“Folks, there’s nothing left from the Linguistics division. We lost all the indigenous languages collection: the recordings since 1958, the chants in all the languages for which there are no native speakers alive anymore, the Curt Niemuendaju archives: papers, photos, negatives, the original ethnic-historic-linguistic map localizing all the ethnic groups in Brazil, the only record that we had from 1945. The ethnological and archeological references of all ethnic groups in Brazil since the 16th century… An irreparable loss of our historic memory. It just hurts so much to see all in ashes.”
— Cira Gonda, translated by Diogo Almeida, about the fire at Brazil’s National Museum.
This is a tragedy. I know I have some folks that are indigenous or who work with indigenous languages and cultures. The Brazil Natural Museum folks are trying to reach out to anyone that might have pictures, documents, anything, in hopes of being able to rebuild at least something.
Mutuals, can you please reblog this even if it’s not really in line with your blog theme? This is really important and deserves to get spread around. Information and knowledge like this should not be lost, and this, well, I can’t think of a better word except tragedy. 😦
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Mooncustafer 