Tapirs, tractors and tapes: The changing economy and ecology of the Xavante Indians of Central Brazil

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open access
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Article
Date
1997
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Springer
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Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca. Departamento de Endemias. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Museu Nacional. Departamento de Antropologia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
University of New York. Hunter College. Departament of Antrhopology. Park Avenue, NY, EUA.
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca. Departamento de Endemias. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca. Departamento de Endemias. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
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Abstract
Abstract
This paper explores the process of change in a Brazilian indigenous community, relating it to historical, economical, and political forces at the regional and national levels, as well as to environmental variables. In the light of current fieldwork, we examine the predictions of a model constructed 20 years ago based on fieldwork in this and three other Indian communities of Central Brazil by Daniel Gross and collaborators. This model ascribed involvement in the market economy of small-scale communities primarily to land circumscription and resulting environmental degradation, increasing the labor cost of subsistence food production. We find that in the case of the Xavánte community entry into the market was more the result of a top-down government plan to implement mechanized rice production on Xavánte reservations. With the collapse of the project the Xavánte have, on the one hand, returned to a more “traditional” economy based on hunting, gathering, and swidden agriculture and, on the other hand, are innovating by marketing their cultural image through connections with national and international environmentalist organizations.
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Brasil, Índios Sul-Americanos, Saúde de Populações Indígenas, Mato Grosso, Região Amazônica, Região Centro-Oeste, Nutrição, Xavante, Agricultura, Xavánte, Comportamento Alimentar, Ecologia Humana, Práticas de Subsistência, Produção de Alimentos, Alimentação e Nutrição
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Brasil, Saúde de Populações Indígenas, Índios Sul-Americanos, Ecossistema Amazônico, Comportamento Alimentar, Ecologia Humana, Produção de Alimentos, Nutrição, Alimentos, Dieta e Nutrição
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SANTOS, Ricardo Ventura et al. Tapirs, tractors and tapes: The changing economy and ecology of the Xavante Indians from Central Brazil. Human Ecology, v. 25, n. 4, p. 545-566, 1997.
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1572-9915
0300-7839
DOI
10.1023/A:1021881823603
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