Amerindian languages: modes and ways of translation

Abstract

As an effort to organize scattered observations and as a result of a long experience of investigation of Amerindian languages spoken in Brazil, this essay deals with some aspects of the work of translation that goes through the whole process of the linguistic and ethnographic research. Once translation is understood in its widest meaning, different interrelated topics are approached, taking as the case under scrutiny the translation between Kuikuro, a Karib language spoken in the Upper Xingu region, and Portuguese. The first topic is the transformation of speeches and verbal arts coming from an oral tradition into written texts, a step that precedes any formalized interlinguistic translation. The second topic concerns the written products and the translation induced by schooling and by the demands coming from the researcher. The third and unavoidable topic is the translation work induced by the contact with missionaries. There are connections between these transmutative operations from exotic to familiar, and vice-versa, and the ‘civilizing’ pretentions of missionaries, school´s agents, and researchers, a trap ready to even the most well-meaning translators, be they Amerindian or not.