The drukeness against the State: war and play in Guaporé river

Abstract

This essay aims to think about drunkenness in the multiethnic context of the Guaporé River as a device that, simultaneously, prevents the ontological unification of worlds, that is, it opposes a unitary perspective of the world and entities, at the same time as prevents political unification, that is, it is against the State. Based on an ethnographical work with the Makurap, a Tupi-Tupari speaking people in the region, we tried to think about the political action of these people when, on the occasion of the 2024 Acampamento Terra Livre, a group of indigenous women from Rondônia sang a song about drunkenness in front of the esplanade of ministries in Brasília. Such an act, I argue, would be related to an “enmization” of white people that would imply a different way of “doing politics” from ours, which has its central drivers in play and war.