"Parente vota em Parente?" a cultura política dos indígenas nas eleições municipais de manaus (2016-2024)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzed the relationship between Indigenous people residing in the city of Manaus (AM) and the political-electoral system, starting from two central questions: how these groups understand municipal elections and how they assess their own participation in this process. To address these questions, three distinct municipal elections (2016, 2020, and 2024) were examined in order to compare perceptions, practices, and changes in Indigenous political behavior over time. The research was anchored in the behavioralist paradigm, with an emphasis on the concept of political culture, seeking to understand the meanings attributed to the political-electoral arena and the cultural elements that structure the actions of interlocutors. Two hypotheses emerged from their accounts: the expression “Parente não vota em Parente” (“Parente does not vote for Parente”, a locally articulated maxim), which problematizes perceptions regarding Indigenous candidacies, and the difficulty in mastering political-party codes and electoral bureaucracies, revealing persistent asymmetries. The study draws on interviews, specialized literature, and data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), offering an interpretation of the dynamics that shape Indigenous participation in Manaus’s municipal elections and of the repertoires mobilized to negotiate their presence in a context marked by structural inequalities.