Organization and Representation of Information Related to Indigenous Topics

a Study on the Information Science Literature in the Context of South America

Abstract

The complexity of organizing and representing information can be understood through a detailed examination of the processes, instruments, and products that make up an information system, the needs of users, and contextual determinants.
Thus, the processes of information treatment that result in products can be defined as “[…] a set of descriptive elements that represent the attributes of a specific informational object” (Brascher & Café, 2008, p. 5). From this perspective, it is inferred that the processes of Information Organization and Representation are intrinsically linked and develop sequentially.
This work highlights the relevance of information organization and representation focused on Indigenous themes in South America. Each ethnic group, in its own way, carries in its history particularities that reveal forms of social organization, linguistic characteristics, structures of religiosity, and artistic expressions — in other words, cultural elements that unify yet distinguish each group (Albuquerque & Moraes, 2023).
Based on references to discussions that have gained increasing relevance in the field of Information Science — such as França and Silveira (2004), Maiomone & Matos (2019), Barité and Moutinho (2023), Albuquerque and Moraes (2022; 2023) — this study is guided by the following research question:
How have the specificities related to Indigenous themes and traditional peoples been addressed in the field of Information Organization and Representation?
The objective is to identify the processes, instruments, and products related to the Organization and Representation of Information regarding Indigenous themes that have received greater emphasis in scientific journals in the field of Information Science, specifically in South America.
This research is justified by the perception that the still incipient presence of information organization and representation systems that are sensitive to the sociocultural specificities of Indigenous peoples in South America may result in erasures, distortions, and the perpetuation of stereotypes that reproduce a colonial matrix. Therefore, informational processes can be rethought through the integration of traditional knowledge, oral practices, and historically constructed territorial bonds of these peoples.