The article explores the concepts of origin that unfold in oral and written reports of the history and foundation of two settlements, one in the mid-north of Mato Grosso, the other in the interior of Pernambuco (sertão). It examines the different values and meanings such narratives give to the past and the present, and how spatial (regional origin) and temporal (ancestral origin) references operate in complementary fashion in the production of relational identities and oppositions in those social universes. In focusing on native elaborations of the past, [I] the author shows how differences of emphasis distinguish critical aspects of sociality, and how criteria for inclusion and exclusion activate networks of belonging, perceptions concerning politics and the state, and the senses and implicit limits to the notions of family and society mobilized in both social contexts.
Foundation; Colonization; Memory; Family; Politics