Contact with non-Indians
Introduction
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Many Indigenous peoples in Brazil continue to use, in their
daily activities, ways of life inherited from their ancestors
as well as objects, institutions and social relations acquired
after the intensification of their contact with 'whites'.
In this respect, they are no different from 'us', non-Indian
Brazilians. Who would say that today we live like our great-grandparents?
This very site, or, say, the fast-food chains that can be
found all over our country: aren't they proofs that our
language and our culture are influenced by others?
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Contact with our society certainly brings about changes on the
way of living of Indigenous peoples. In this regard, one must
have in mind two things.
First of all, Indigenous cultures are not static. Like all cultures,
they change with time, whether affected by outside influence or
not. Because of that, those who intend to be a ‘friend’
of the Indians do not have necessarily to defend that ‘they
are kept like they are now’. On the other hand, it is undeniable
that some of the changes brought about by contact with our society
may cause concern. Such is the case, for example, of those peoples
who have lost their maternal language and today speak only Portuguese.
Our role, as allies of the Indians, must be to make sure that
they have social, economic and political conditions to absorb
the novelties that come along with contact in the way they deem
most convenient.
In the second place, it must be said that, behind the changes,
with different rhythm and nature depending on the case, there
is something crucial: even while relating to non-Indians, Indigenous
peoples maintain their identities and assert themselves as differentiated
ethnic groups and holders of their own traditions. And that is
valid even for situations of intense changes.
Ethnic identity, that is, the consciousness of belonging to a
given people, is the result of a complex interplay between ‘traditional’
and ‘new’, the ‘own’ and the ‘outsider’s’,
that takes place each time different populations have contact.
That must be taken into account before making a statement such
as ‘he is no longer an Indian’ because he wears clothes,
goes to mass, watches TV, works with computers, plays football,
drives a car...
The diversity that exists among Indians does not come just from
their different languages, cultures and ways of living and thinking.
It also comes from factors connected to the quality of the relationship
they have with non-Indians: if reasonably peaceful or violent,
if old or recent, if direct with the population of the region
(farmers, posseiros – illegal settlers –, lumbers, fishermen,
etc.) or mediated by an institution, be it governmental, non-governmental,
lay or religious.
Several peoples were victims of violence when they had their
first contacts with the non-Indigenous population. Such is the
case, for example, of the Rikbatsa, who live in the State of Mato
Grosso. From the 1950’s until the early 1960’s, this
group was faced with the armed opposition of the region’s
rubber planters, lumbers, miners and farmers, and 75% of its population
were decimated. Fortunately, other peoples have a friendlier remembrance
of the first contacts. The Kadiwéu, for example, recall
with pride their participation on the Brazilian side in the Paraguayan
War, a landmark in the history of their contact with national
society.
It is often the case that a hostile initial relationship between
Indians and non-Indians develop into fairly friendly and even
desirable relations. Currently several Indigenous peoples have
established partnerships with support organizations of the Brazilian
civil society. The various peoples of the Xingu Indigenous Park,
for example, are benefited by health programs carried out by Unifesp
(formerly Escola Paulista de Medicina), and of education, economic
alternatives, monitoring and surveillance promoted by the ISA
(Partnerships and projects).
Cohabitation with Catholic or Protestant missions are common,
such as with the Macuxi and the Taurepang of the mining region
of the State of Roraima. Relations between Indians and missionaries
vary, especially in regards to the forms of transmission of Christian
values.
The manner in which each people is incorporated within Brazilian
society also differs considerably. The members of some peoples
work in the regional market and are wage earners, like the Guarani-Kaiowá,
who are involved in harvesting sugarcane for the alcohol distilleries
of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. There are others who live
in urban centers, such as Sateré-Mawé families,
who are established in the outskirts of Manaus (State of Amazonas),
and the Pankararu, migrants from the State of Pernambuco who live
today in the Real Parque slum, in the city of São Paulo.
A remarkable fact is the growing number of Indians in the Brazilian
political scene: in 2000, 80 Indians were elected city councilmen
and vice-mayors – and one mayor (see: Indigenous
candidacies).
On the opposite extreme of those who participate intensely in
the various spheres of Brazilian society are those Indigenous
groups or individuals that refuse contact with the non-Indian
society. Among them are some of the inhabitants of the Javari
River Valley (see: Isolated Indians).
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