The celebration of difference

Sumario: This article was developed from the report presented to the Scientific Initiation Program 2016/2017, presenting as an object the rituals and festivities considered traditional among the Terena of Mato Grosso do Sul, considering that they constitute a fertile field for the problematization of notions of tradition and culture, widely used in the discourse of defense of indigenous rights. The hypothesis is that it is through the process of cultural resignification that contemporary indigenous peoples update and seek to legitimize their form of action within the national society. In a troubled scenario of interethnic relations and struggles for land, the Terena exhibit ritualistic and festive performances evoked as tradition and a sign of their Indianness. Based on these assumptions, we sought to discuss this dimension of the group’s history, dialoguing with the new meanings attributed to cultural activities considered traditional, through the study of ethnographic literature. It presents as a theoretical and methodological orientation the approach of the new Indigenous History, placing the indigenous people as protagonists of their own history. It is concluded that the Terena resignify their shamanic dance and performances in their struggles to defend their rights, especially those referring to their territories, still in dispute. In public demonstrations they display their war ornaments and the prayers of their shamans, in a movement to update their cultural guidelines.