“Aldeando” o TikTok: um estudo etnográfico sobre vídeos de influenciadores indígenas em tempos de Covid

Abstract

Through digital connections and interconnections, facilitated by a networked communication system, the new cultural, social, and political order of today is consolidated in the condition of being connected. Among social media platforms and digital media that disseminate short videos, TikTok emerges as a central phenomenon, a catalyst for communicational changes in contemporary society. Originally focused on the general dynamics of the platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research redirects its focus to investigate the processes by which Indigenous people from various ethnicities and regions of Brazil connect, through audiovisual productions of themselves, to the new technological tools of digital media available in cyberspace, focusing on the TikTok application. Starting from Lipovetsky's (2004) concept of hypermodernity – which characterizes this period as an acceleration of life, marked by an excess of images, ephemerality, contradictions, and selfreferentiality – the study assumes that Indigenous people, as an identity group, belong to a category that does not fully recognize itself in the hegemonic representations of cultural production. This research aims to analyze the strategic use of self-representation and autoethnography by Indigenous influencers in their audiovisual content published on the platform. Methodologically, we adopted a mixed-methods approach using online ethnographic research, a literature review, questionnaires, and the analysis of 109 videos from five Indigenous influencers with over 500,000 followers each – representing the Kalapalo, Pataxó, Tatuyo, Tikuna, and Wajãpi peoples – following the ethical guidelines of the National Research Ethics Commission (CONEP). Through triangulation between content analysis (Bardin, 1977), image analysis (Reyna, 2014; France, 1989), and discourse analysis (Foucault, 1970; Bakhtin, 1981), we found that the video narratives present autoethnographic practices that articulate humor, irony, activism, and resistance in personal narratives to affirm identities, challenge stereotypes, and contest visibility. It can be concluded that TikTok is being reinterpreted by Indigenous influencers as a space for agency and cultural resistance, balancing authenticity and algorithmic engagement. By challenging colonial logics and reconfiguring traditions from a contemporary perspective, they have transformed the platform into a stage for identity affirmation and activism, altering the dynamics of visibility and agency in cyberspace.