| Summary: | This paper examines the relationship between the concept of territory, as understood by modern Western society in its political dimension, and indigenous spatial elaborations, discussing both its fundamental differences and its convergences. It also sets out to examine the new forms and perceptions that emerge from the interaction between these two modes of thought and the production of space. From the history of the formation of the indigenous Yanomami land, I argue that the concept of political territory, while being an alien and relatively limited category vis-à-vis the theoretical richness of indigenous spatial elaborations, is today appropriated by the Yanomami leaders as an exercise in “controlled equivocation” (Viveiros de Castro, 2018), in the face of attempts to fragment their living space, imposed by the advance of the agro-extractive front, in particular mining activity. However, the construction of the Yanomami political territory in Brazil is not limited only to its legal demarcation, but it is a permanent effort of indigenous organizations which, in addition to the challenge of facing external pressures (invasions and legislative maneuvers), must also guarantee the ethno-territorial unity of a hundred villages which establish intercommunity relations that are always contextual and specific.
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