The Xavante (also Shavante, Chavante, Akuen, A'uwe, Akwe, Awen, or
Akwen
{{Unreferenced, date=July 2020
The Akwén or Akwẽ are a Gê people, who come from Brasil and the South American Caribbean coast. Their language belongs to the central branch of the Gê family (trunk Macro-Ge) and has great linguistic proximity ...
) are an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
, comprising 15,315 individuals
within the territory of eastern
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP.
Neighboring ...
state in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
. They speak the
Xavante language
The Xavante language is an Akuwẽ (Central Jê) language ( Jê, Macro-Jê) spoken by the Xavante people in the area surrounding Eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Xavante language is unusual in its phonology, its ergative object–agent–verb ...
, part of the
Jê language family.
History
They were
enslaved in the 18th century, after which they have tried to avoid contact. A temporary coexistence with westernized society in the 19th century in the state of
Goiás
Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...
,
[Giccaria, Bartolomeu. Xavante: Povo Autêntico. Editora Salesiana Dom Bosco, 1984, p. 35] was followed by withdrawal to
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP.
Neighboring ...
(between 1830–1860). They were "re-discovered" during the 1930s. From 1946 to 1957, they were brought under
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...
’
National Integration Program, but still experienced massacres and disease. Due to this history, they have a distrust of non-Xavante people. Today they are still wary of any approach of non-Xavante, called "waradzu".
The Xavante leader
Mário Juruna
Mário Juruna (September 3, 1942 or 1943 – July 18, 2002) was the first national-level federal representative in Brazil that belonged to an indigenous people.
Biography
He was born in Namurunjá village, near Barra do Garças, in the state ...
was the first indigenous Brazilian to become a federal representative.
The Xavante, like other indigenous tribes, were treated badly by the government beginning in the 1960s, the Xavante were moved from their homeland in Mato Grosso to a southern, malnourished area of Brazil. There, thousands of natives died due to disease, famine and warfare. Within the last decade, the Xavante have been relocated back to their original lands. Unfortunately, due to landgrabbing and squatters, the land was destroyed. Lush forest was burned to create sparse wasteland and pasture.
Recently, John Carter has aided the Xavante by donating 100 head of cattle to the tribe. He continually stands up for the people and is currently on friendly terms with the chief and the members. While their condition is still dire, surviving off of only rice and what little vegetables they can grow on their land, the Brazilian government is finally stepping in to help out the Xavante people.
Genetic origins
A 2015 genetic study reached a surprising conclusion about the origins of the Xavante people. Unlike other Native American peoples, the
Paiter-Surui,
Karitiana, and Xavante have an ancestry partially related to indigenous
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...
n populations of the
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...
,
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
, and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Scientists speculate that the relationship derives from an earlier people, called "Population Y", in East
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
from whence both groups diverged 15,000 to 30,000 years ago, the future Australasians migrating south and the remote ancestors of the Xavante northward finding their way to the New World and to the interior
Amazon Basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...
.
Culture
The people may be most famous for their dualistic societal structure. Two clans, the Âwawẽ and Po'reza'õno compose the culture, and
marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
is not allowed between members of the same clan. An example of inter-clan relationships are the traditional log races, where the two clans compete in a race to carry
palm tree
The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...
trunks weighing as much as 80 kg to a defined point.
The Xavante are also known for their complex initiation rituals for young
male
Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization.
A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...
s, such as when small wooden sticks are inserted in the
earlobe
The human earlobe (''lobulus auriculae''), the lower portion of the outer ear, is composed of tough areolar and adipose connective tissues, lacking the firmness and elasticity of the rest of the auricle (the external structure of the ear). In ...
s at the age of fourteen. As time passes, the size of these adornments is increased for the rest of their lives.
In 1996 the Brazilian
heavy metal band
Sepultura
Sepultura (, "grave")Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 17. is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte. Formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera,Barcinski & Gomes 1999, page 16. the band was a major force in the groove metal, thra ...
stayed and recorded with the Xavante people, who are featured on their album ''
Roots
A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients.
Root or roots may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...
''. A small number of Xavante even travelled to São Paulo to partake in Sepultura's Barulho Contra Fome (''Noise Against Hunger'') concert in 1998 that marked the start of their tour for their follow-up album, ''
Against'', where their presence was featured in the music video for the song "
Choke".
Further reading
*Seth Garfield, ''Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil: State Policy, Frontier Expansion, and the Xavante Indians, 1937–1988'', Duke University Press, 2001:
*D.G.Fabré, ''Beyond the River of the Dead'', Robert Hale Limited, London, 1963
*
Roots (Sepultura album)
''Roots'' is the sixth studio album by Brazilian metal band Sepultura. It was released in Europe on and in the U.S. three weeks later on March 12 by Roadrunner Records. It is the band's last studio album to feature founding member and vocalist/r ...
- the Xavante tribe can be heard singing in the song "Itsari".
References
External links
Instituto Socioambiental Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples of Brazilentry at
SIL International
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...
Great Web of Percy Harrison Fawcett* Cultural Survival
David Maybury-Lewis, Xavante Archive Documents Vital Culture Laura Graham, Effects of Modernization on the Xavante
https://archive.org/details/WAIA_Part2_J_2004 Rites of the Xavante
{{Authority control
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples of Eastern Brazil