THE APINAJÉ PEOPLE AND SOCIAL ISOLATION

changes in urban paths after the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Before the distancing and social isolation to the Covid-19, we investigated – in Tocantinópolis (TO) – the circulation of the Apinajé indigenous people through the local market and the presence of some as residents of a rural village, located in an intermediate position between the indigenous reserve area and the city. Due the challenges posed by the pandemic, the presence of indigenous people in the urban and rural areas of the city underwent profound changes, which grew in size in our investigation. Therefore, the problem explored in this article is the understanding of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the paths and interethnic relations of the Apinajé people in Tocantinópolis city, which already presented a process defined by tensions. Taking into consideration that the most vulnerable social groups suffered the consequences of the pandemic more drastically, the data we found in our research allowed us to record how this happened in the dynamics of an indigenous people in the northern region of Brazil. Our goals were to describe how this process configured in the relationship of the Apinajé with the people of the city and to identify resistance and other forms of confrontation of these people in order to guarantee their survival in the face of such an event, keeping their circulation in the city. This is an ethnographic research, using interviews.