Xingu Indigenous Park
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The Xingu Indigenous Park (, pronounced ) is an indigenous territory of Brazil, first created in 1961 as a
national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
in the state of
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 ...
, Brazil. Its official purposes are to protect the environment and the several tribes of Xingu indigenous peoples in the area.


Location

The Xingu Indigenous Park is on the upper
Xingu River The Xingu River ( ; pt, Rio Xingu, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Byti'', ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water. ...
in the north east of the state of Mato Grosso, in the south of the
Amazon biome The Amazon biome ( pt, Bioma Amazônia) contains the Amazon rainforest, an area of tropical rainforest, and other ecoregions that cover most of the Amazon basin and some adjacent areas to the north and east. The biome contains blackwater and white ...
. It covers 26,420 square km (2,642,003 hectares, 6,528,530 acres), with savannah and drier semi-deciduous forests in the south transitioning to Amazon rain forest in the north. There is a rainy season from November to April. The headwaters of the
Xingu River The Xingu River ( ; pt, Rio Xingu, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Byti'', ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water. ...
are in the south of the park. The area covered by the park was defined in 1961 and covers parts of the municipalities of
Canarana Canarana is a municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Bahia This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Bahia (BA), located in the Northeast Region of Brazil. Bahi ...
,
Paranatinga Paranatinga is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil. The municipality contains the Culuene Biological Reserve, created in 1898.Editing Culuene Biological Reserve (section) - Wikipedia As of 2021, peo ...
,
São Félix do Araguaia São Félix do Araguaia is a municipality in the state of Mato Grosso in the Central-West Region of Brazil. The city is served by São Félix do Araguaia Airport. See also *List of municipalities in Mato Grosso This is a list of the municipa ...
, São José do Xingu, Gaúcha do Norte, Feliz Natal,
Querência Querência is a Brazilian municipality of state of Mato Grosso.It is located in the northeast of the state, in the Great Amazon Basin. Within its great limits are part of the Xingu Indigenous Reserve, and an immense virgin area, formed by the Cerr ...
, União do Sul, Nova Ubiratã and Marcelândia in the state of Mato Grosso. To the east is the basin of the Araguaia River, the main branch of the Tocantins. To the west and south is the
Teles Pires The Teles Pires ( pt, Rio São Manuel) is a long river in Brazil. The river flows through the state of Mato Grosso and its lower part marks the border between the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. At its mouth it joins Juruena River and together ...
branch of the Tapajos River. Much of the surrounding area, except to the north, is now heavily deforested. On the east side the deforested or unforested area extends northeast marking the approximate southeastern edge of the Amazon forest. At the center of the park a fan of rivers join. These are, counter-clockwise,
Ferro River The Ferro River is a river of Mato Grosso state in western Brazil. It flows northeast, receives the Steinen River from the south, enters the Xingu Indigenous Park, receives the combined Ronuro and Jatoba rivers from the south and joins the Xingu R ...
, Steinem, Ronuro, Jatoba, Batavi (or Tamitatoala), Auiiti, Culiseu,
Culuene River The Culuene River, or Kuluene River is a 600 km tributary of Xingu River in Mato Grosso, a state in western Brazil. The main economic activities in the region are agriculture and cattle farming. It joins the Xingu from the southeast in the X ...
and Tonguro.


History

In the Upper Xingu region was a highly self-organized
pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...
anthropogenic landscape, including deposits of fertile agricultural
terra preta ''Terra preta'' (, locally , literally "black soil" in Portuguese) is a type of very dark, fertile anthropogenic soil ( anthrosol) found in the Amazon Basin. It is also known as "Amazonian dark earth" or "Indian black earth". In Portuguese its f ...
, black soil in Portuguese, with a network of roads and polities each of which covered about 250 square kilometers. The Upper Xingu region was heavily populated prior to European and African contact. Densely populated settlements developed from 1200 to 1600 CE. Ancient roads and bridges linked communities that were often surrounded by ditches or moats. The villages were pre-planned and featured circular plazas. Archaeologists have unearthed 19 villages so far.Wren, Kathleen
"Lost cities of the Amazon revealed."
'NBC News' (retrieved 25 June 2019)
The upper Xingu was one of the last parts of Brazil to be reached by Europeans.John Hemming, Amazon Frontier, 1987, pp 400-415. From the north it was protected by the Xingu's many rapids. From the south it was protected by thin settlement and the warlike
Bororo The Bororo are indigenous people of Brazil, living in the state of Mato Grosso. They also extended into Bolivia and the Brazilian state of Goiás. The Western Bororo live around the Jauru and Cabaçal rivers. The Eastern Bororo ( Orarimogodoge ...
and
Xavante The Xavante (also Shavante, Chavante, Akuen, A'uwe, Akwe, Awen, or Akwen) are an indigenous people, comprising 15,315 individuals within the territory of eastern Mato Grosso state in Brazil. They speak the Xavante language, part of the Jê lang ...
, among others. In 1884
Karl von den Steinen Karl von den Steinen (born March 7, 1855 in Mülheim, died November 4, 1929 in Kronberg im Taunus) was a German physician (with emphasis in psychiatry), ethnologist, explorer, and author of important anthropological work, which is particularly ...
headed northwest from
Cuiabá Cuiabá () is the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. It is located near the geographical centre of South America. Also, it forms the metropolitan area of Mato Grosso, along with the neighbouring town of Várzea Grande. The city ...
to some Christianized Bakairi on the upper
Teles Pires The Teles Pires ( pt, Rio São Manuel) is a long river in Brazil. The river flows through the state of Mato Grosso and its lower part marks the border between the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. At its mouth it joins Juruena River and together ...
. They led him two weeks east to the Batavi River where they built canoes. They went downstream and met some uncontacted Bakairi, as well as the Trumai and Suya. In the next 20 years other explorers entered the area, several of whom died. Percy Fawcett disappeared here in 1925. The national park was created after a campaign by the
Villas-Bôas brothers Orlando (1914–2002) and his brothers Cláudio (1916–1998) and Leonardo Villas-Bôas (1918–1961) were Brazilian brothers who worked in indigenous activism. In 1961 they succeeded in getting the entire upper Xingu legally protected, making i ...
for protection of the region. An account of the exploration of this area by the Villas-Bôas brothers and their efforts to protect the region is documented in the film '' Xingu'' (2011) and in the book by John Hemming, ''People of the Rainforest: The Villas Boas Brothers, Explorers and Humanitarians of the Amazon'' (London, 2019). The Villas Boas and three anthropologists and activists had the radical idea of creating a vast area of forest protected solely for its indigenous inhabitants and invited scientists. This was put to the vice president of Brazil in 1952, at which a much larger park was proposed. However, the proposal was opposed by the state of Mato Grosso which began granting land within the proposed area to colonizing companies. Nine years of bitter political and media struggle ensued, until a new president of Brazil, Jânio Quadros (a family friend of the Villas Boas) rammed it through as a presidential decree, but at a greatly reduced area to satisfy the state government. The park came into existence by decree 50.455 of 14 April 1961. (Adjustments were made on 31 July 1961, 6 August 1968 and 13 July 1971. The final demarcation of the perimeter was made in 1978.) The area was soon given the designation of "Indigenous Park" to cover the dual purpose of protecting the environment and the indigenous people, with all others excluded. It was the first such vast protected area in the world, and was the prototype of large indigenous territories throughout Amazonia which now protect a significant proportion of surviving tropical rain forests. The Xingu Indigenous Park was initially a presidential department, but is now subject to both the indigenous agency Funai and the environmental agency Ibama. By the late 1990s livestock and soya farms to the north east of the park were starting to reach the park, as was deforestation to the west of the park. The effects of human activity outside the park were starting to pollute the waters of the park. The park remains as an island of forest and rivers increasingly threatened by polluting activity and deforestation outside its perimeter.


Peoples

The people living within the boundaries of the park are the Kamaiurá (355),
Aweti The Aweti people are a group of Native Americans living in the Xingu Indigenous Park, close to the headwaters of the Xingu River in Brazil. The Aweti inhabit two villages in the region. One is called Tazu’jyretam, and the other is unnamed. ...
(138),
Mehinako The Mehinaku, Mehináko or Mehinacu are an indigenous people of Brazil. They live in the Indigenous Park of the Xingu, located around the headwaters of the Xingu River in Mato Grosso. They currently reside in area around the Tuatuari River, Tuatu ...
(199),
Wauja The Waura or Wauja (waujá) are an indigenous people of Brazil. Their language, Waura language, Waura, is an Arawakan language. They live in the region near the Upper Xingu River, in the Xingu Indigenous Park, and had a population of 487 in 2010. ...
(321),
Yawalapiti The Yawalapiti (also Jaulapiti, Yaulapiti, or Yawalapití) are an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil. The name is also spelled Iaualapiti in Portuguese. The current village Yawalapiti is situated more to the south, between the Tu ...
(208), Kalapalo (417),
Kuikuro The Kuikuro are an indigenous people from the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Their language, Kuikuro, is a part of the Cariban language family. The Kuikuro have many similarities with other Xingu tribes. They have a population of 592 in 2010, up ...
(415),
Matipu The Matipu people are an indigenous people of Brazil. They live in the southern part of the Xingu Indigenous Park in the state of Mato Grosso. Their a population is estimated at about 149 individuals in 2011, up from population of 40 in the 1995 ce ...
(119), Nahukwá (105) and Trumai (120), who all share a common cultural system (population figures as of 2002). Also living within the park are the Ikpeng (formerly Txikao) (319), Kaiabi (745), Kisêdjê (formerly Suia) (334), Yudja (formerly Juruna) (248), Tapayuna and Naruvotu peoples (population figures as of 2002). The Xingu area is of great interest because its rich indigenous cultures escaped devastation by Europeans and their diseases, thanks to a lack of rubber or mineral resources in the region, and to a waterfall-rapids barrier on the Xingu river. The first explorer to contact and write about the people of the region was the German anthropologist
Karl von den Steinen Karl von den Steinen (born March 7, 1855 in Mülheim, died November 4, 1929 in Kronberg im Taunus) was a German physician (with emphasis in psychiatry), ethnologist, explorer, and author of important anthropological work, which is particularly ...
in the 1880s, followed by short visits by other anthropologists and government surveyors. But the first outside permanent residence there was by the São Paulo brothers Orlando and Claudio Villas Boas, from 1947 to 1976. They devised a new system for helping indigenous peoples, as friends, helpers and equals rather than as colonialist officials. This is now adopted throughout Brazil. By slowly introducing change at a rate that the indigenous peoples wanted and could absorb, they brought them in only two generations to awareness of all aspects of modern Brazilian society without losing their respect for their traditional communal societies and way of life. Leaders of Xingu indigenous groups such as Aritana Yawalapiti and Raoni Metuktire, both trained by the Villas Boas, are now spokesmen for all Brazil's indigenous peoples on a world stage. Ever since the late 1970s the Director of the Xingu Indigenous Park has been indigenous, chosen by the area's chiefs. In the sixty years after contact by Von den Steinen, the Xingu peoples had been struck by alien diseases such as measles and influenza that reduced their small populations by two-thirds. The Villas Boas completely reversed this decline through an agreement with Professor Roberto Baruzzi of a São Paulo teaching hospital, whereby for over fifty years teams of volunteer doctors have inoculated and tended the Xingu peoples to the highest medical standards. In June 1925 the British artillery Lt.-Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett visited the upper Xingu with his son and son's friend, by the same trail and river route used by all previous visitors. They spent a few days with the Aweti and Kalapalo peoples before either being killed by one of these tribes or continuing their journey into the forest. A trained surveyor, Fawcett had between 1907 and 1911 mapped four boundaries for the Bolivian government. A devotee of spiritualism, he became convinced that the Amazon forests might contain a lost city of an extremely ancient 'superior' civilization. After distinguished service in the First World War, Fawcett spent several years pursuing his fantasy in the north-east and other parts of Brazil, before the 1925 incursion to the Xingu. The disappearance of a British lieutenant-colonel, seeking a mystical city in Amazonian forests, caused a media sensation.
David Grann David Elliot Grann (born March 10, 1967) is an American journalist, a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and a best-selling author. His first book, '' The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon,'' was published by D ...
wrote an article about this exploration, followed by an expanded book, '' The Lost City of Z'' (2009 List of indigenous ethnic groups in the park, along with their respective populations as of 2011:Kahn, Marina; Campanili, Maura (eds.).
Almanaque Socioambiental Parque Indígena do Xingu: 50 anos
'. São Paulo: Instituto Socioambiental, 2011.
:


Languages

14 indigenous languages belonging to 5 different
language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hi ...
(including Trumai, a
language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
) are spoken in the park.Seki, Lucy. 2011
Alto Xingu: uma área linguística?
In: Franchetto, Bruna (ed.),
Alto Xingu: uma sociedade multilíngue
', p. 57-85. Rio de Janeiro: Museu do Índio/FUNAI.
Indigenous languages spoken in the southern part of the park (Upper Xingu) are: *
Arawakan languages Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branc ...
** Waurá ** Mehinaku **
Yawalapiti The Yawalapiti (also Jaulapiti, Yaulapiti, or Yawalapití) are an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil. The name is also spelled Iaualapiti in Portuguese. The current village Yawalapiti is situated more to the south, between the Tu ...
* Cariban languages **
Kuikuro The Kuikuro are an indigenous people from the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Their language, Kuikuro, is a part of the Cariban language family. The Kuikuro have many similarities with other Xingu tribes. They have a population of 592 in 2010, up ...
**
Matipu The Matipu people are an indigenous people of Brazil. They live in the southern part of the Xingu Indigenous Park in the state of Mato Grosso. Their a population is estimated at about 149 individuals in 2011, up from population of 40 in the 1995 ce ...
** Nahukwa ** Kalapalo *
Tupian languages The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi language, Tupi proper and Guarani language, Guarani. Homeland and ''urheimat'' Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian u ...
**
Aweti The Aweti people are a group of Native Americans living in the Xingu Indigenous Park, close to the headwaters of the Xingu River in Brazil. The Aweti inhabit two villages in the region. One is called Tazu’jyretam, and the other is unnamed. ...
** Kamayurá Indigenous languages spoken in the northern part of the park (Lower Xingu) are: * Trumai *
Jê languages The Jê languages (also spelled Gê, Jean, Ye, Gean), or Jê–Kaingang languages, are spoken by the Jê, a group of indigenous peoples in Brazil. Genetic relations The Jê family forms the core of the Macro-Jê family. Kaufman (1990) finds t ...
** Suyá *
Tupian languages The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi language, Tupi proper and Guarani language, Guarani. Homeland and ''urheimat'' Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian u ...
** Juruna (Yudja) ** Kayabi * Cariban languages ** Ikpeng (Txikão) In the northern park of the park, only Trumai has been spoken in the area for a considerable amount of time. All other languages in the area are from relatively recent arrivals.


List of villages

There are approximately 50 indigenous villages in the park. Below is a list of villages in the Xingu Indigenous Park arranged by ethnic group: ;Yudjá *Pakaia *Parureda *Tuba Tuba *Paksamba *Pequizal ;Kawaiweté :Kawaiweté villages along the
Xingu River The Xingu River ( ; pt, Rio Xingu, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Byti'', ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water. ...
: *Caiçara *Capivara *Yaitata *11 de Setembro (with Kisêdje people) *Piraquara *Itaí *Moitará *Samaúma *Tuiararé *Kwaryja *Ilha Grande *Barranco Alto *Três Irmãos :Kawaiweté villages along the Arraias River: *Aiporé *Fazenda João *Paranaíta *Mupadá (with Yudjá people) *Três Patos *Mainumy *Sobradinho *Nova Maraká *Iguaçu ;Kisêdje (in Wawi Indigenous Territory) *Ngosôkô Nova *Horerusikhô *Roptotxi *Fazenda Ronkho *Ngojhwêrê ;Ikpeng *Moygu ;Trumai *Boa Esperança *Três Lagoas *Steinen ;Kamaiurá *Morená *Jacaré *Ipavu ;Nafukuá *Kranhãnhã *Nafukuá *Yaramy ;Matipu *Matipu *Buritizal ;Yawalapiti *Yawalapiti ;Waurá *Piyulaga ;Mehinaku *Mehinaku *Utawana ;Aweti *Saidão da Fumaça (founded in 2002) *Tazu'jyt tetam ("village of the small fire ant") *Mirassol ;Kuikuro *Ipatse *Afukuri *Lahatua *Kuluani *Agata (Barranco Queimado) *Curumim ;Kalapalo *Aiha *Tanguro *Caramujo *Kunué *Lago Azul *Pingoa


Notes


Sources

*


External links


Interview with Orlando Villas Boas on the history of the park
(in Portuguese)
Maps of Xingu National Park
*(in English)
Indigenous Park of the Xingu
, ''Instituto Socioambiental'' {{authority control * Protected areas established in 1961 Indigenous peoples and the environment Indigenous Territories (Brazil) Protected areas of Mato Grosso National parks of Brazil 1961 establishments in Brazil