Indigenous People in Cranio’s and Raiz’s spray: graffiti, communication, and the anthropology of art

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the indigenous images present in the graffiti of two contemporary Brazilian artists, Cranio and Raiz, respectively. It is important to understand, above all, how the two artists in question treat differently th indigenous peoples in their imagery production in the cities, and the possible consequences of these productions. On the one hand, Cranio presents the counterintuitivity of images from the construction of a hybrid indigenous character. Raiz, on the other hand, builds his indigenous characters by marking ethnic and cultural differences. In both cases, they bring the discussion about the place of the indigenous subject in society, contrary to the ideological erasure.