Soccer in the integration and assimilation processes of Amerindian peoples

Abstract

Has soccer favoured the integration processes of Amerindian peoples in the different national societies to which they belong, or has it rather permitted their cultural assimilation? Based on this general question, four different scenes are analysed: the ethnic through the Yanomami case; the regional with the populations of the Napo river basin; the national with the Pan-indigenous Games; and the international one with the America's Cup of the Indigenous Peoples. The methodology used for data production combines ethnographic work with documentaries, distributed in different places and periods of time. Among the conclusions, soccer has become one of the symbols of the new ages of the indigenous world, instrumentalized in different ways and used to expand and reinforce social links. By the moment, its practice is not directly denoting the abandonment of the cultural being of these towns.