ISSN:
1572-9915
Keywords:
South American Indians
;
Brazil
;
Amazonia
;
development
;
human ecology
;
land use
;
Xavánte
;
agriculture
;
land use
;
nutrition
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
,
Ethnic Sciences
Notes:
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.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1021881823603
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