Adversidade e resiliência em metáforas sistemáticas na fala dos índios Pitaguary

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate how Pitaguary Indians allow systematic metaphors of adversity and resilience to emerge in the discourse. Seeking to answer the questions “Which metaphorical and metonymic vehicles can be identified in the discourse of the Pitaguary Indians?” and “What conceptualization of ‘adversity’ and ‘resilience’ arises from the systematic metaphors analyzed?”, the research, of a basic and descriptive nature, analyzes a corpus consisting of semi-structured interviews applied to men and women of the Pitaguary tribe. The theoretical basis comes from the Theory of Conceptual Metaphor, by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999), and from the Discourse Analysis in the Light of Metaphor, proposed by Cameron et al. (2009). We proceeded with the identification of the metaphoric vehicles present in the transcription of the discursive events, followed by their grouping and classification and the codification of the discursive topics, in order to understand the systematic use of figurativity in the speech of the indigenous people. The data suggest the recurrent use of figurative expressions, revealing systematic metaphors that reflect ideas, values, emotions and feelings related to the “adversity” and “resilience” themes, with a notable inclination towards the former. The metaphorical vehicles found are grouped under categories such as FIGHT, FAMILY, JOURNEY, WILD ANIMALS, UNION and BALANCE, resulting in the emergence of numerous systematic metaphors. The study shows the importance of metaphor as a tool for discursive analysis in understanding values, feelings, perspectives and emotions, leading to the creation of academic and cultural mechanisms for the understanding of the Other in contemporary society, marked by ideological polarization, political and cultural setbacks and disrespect to the culture of the original peoples.