This article seeks a theoretical shift from the translation of anthropologists to the translation of natives, emphasizing in this transit the differences rather in the modes of approximations than of departing or eventually arriving points. The ethnographic basis of this choice is configured by conceptual images of Amerindians known as Waiwai, especially in the community of Jatapuzinho (RR), where my fieldwork began to be carried out. Cultural constellations as the Waiwai search for the 'unseen people' (enîhni komo), their conception of 'eye soul' or 'eye vitality' (yewru yekatî) or their rituals in relation to different animals or their respective 'owners' or 'cloth-owners' (ponoyosomo) constitute elaborations or essays (without denying the reflexive connotations) about translation. Their description motivates the introduction of concepts such as 'resonance', 'redundancy' and 'repetition' (the one that generates difference) and points to wider cultural topics such as those concerning 'detours' and 'impropriety'. The attention paid to variations and oscillations of the supposed original through its different versions can be connected to positions of the actual interdisciplinary reflection about translation. Among these figure the ideas of Walter Benjamin in relation to the survive of the original through the translation; the transformation effects brought to life by translations as pointed out by Jacques Derrida; and the viability, following Talal Asad, of cultural translations that, advancing through other forms, surmount the classic ethnographic discourse. These convergences lead to question how the conception of translation is connected to the conception of relation and how they can be rethought through each other.
Waiwai; Translation; Relation; Repetition; Amerindian anthropologies