Orundellico-Jemmy Button: o(s) lugar(es) e a(s) identidade(s)

Resumos

A oposição entre "dentro" e "fora", que por muito tempo norteou a imagem que temos do espaço, se defronta hoje com renovados desafios territoriais. Enquanto uma vertente da reflexão contemporânea sobre o espaço destaca a importância de perspectivas alternativas - "heterotopias", "entre-lugar", "espaço fronteiriço", "não-lugar", "espaço virtual" − outra, aponta para o desaparecimento da exterioridade. Neste trabalho proponho discutir a relação entre o lugar e a identidade, tomando como base a figura histórica do índio yamana Orundellico, mais conhecido pelo nome de Jemmy Button que, em 1830, foi levado para a Inglaterra e retornou para a Terra do Fogo, após três anos. Seleciono, ao final, exemplos de intelectuais contemporâneos que pertencem a duas culturas e comento o fenômeno da "dupla consciência".

lugar; identidade; Jemmy Button; Terra do Fogo; Inglaterra

The opposition between "inside" and "outside" that for a long time guided our image of space now faces renewed territorial challenges. While one branch of contemporary thought regarding space highlights the importance of alternative perspectives such as "heterotopias", "in-between place", "bordering space", "non-place", "virtual space", another branch points to the disappearance of the exteriority. This paper aims to discuss the relation between place and identity focusing on the historical figure of Orundellico, better known as Jemmy Button, a yamana Indian that was taken to England in 1830 and returned to Tierra del Fuego three years later. At the end, I select examples of contemporary intellectuals that belong to two different cultures in order to examine the idea of "double consciousness".

place; identity; Jemmy Button; Tierra del Fuego; England

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text available only in PDF format.

• BITLLOCH, Eduardo. Tierra del Fuego en cuatro textos (del siglo XVIII al XX). Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1994.
• BROSSE, Jacques. La vuelta al mundo de los exploradores. Los grandes viajes marítimos, 1764-1843. Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 1985.
• CANCLINI, Arnoldo. El fuegino Jemmy Button y los suyos. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1998.
• CHAPMAN, Anne. Darwin in Tierra del Fuego. Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2006.
• DARWIN, Charles. Autobiography. Cambridge: Icon Books, 2003.
• DARWIN, Charles. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Edited by Richard Darwin Keynes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
• DARWIN, Charles. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Vol. III. Journal and Remarks 1832-1836. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
• DARWIN, Charles. The Voyage of the Beagle. New York: The Modern Library, 2001.
• DAVIS, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983.
• FITZROY, Robert. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Vol. II. Proceedings of the Second Expedition 1831-1836, under the Command of Captain Robert FitzRoy. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
• FITZROY, Robert. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Appendix to Volume II. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
• HAZLEWOOD, Nick. Savage. The Life and Times of Jemmy Button. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2001.
• HERVÉ, Francisco. Soy Jemmy Button, el salvaje. Santiago: Zig-Zag, 2003.
• HOMERO. Obras completas. Trad. L. Segalá. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1927.
• KING, Phillipp Parker. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Vol. I. Proceedings of the First Expedition 1826-1830, under the Command of Captain P. Parker King. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.
• KUPER, Adam. Culture. The Anthropologists' Account. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
• LUIZ, María Teresa y Monika SCHILLAT. La frontera austral. Tierra del Fuego, 1520-1920. Cádiz: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Cádiz, 1997.
• MARTINIC, Mateo. Historia del Estrecho de Magallanes. Santiago: Andrés Bello, 1977.
• NICHOLS, Peter. Evolution's Captain. The Story of the Kidnapping That Led to Charles Darwin's Voyage aboard the Beagle. New York: Harper Collins, 2003.
• PRIETO, Adolfo. Los viajeros ingleses y la emergencia de la literatura argentina. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1996.
• SLOTERDIJK, Peter. Esferas II. Globos. Trad. Isidoro Reguera. Madrid: Siruela, 2004.
• SNOW, William Parker. A Two Years cruise off Tierra del Fuego, The Falkland Islands, Patagonia and the River Plate: A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas. 2 Vols., London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1857.
• STOCKING, George W. Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1987.

• 1
  Entrevista de Mario Vargas Llosa a Mànya Millen, O Globo, 23/09/2006, "Prosa e Verso". p. 2.
• 2
  Ver DAVIS, Natalie Zemon. The Return of Martin Guerre. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983.
• 3
  Jaime Roos, Álbum RepertórioAquello, Gravadora Orfeo, 19812007. Nota do Editor.
• 4
  Vilém Flusser (Praga, 1920 - Praga, 1991). Durante a Segunda Guerra, fugindo ao Nazismo, mudou-se para o Brasil, esta-belecendo-se em São Paulo, onde atuou por cerca de 20 anos como professor de filosofia, jornalista, conferencista e escritor. A partir de 1960 inicia sua colaboração com a Revista Brasileira de Filosofia e aproxima-se de um círculo de intelectuais brasileiros de formação liberal. Publica seu primeiro livro, Língua e realidade, em 1963. Nota do Editor.
• 5
  Cf. KING, Phillipp Parker. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Proceedings of the First Expedition 1826-1830, under the Command of Captain P. Parker King. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. Vol. I. p. 55-56.
• 6
  A denominação "fueguinos" para os povos aborígenes do arquipélago austral, trata-se, na verdade, de uma generalização meramente geográfica. Bitlloch informa que os fueguinos "dividem-se em dois grandes grupos completamente diferentes entre si. O primeiro, é constituído pelos selk'nam, u 'ona', e os haush, ou manekekn, habitantes da parte oriental e plana da ilha. Por suas características físicas, sua língua e seus costumes este grupo é totalmente semelhante às sociedades indígenas da Patagônia. O segundo grupo é formado pelos yamana ou 'yahgan' e os alakaluf, habitantes das costas fueguinas e das ilhas próximas, diferentes física, cultural e linguisticamente do primeiro e mais relacionados aos chonos, habitantes do arquipélago chileno. Enquanto o primeiro grupo era constituído por caçadores rudimentares e nômades que se deslocavam a pé, o segundo era composto por pescadores nômades que usavam canoas como meio de transporte e que praticavam uma economia coletora primitiva. Contudo, ambos possuíam algo em comum: uma economia baseada na mera apropriação". Cf. BITLLOCH, Eduardo. Tierra del Fuego en cuatro textos (del siglo XVIII al XX). Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1994. p. 8.
• 7
  No original: "In Memory of Commander Pringle Stokes R. N. / H. M. S. Beagle / Who died from the effects of the anxieties and hardships incurred while surveying the western shores of Tierra del Fuego 12-8-1828".
• 8
  Estudo da forma do crânio para determinar o caráter e a capacidade mental de um indivíduo. Nota do Tradutor.
• 9
  Cf. KING, Phillipp Parker. Op. cit., vol. I. p. 216.
• 10
  James Cook (Yorkshire, Inglaterra, 27/10/1728 - Havaí, 14/02/1779), comandante da Marinha Real Britânica, foi explo-rador, navegador e cartógrafo, sendo considerado o descobridor da Austrália e da Nova Zelândia. Em sua primeira expedição ao Oceano Pacífico, iniciada em agosto de 1768, percorreu a rota do Atlântico sul, em direção ao Estreito de Magalhães, navegando ao largo da costa oriental da Terra do Fogo, no extremo sul da Patagônia, onde deu nome a diversos acidentes geográficos. Nota do Editor.
• 11
  Cf. KING, Phillipp Parker. Op. cit., vol. I. p. 416. No original: "Boat (Memory) was the best-featured Fuegian I had seen, and being Young and well made, was a very favourable specimen of the race; York (Minster) was one of the stoutest men I had observed among them; but little Fuegia (Basket) was almost as broad as she was high: she seemed to be so merry and happy, that I do not think she would willingly have quitted us. Three natives of Tierra del Fuego, better suited for the purpose of instruction, and for giving, as well as receiving information, could not, I think, have been found".
• 12
  Idem, ibidem, p. 444. No original: "We gave them a few beads and buttons, for some fish; and, without any previous intention, I told one of the boys in a canoe to come into our boat, and gave the man who was with him a large shining mother-of-pearl button. The boy got into my boat directly, and sat down. Seeing him and his friends seem quite contented, I pulled onwards, and, a light breeze springing up, made sail. Thinking that this accidental occurrence might prove useful to the natives, as well as to ourselves, I determined to take advantage of it. (...) 'Jemmy Button', as the boat's crew called him, on account of his price, seemed to be pleased at his change, and fancied he was going to kill guanaco, or wãnãkãye, as he called them - as they were to be found near that place".
• 13
  Idem, ibidem, p. 458-59. No original: "I had previously made up my mind to carry the Fuegians, whom we had with us, to England; trusting that the ultimate benefits arising from their acquaintance with our habits and language, would make up for the temporary separation from their own country. But this decision was not contemplated when I first took them on board; I then only thought of detaining them while we were on their coasts; yet afterwards finding that they were happy and in good health, I began to think of the various advantages which might result to them and their countrymen, as well as to us, by taking them to England, educating them there as far as might be practible, and then bringing them back to Tierra del Fuego".
• 14
  DARWIN, Charles. Autobiography. Cambridge: Icon Books, 2003. p. 36. No original: "The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career".
• 15
  DARWIN, Charles. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Vol. III. Journal and Remarks 1832-1836. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. p. 598, 601. No original: "Trust nothing to the memory"; "It is better to send home a few things well preserved, than a multitude in a bad condition".
• 16
  BROSSE, Jacques. La vuelta al mundo de los exploradores. Los grandes viajes marítimos, 1764-1843. Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 1985. p. 16.
• 17
  DARWIN, Charles. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Op. cit., vol. III. p. 236. No original: "Nor are they exempt from famine, and as a consequence, cannibalism accompanied by parricide".
• 18
  Idem, ibidem, p. 241. No original: "Captain FitzRoy has given an account of all the interesting events which there happened".
• 19
  DARWIN, Charles. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Edited by Richard Darwin Keynes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. p. 450. No original: "Of individual objects, perhaps nothing is more certain to create astonishment than the first sight in his nature haunt of a barbarian - of man in his lowest and most savage state. One's mind hurries back over past centuries, and then asks, could our progenitors have been like these? - men, whose every signs and expressions are less intelligible to us than those to the domesticated animals; men, who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason. I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference between savage and civilized men".
• 20
  Idem, ibidem, p. 121.
• 21
  No original: "I feel quite a disgust at the very sound of the voices of these miserable savages".
• 22
  Apud CHAPMAN, Anne. Darwin in Tierra del Fuego. Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2006. p. 31-32. No original: "The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, that man is descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many. But there can hardly be a doubt that we are descended from barbarians. The astonishment which I felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by me, for the reflection at once rushed into my mind - such were our ancestors..."
• 23
  Idem, ibidem, p. 128-129. No original: "They possessed hardly any arts, and like wild animals lived on what they could catch; they had no government, and were merciless to every one not of their own small tribe. He who has seen a savage in his native land will not feel much shame, if forced to acknowledge that the blood of some more humble creature flows in his veins. For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs - as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions. Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future".
• 24
  Apud HAZLEWOOD, Nick. Savage. The Life and Times of Jemmy Button. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2001. p. 342. No original: "The success of the Tierra del Fuego Mission is most wonderful, and charms me, as I had always prophesied utter failure. It is a grand success".
• 25
  STOCKING, George W. Victorian Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1987. p. 106.
• 26
  DARWIN, Charles. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Op. cit., p. 188. No original: "The distant channels between the mountains appeared from their gloominess to lead beyond the confines of this world".
• 27
  Do latim, finis terrae: ponto extremo de determinada região. Nota do Tradutor.
• 28
  DARWIN, Charles. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Op. cit., p. 451-52. No original: "The map of the world ceases to be a blank; it becomes a picture full of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes its proper dimensions: continents are not looked at in the light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which are, in truth, larger than any kingdoms of Europe. Africa, or North and South America, are well-sounding names, and easily pronounced; but it is not until having sailed for weeks along small portions of their shores, that one is thoroughly convinced what vast spaces on our immense world these names imply. (...) From seeing the present state, it is impossible not to look forward with high expectations to the future progress of nearly an entire hemisphere. (...) Improvement of South Sea consequent on the introduction of Christianity... changes effected by the philanthropic spirit of the British Nation..."
• 29
  FITZROY, Robert. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Appendix to Volume II. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. p. 91. No original: "I hoped to have seen these people become useful as interpreters, and be the means of establishing a friendly disposition towards Englishmen on the part of their countrymen, if not a regular intercourse with them".
• 30
  Apud HAZLEWOOD, Nick. Savage. The Life and Times of Jemmy Button. Op. cit., p. 117. No original: "I am again quitting the demi-civilised world and am returning to the barbarous regions of the south".
• 31
  DARWIN, Charles. Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Op. cit., p. 185. No original: "short, thick, and fat, but vain of his personal appearance; he used always to wear gloves, his hair was neatly cut, and he was distressed if his well-polished shoes were dirtied".
• 32
  FITZROY, Robert. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. Vol. II. Op. cit., p. 209.
• 33
  No original: "My people very bad; great fool; know nothing at all; very great fool".
• 34
  No original: "hearty, sir, never better".
• 35
  DarwinCorrespondenceProject. Letter 242, disponível em <http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/entry-242>. No original: "We then returned to the outside coast & completed the Chart of the Eastern side: When this was finished after visiting some of the Southern islands we beat up through the magnificent scenery of the Beagle channel to Jemmy Buttons country. We could hardly recognize poor Jemmy; instead of the clean, well-dressed stout lad we left him, we found him a naked thin squalid savage. York & Fuegia had moved to their own country some months ago; the former having stolen all Jemmy's clothes. Now he had nothing, excepting a bit of blanket round his waist. Poor Jemmy was very glad to see us & with his usual good feeling brought several presents (otter skins which are most valuable to themselves) for his old friends. The Captain offered to take him to England, but this, to our surprise, he at once refused: in the evening his young wife came alongside & showed us the reason. He was quite contented; last year in the height of his indignation, he said "his country people no sabe nothing - damned fools" now they were very good people, with too much to eat & all the luxuries of life. Jemmy & his wife paddled away in their canoe loaded with presents & very happy. The most curious thing is, that Jemmy instead of recovering his own language, has taught all his friends a little English: 'J. Button's canoe & Jemmy's wife come'; 'give me knife' &c was said by several of them".
• 36
  CHAPMAN, Anne. Darwin in Tierra del Fuego. Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2006. p. 60.
• 37
  No original: "be kind to us".
• 38
  No original: "a stout, wild, and shaggy-looking man".
• 39
  SNOW, William Parker. A Two Years cruise off Tierra del Fuego, The Falkland Islands, Patagonia and the River Plate: A Narrative of Life in the Southern Seas. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1857. Vol. II, p. 38. No original: "The portraits of himself and the other Fuegians made him laugh and look sad alternately, as the two characters he was represented in, savage and civilized, came before his eye".
• 40
  No original: "a huge baboon dressed for the occasion".
• 41
  No original: "more hideous and deplorable than I could have imagined".
• 42
  "Ingleses chegam, ingleses dão, ingleses têm". Nota do Editor.
• 43
  No original: "the sweets, or, as they might be to him, the bitters of high civilization".
• 44
  SUBERCASEAUX, Benjamin. Jemmy Button. Santiago: Editorial Ercilla, 1950. Edição definitiva, 1961. Nota do Editor.
• 45
  CANCLINI, Arnoldo. El fueguino. Jemmy Button y los suyos. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1998. Nota do Editor.
• 46
  IPARRAGUIRRE, Sylvia. Buenos Aires: Editorial Alfaguara, 1998. Nota do Editor.
• 47
  HERVÉ, Francisco. Soy Jemmy Button, el salvaje. Santiago: Zig-Zag, 2003. Nota do Editor.
• 48
  Idem, ibidem, p. 9.
• 49
  CHAPMAN, Anne. Darwin in Tierra del Fuego. Op. cit., p. XVI. No original: "Jemmy Button, a younger man, presents the figure of a Fuegian very attached to his 'countrymen' though at times furiously angry at them, very fond of his British friends, though unwilling to go back to England. He acquires the allure of a symbol for the present and the future: a person in love with his 'country' who simultaneously welcomes the outside world, in his case England".
• 50
  KUPER, Adam. Culture. The Anthropologists' Account. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
• 51
  TODOROV, Tzvetan. L'homme dépaysé. Paris: Seuil, 1996. Nota do Editor.
• 52
  DORFMAN, Ariel. Heading South, Looking North - A Bilingual Journey. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998. Nota do Editor.

Datas de Publicação

• Publicação nesta coleção
  Dez 2010