocks, slings, headbands, and other cotton body ornaments), all made by women.

The Asurini share a complex system of graphic art that they apply not only to their ceramics—an important vehicle for the affirmation of their ethnic identity—but also on their bodies and everyday as well as ritual objects. The wooden stools are also decorated with these motifs.

In Asurini graphic art, most motifs designed are a variation of a structural pattern known as tayngava, meaning image or representation. It is related to the notion of ynga (vital principle) shared by spirits and humans and manipulated by shamans in rituals. It is from this pattern, associated with the realm of the supernatural, that various other designs are produced whose meaning refers to nature (animals, plants) or culture (objects produced by man)

Among the Asurini, graphic art has the same importance as the shamanistic rituals in the production and transmission of cultural knowledge and social reproduction.

The Asurini shaman is the central figure in the social life of the group. His free transit to the diverse dominions of the cosmos allows him to control the forces that ensure the resistance of society. The shamanistic rituals, known as "pajelança", are held frequently and mobilize the entire group.