Name: SÂMELA PEDRADA CARDOSO
Publication date: 13/11/2025
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ALFREDO RODRIGUES LEITE DA SILVA | Presidente |
| CAROLINE RODRIGUES SILVA | Examinador Externo |
| LETICIA DIAS FANTINEL | Examinador Interno |
| MARTINIANO SARDEIRO DE ALCANTARA NETO | Examinador Externo |
| ROMULO GOMES | Examinador Externo |
Summary: Drawing on decolonial perspectives from the Global South, this thesis investigates how
Tupinikim childhoods produce spatialities in the Indigenous village of Caieiras Velhas, located
in Aracruz, Espírito Santo. Tupinikim ethnicity—one of over 300 in Brazil—is recognised only
in this region, which makes the territory fundamental to its cultural reproduction. Rather than
understanding space as mere geographic location or a neutral backdrop, the research
foregrounds ancestral and colonial cultural practices that constitute and organise Tupinikim
everyday life. Tupinikim cosmology is mobilised to transcend the nature (territory) versus
culture (ethnicity) dichotomy, showing that, although spatialities may be reproduced beyond
the village, they are socially constructed in, by, and for the village. Methodologically, the study
is based on ethnography conducted between 2024 and 2025, involving participant observation,
semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and the researcher’s participation in local
festivities and organisations. By centring Indigenous childhood, the thesis contributes to
Organisational Studies on three fronts: (1) it affirms ethnicity as a producer of spatialities, (2)
it recognises children’s agency as an organising force, and (3) it problematises coloniality as
ontological, epistemological, and affective violence. Finally, the thesis advances
methodologically by critically reflecting on affective ethnography and its relation to Indigenous
peoples.
