Zé Zabel Perna-de-Pau: a historical-anthropological perspective on a tapeba oral tradition

Abstract

Based on oral testimonies of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, alongside documentary sources, this article is a (re)construction of the trajectory of an important indigenous leader of the Tapeba people, who stood out in the first half of the twentieth century: José “da Isabel” Alves dos Reis, or Zé Zabel Perna-de-Pau (wooden leg). Grounded on Vansina’s (1965) conceptual and methodological repertoire and inspired by ethnobiographical oeuvres (Albert, 2015) and the notion of “social biography” (Werbner, 1991 apud Jimeno Santoyo, 2006, p. 48), I treat the set of narratives about Perna-de-Pau as an oral tradition. By (re)building his trajectory - physical characteristics and personal conduct, talents and skills, networks of kinship and relationships, leadership style and range, and territorial rooting - I wish to unveil important aspects of tapeba lifestyles and territorial expressions in the recent past, and dimensions of how they think of themselves as a distinct people and live in the territory they struggle to recover.

Keywords:
tapeba; indigenous people; oral tradition; social biography.