This article examines the frequently expressed desire among people of the Xingu Indigenous Territory living in the city of Canarana, Brazil, to learn Portuguese. It examines such statements of intent, which are typically presented as a reason for indigenous urban migration. I argue that the desire to learn Portuguese is itself in need of investigation, to which end I turn to two Upper-Xinguan Carib myths and a conversation at the headquarters of the Xingu indigenous land association. The indigenous presence in urban spaces offers evidence of the ways in which place serves as a perspectival stabilizer for them, in a world where perspective determines the body's form and, by extension, ontology. Based on long-term fieldwork and the application of a technique of ethnographic imagination, adapted from Strathern, the article demonstrates how modulation of the tongue is a means of preserving autonomy in relations with Whites and a survival strategy.

中文翻译：

---

他者的语言：新谷原住民地区的地方、视角和说葡萄牙语的愿望

这篇文章探讨了居住在巴西卡纳拉纳市的新谷土著地区人们经常表达的学习葡萄牙语的愿望。它检查此类意图陈述，这些陈述通常作为理由提出为土著城市移民。我认为学习葡萄牙语的愿望本身就需要调查，为此我转向了两个上新关加勒比人的神话和在新谷土著土地协会总部的一次谈话。城市空间中的本土存在提供了证据，证明了地方作为他们的视角稳定器的方式，在一个视角决定身体的形式，进而决定本体的世界中。基于长期的田野调查和改编自 Strathern 的人种学想象技术的应用，本文展示了舌头的调节如何成为在与白人的关系中保持自主权的一种手段和一种生存策略。