IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE

Background. In South America, very little is said about sports and body practices’ history before the European colonization period (from A.D. 1500) and one of the most important fields in revealing ancient history (including sport history) is archeology. In Brazil, one of the most relevant and rich places for preservation and study is the Serra da Capivara National Park (SCNP) which has more than 900 registered archeological sites. Its rock paintings register ancestral body activities, including fights.
Problem and aim. What does rock art demonstrate and represent about fights? Could this represent a culture of manual combat practices among the ancient natives of the region? The general objective of this study is to analyze and identify the scenes that permeate fight practices in the SCNP rupestrian records.
Methods. This is an archaeological research with incursion into the archaeological field (in loco) in exploratory format using the iconographic method and inferences from natives of the Brazilian territory.
Results. It was observed that some images demonstrate individual fights, others collective ones, and may refer to a mythical-ritualistic profile. In this direction, the natives’ reports indicate possible rudimentary practices of body fights still practiced by Brazilian indigenous peoples.
Conclusions. Images were identified as individual and collective fights and, through the natives’ narratives, it is inferred that the practices of body fights are constitutive cultural elements of several autochthonous groups, from the earliest period of history. However, it does not, necessarily, belong to the same groups that still practice these fights in Brazilian territory.