Ethics in anthropological research in Brazil is increasingly focused on indigenous authorship -and, therefore, on intellectual property. The native is an author of the indigenous culture and science, and collective rights should be issued to warrant this property. However, intellectual rights used to be, prior to this trend, the very matter of social relationship, the wealth to be handled from one generation to another, or between in-laws. And was, thus, a tool for local authorities, which have the power of [donate or retain] donating or retaining it. Current efforts to entitle community with these rights, while putatively an essay of cultural safeguard, embody instead a social reform, building a set of new relationships, handled by a set of new political subjects. If ethical debates are to be thoroughly accomplished, the researcher's authorship must be reckoned not only in papers or books but also in the cultural innovations it promotes.
Authorship; Authority; Culture; Yaminawa; Yanomami; Intellectual rights