Expanding spatiotemporal connections: reflections on recent transformations in a Kalapalo village

Resumen

This paper examines some of the implications of a process of rapprochement of the Kalapalo in relation to the “world of white people”. The focus is mainly on the opening of a road connecting the village Aiha to a nearby city, and the creation of an internet connection point in the same village. Both processes are directly related to the expansion of money flow in the village and have been producing significant changes in the daily life of the village since mid-2018. The argument is that these elements – money, the road and the internet – establish new spatiotemporal connections, bringing together territories and people previously unconnected. This creates an expanded notion of territory, which now includes new spaces and relations and expands far beyond the boundaries of the Xingu Indigenous Territory (TIX).