Abstract: While a great deal of attention has been given recently to efforts to protect indigenous knowledge from exploitation by non-indigenous entrepreneurs, far less attention has been given to the impact of such protection on artistic life within indigenous societies.  This paper investigates some of the implications of Brazilian Intellectual Property (IP) legislation and its interpretation among the K?sêdjê (formerly known as the Suyá) in the Xingu Indigenous Park (Parque Indígena do Xingu) in Mato Grosso, Brazil.  This region, called the ?Upper Xingu? has long been considered a ?culture area? where ten groups representing  four different linguistic groups share a common ritual and cultural life.  Well intentioned international agencies, national NGOs, and anthropologists have all contributed to the creation of a fairly complex rearrangement of concepts and social relationships that goes far beyond those imagined by the international fora and implemented by the local agencies.

Biography: Anthony Seeger received his BA in Social Relations from Harvard University and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago.  He has been working with the K?sêdjê (Suyá) for over 35 years, first as a researcher and later as a consultant for them on land claims issues.  He has taught Social Anthropology at the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1975-1982) and at Indiana University (1982-1988).  He served as Curator and Director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings at the Smithsonian Institution from 1988-2000, then joined the Ethnomusicology Department at UCLA in 2000.  Author of three books on the K?sêdjê (Suya) and editor of three others related to audiovisual archiving, Dr. Seeger has published several articles on intellectual property and indigenous peoples, most recently “Traditional Music Ownership in a Commodified World” in Simon Frith & Lee Marshall Music and Copyright (second edition), Edinburgh University Press 2004: 157-170.