Xikrin

ETHNONYMS: Chicri, Diore, Purukarôt

Orientation

Identification. In the oldest literature, these Indians are referred to as "Diore," "Chicri," or "Purukarôt." Their self-denomination, however, is "Putkarôt." "Xikrin" was a name given them by Whites, but nowadays they rarely identify themselves as such. The Xikrin are a subgroup of the Kayapó, the westernmost representatives of the Northern Gê. The name "Kayapó" comes from the Tupí kaia (monkey) and po (similar to), but the Gê to whom it is applied never called themselves by this name. All Kayapó call themselves "Mebengnôkre," that is, "people of the big water." Modern Kayapó give no explanation for this name, but originally it may have referred to the Rio Araguaia, whose course was apparently an important geographical boundary separating the ancestral Kayapó from the ancestors of the present-day Apinayé. Today, however, each of the fifteen Kayapó groups is autonomous and has its own name.

Location. The Kayapó occupy a vast area of central Brazil between the Tocantins and Xingu rivers, in southeastern Pará. The territory of the Xikrin is located in the municipality of Marabá, near Provincia Mineral de Caraiás. One group of Xikrin inhabits a village on the left side of the Rio Cateté, 6° 15′20″ S and 50°47′25" W, 30 kilometers above the confluence of this river with the Itacaiunas. The other Xikrin group lives on the bank of the Rio Bacajá, an affluent of the Xingu to the south of Altamira.

Linguistic Affiliation. The language spoken by the Xikrin is Kayapó, which belongs to the Gê Language Family. The language most nearly related to Kayapó is Apinayé, with barely a 20 percent difference in their vocabulary. For the Kayapó, who are divided into autonomous groups, language is the most comprehensive characteristic of ethnic identity, leading to the recognition that they share a common culture. There are, however, slight dialectal differences between the various groups. The degree of ability to speak Portuguese varies a great deal among the Kayapó, depending on the length of contact and the degree of isolation in which each group finds itself.

Demography. The total population of the fifteen Kayapó groups is approximately 3,000. The Cateté Xikrin number 390 and the Bacajá group 170. All Kayapó groups show a steady demographic growth. At the time of contact, toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Kayapó lost a large part of their population. Between 1940 and 1960 there was renewed shock because of epidemics transmitted by pioneers entering the forest in search of natural resources. In 1964 the Cateté Xikrin barely numbered 100 individuals, but thereafter the group recuperated thanks to missionary activity and the presence of the Fundação Nacional do Indio (National Indian Foundation, FUNAI).

History and Cultural Relations

The actual configuration of Kayapó groups is the result of a long process of social and spatial mobility, marked by the constant formation of factions and political divisions. In the nineteenth century the Kayapó who had separated from the Apinayé and who at that time were called "Gorotire Kumren," split after crossing the Araguaia. The original group remained on the Rio Pau d'Arco, an affluent of the Araguaia, whereas the group called "Pore-Kru" (ancestors of the present-day Xikrin) headed in a northerly direction to the area of the Rio Itacatunas. In the second half of the nineteenth century the Pau d'Arco group split again, and the dissidents (direct ancestors of the Gorotire) migrated toward the Xingu and Fresco rivers and settled in that area. It is from this group that, after successive fissions, all remaining Kayapó groups descend (except for the Xikrin).

The Pau d'Arco Kayapó, after coming into contact with the local population and with Dominican missionaries who founded the town of Conçeição do Araguaia in 1987, became extinct, victims of epidemics. In 1946 anthropologist Curt Nimuendajú identified just six survivors.

The Porekru (ancestors of the Xikrin) split into three groups. One of them, the Diore, in 1910 fell victim to a punitive expedition by the local settlers. The two other groups, the Kokorekre and Putkarôt, while fleeing from rubber tappers, encountered and fought with the Gorotire. Around 1926, fearful of the Gorotire, these groups settled in the area of the Rio Bacajá. Between 1930 and 1940 a group that did not like the area separated and returned to the Cateté.

As of 1880, the large town of Pukatôti, with more than 1,000 people, located on the margin of the Riozinho do Afrísio, 60 kilometers south of Cachoeira da Fumaça, came to be the center of reference for the Gorotire. Between 1900 and 1910 there occurred the first great split, which separated the Gorotire from the groups from whom present-day Mekranoti and Metuktire (Txukahamãe) descend, and who settled west of the Rio Xingu. Between the 1930s and 1950s, owing to internal fissioning, illness, and conflicts with the rubber owners and tappers in the area, the Gorotire divided again, forming the groups known as Kararaô (nowadays located to the south of Altamira), Kuben-Krã-Kein (on the Fresco River) and Kokraimoro (on the Xingu). Beginning in 1970 there was renewed fissioning. In the Metuktire village on the Xingu, there occurred a split between the people led by Raoni, who accepted the invitation of the Villas Boas brothers and settled in the Xingu Indian Park, founding a new village, Kretire, and the people led by Kremoro and Krumare, who headed toward the Rio Jarina. In 1967, after a disagreement, chief Tut-Pombo left with his followers from Gorotire and founded the village of Kikretum in Nova Olinda. In 1979 a third of the Kuben-Krã-Kein left the village to found another one, Aukre, a village of Paiaká in the middle of the Riozinho. In 1981 a number of people from the Mekranoti village on the Rio Xixé moved to found Pukanu on the Rio Iriri, and finally in 1983 another group left Xixé and took up residence on the Iriri Novo. The Txukahamãe have once more come together in a new village in the area of Kapôt in the Kayapó Indian Reservation.

During this entire period, conflicts between Kayapó and pioneers who invaded their territory were always very violent, and there was great population loss. In the 1960s plantations and cattle ranches began operating in the area. The construction of the PA 279 highway linking Redenção no Araguaia with São Felix on the Xingu was also begun. In the 1980s gold prospecting started in the area, and lumber mills were established for the exploitation of high-quality timber, including mahogany. Such uncontrolled activities were highly predatory. Large state projects involving the development of mining and metallurgy (Projecto Grande Carajás) and the construction of hydroelectric plants (Tucuruí and Kararaô on the Xingu, the latter still under study) have also affected the area.

Settlements

Kayapó villages consist of a circle of houses around a central plaza. In the middle of the plaza stands the men's house. This spatial division is important on a symbolic level because it refers concretely to other divisions on the level of social structure: periphery/center, women/men, private/public life, domestic/ritual life.

The houses are large structures with two-sided straw roofs. The side of the dwelling facing the plaza is traditionally left open; the other three sides are closed with walls of thatch. The inside of the house consists of a continous space, but each nuclear family occupies a section that is defined by a spatial separation of 1 to 2 meters, with its own fireplace (hearth) and mats. Each family has its own belongings and a platform where the married couple and small children sleep. Baskets and gourds are hung from the rafters of the house or are placed on top of platforms at a certain height from the ground. Up to thirty or more people can live under the same roof.

Today there is a tendency to build houses with walls of wooden laths (Xingu) or wattle and daub (Cateté Xikrin) and to make partitions to separate the families, while at the same time maintaining a common area. Behind the houses there are stone ovens in which the greater part of the food is roasted.

In wandering through their territory the Indians build temporary camps, and at times also erect open houses in cleared fields.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Whenever possible, the Kayapó build their villages near a river or waterway, but in dry or well-drained terrain. The area inhabited by the Kayapó, which they explore in a systematic way, is a zone of transition between the tropical forest and the shrub-palm savanna. It is rich in game, fish, and forest products; there are also tracts of land that are well suited for horticulture. In the 1990s, despite the drastic changes they have undergone, all Kayapó continue practicing their traditional subsistence activities, assuring their basic food supply and a well-balanced diet. Horticulture is of the slash-and-burn type, and fields are cleared both collectively and individually. Kayapó plant several types of sweet potatoes, yams, bananas, sweet manioc, and maize. Since contact, there has been increased planting of bitter manioc for the production of farina, which has become a staple food. The Kayapó began to diversify, planting vegetables and fruit trees; some groups grew coffee, sugarcane, and rice. Traditionally, they also planted cotton and urucú and had domesticated a vine of high nutritional value called cupa. The Kayapó think of themselves as being essentially hunters despite their dependence on cultigens. The most prized game animals are tapir, wild boars, white-collared peccaries, deer, pacas, and agoutis. The Kayapó collect turtles in large quantities and ferret out armadillos. They also eat certain birds, for example guans and curassows. In winter, they fish individually, with nylon lines and hooks; in summer, communal fishing with timbó fish poison prevails. In the forest they gather palm shoots, Brazil nuts, babassu and lesser nuts, various kinds of honey, the fruits of the bacaba palm and acaí trees, and palm grubs. They also collect large quantities of genipapo for body painting, timbó vines for fishing, and a great variety of medicinal plants.

Subsistence activities are cyclical and seasonal. There are times of plenty and of scarcity. Some food taboos have been partially abandoned, increasing the number of edible products. The Kayapó are seminomadic, with a fixed migratory pattern and the village always as their point of return. The objective is to explore all the resources of the area, especially during the dry season, when fields produce the least. They spend the night near a river in order to fish, or near an old clearing covered by secondary growth to hunt and gather fruit, or even near a particular area where there are large quantities of a specific resource such as taguara (Gynerium sagittatum ) reeds for arrow shafts, for buriti palms, or fruit trees. This habitual trekking, besides diversifying the diet, allows for good management of the various ecosystems, avoiding the exhaustion of any one area. Many rituals depend on these migrations, which are essential for supplying the food surplus needed for the performance of ceremonies. The alternation of nomadic and sedentary life among the Kayapó plays an important role in various aspects of their social organization. One can forsee that in the future the reduction of their territory and deforestation will create a reduction in hunting grounds and the depletion of arable land. This will create a greater dependency on the market economy.

Since the time of contact, men have hunted with shotguns; they consequently need ammunition, which is quite expensive and thus creates great dependence on external subsidies for this traditional activity. Deforestation in southeastern Pará has drastically reduced the fauna in the area.

Industrial Arts. Before contact, the Kayapó used different kinds of well-made clubs for hunting and wooden lances armed with tips of jaguar bone. Bows and arrows, on the other hand, were always of a simple kind. Women used the digging stick to pry out tubers in the field. For carrying and safeguarding their belongings they fashioned baskets, boxes, and bags made from palm fronds. In gourds they kept bird down and various types of seeds, including urucú. Formerly, they carried water in hollow bamboo receptacles because they do not make pottery. They sleep on platforms or floor mats. They spin cotton and weave arm straps and frames for feather ornaments. They do not make woven cloth but nowadays buy nets in the market, as well as pots and pans, aluminum vessels, tools, and clothes.

Division of Labor. Activities are planned according to the dry or wet season and can vary a good deal. The Kayapó are divided into groups according to sex, age category, and men's societies under the direction of a chief for the performance of economic activities and communal duties. Women also form groups based on kinship. To them fall the tasks of working in the fields, collecting firewood and water, gathering forest products, and performing household duties. They spend a great deal of time on body painting, spin cotton, and play an important role during rituals. Even though they do not formally participate in the village council, they voice their opinions about collective decisions and decide on matters relating to name giving and marriage. Men generally work under the leadership of a chief, and are divided into men's societies and age categories. In clearing fields or building houses, they sometimes work collectively. Hunting and fishing can be done individually or in groups and may be highly ritualized, as on the occasions of name-giving feasts or initiations. The Kayapó do not work for the local population. They trade in Brazil nuts. Leaders of adult men have their "positions," in which capacity they direct work during the harvesting season. Nowadays the majority of groups prefer to sell timber, which is more lucrative and less tiring than traditional activities. The Gorotire permit prospecting on their reserve, for which they charge royalties.

Kinship

Kayapó kinship is bilateral, and genealogical reckoning is shallow. Owing to continuous fissioning, the Kayapó have relatives in several villages. Besides real kinship, they have a large number of relatives acquired either by adoption or through friendship. Kinship terms establish the relationship of each individual to other individuals in the village. Kayapó must not marry near relatives in the same residential segment. Kinship terminology is of the Omaha type. Nuclear families of an extended family or residential segment, including affinal relations, form a mutual-support unit, in daily life as well as in times of illness.

Important kinship and ceremonial relationships are those between ngêt (mother's father, father's father, and sister's brother) and tabdjuo (daughter's son, son's son, and sister's son) or between kwatui (mother's mother, father's mother, and father's sister) and tabdjuo (daughter's daughter, son's daughter, and brother's daughter). Ngêt and kwatui give their names and ceremonial privileges to their tabdjuo. This institution is one of the most important for the perpetuation of Kayapó society.

Formal friendship relationships are inherited patrilineally but are between nonrelated persons with whom a special relationship of respect and avoidance is maintained. A formal friend plays an important role during certain ceremonies in which he assists his partner, especially during rites of passage.

Marriage and Family

Domestic Unit. A basic institution is the extended family, which is linked through the female line. Residence is uxorilocal, and with the birth of the first son the marriage begins to have more stability. Women of the household do their work together and spend the greater part of their time in the home. Men's work is performed outside the home, in the forest or the men's house, where they make artifacts and ornaments, and which is also their meeting place.

Socialization. The traditional form of educating children is through participant observation of daily life. Adults orient and correct informally, and sometimes teach groups of children songs, choreography, and ritual sequences in a more systematic way. More specific activities can be learned individually with a specialist. Punishment, or rather pressure, is exerted by parents and the community with regard to deviant behavior, which is met with ridicule or slight ostracism. Work that is well done is publicly admired and praised. Education proceeds by stages that loosely correspond to age categories and the sexual division of labor. By the time they reach adulthood, all women know how to body paint and men how to hunt.

Sociopolitical Organization

A basic institution of Kayapó society is the division into age categories, which are socially defined. The most important are meprire for children. At the age of 10 or 12, a boy is taken to the men's house, where he will live until he marries. When he reaches puberty he is initiated and receives his menõrõnu age-category name. After the birth of his first son, a man becomes a member of the mekrare age-category of married persons with children. This is a very important moment in a man's life, marked by a ritual. Upon reaching old age, a man is called mebenget. Before women have children they are kurerere and afterwards mekrare. On certain occasions, age groups are defined in a more visible way, as for instance during their treks, when each age category devotes itself to specific activities, or during certain rituals. Among the Cateté Xikrin, for example, moieties consisting of young bachelors, on the one hand and married men, on the other, carry out various economic, political, and ceremonial activities.

It is only at certain times and places that age categories are emphasized in men's and women's societies. Among the Xingu Kayapó, when a man's first son is born, he must join a men's society. The Kayapo say that they choose the society of their friends. Women join a society corresponding to that of their husband. Among the Mekranoti, for example, there are now two societies. In the past, several societies existed at the same time. Sometimes there are none. Each society has its chief. Sometimes men's societies become very strong political factions, which leads to violent conflict. They often break up, and alliances are redefined. This institution is less apparent among the Xikrin who organize themselves according to age categories.

Conflict. In the formation of a Kayapó man, value is placed on being strong, resistant, and fierce. Young men's scarification and wasp trials during initiation are tests of strength. War traditionally had a leading place in male initiation. Those that had been able to kill an enemy received special tatoo marks. It is obligatory for a man to avenge the deaths of his close relatives.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. The Kayapó consider themselves an integral part of the world and circular universe; they see the process of life and the universe as a cyclical one. Cycles of ecological and structural time determine and form part of life and human activities. Kayapó migrations from east to west, like the sun's trajectory, go from the earth to a higher plane, toward new conquests. The center of the world is represented by the village's central plaza, where ritual and public life take place. The symbol of the center of the world and the universe is the rattle, in the form of a head, to the rhythm of which the Indians sing and dance. By dancing, they say, they go back to the time of mythical origins and recreate the energy required for life to continue. Xikrin myths tell of the origin and formation of Kayapó society, the origin of their institutions, and the historico-legendary incidents their group lived through, increasing their experience and strengthening their identity.

Religious Practitioners. The majority of Xikrin cultural items, stories, names, and the like were brought from nature to society by the shaman. In the performance of his (the shaman is always a male) benevolent activities, the shaman is basically a specialist who has knowledge of ritual curing. To become a shaman, a man must undergo certain trials that give him the ability to have supernatural visions and the capacity to enter into contact with supernatural beings.

Ceremonies. When a community is large enough, the ritual cycle is continuous and implies a careful schedule of expeditions for the acquisition of the materials needed for ritual paraphernalia and to procure an excess supply of food, which is ceremonially offered to the entire village. The most important rituals are male and female name-giving and initiation ceremonies. There are also festivals marking the harvests of maize and manioc and the gathering of timbó, a mat ritual for marriage, a feast that introduces new members into ceremonial societies (such as those of armadillos, birds, or jaguars), and funeral rites. At certain times the ritual cycle reaches a climax, developing for several days with great intensity.

Arts. Ornamental paraphernalia are highly developed and body painting constitutes a highly structured semiotic system with formal characteristics and individual aesthetics. Featherwork consists of a group of crests made from the feathers of macaws, parrots, hawks, and herons. Also characteristic of the Kayapó is a stiff necklace of itâ beads. They have only three musical instruments: the bamboo trumpet, the gourd rattle, and the transverse flute. After contact they began using large quantities of glass beads. Nowadays, certain traditional items are made only for commercial purposes. The Kayapó have radios and tape recorders and, sometimes, video cameras, with which they record their music and ceremonies as well as those of other peoples.

Medicine. The Kayapó believe that illness is caused by a loss of mekaron (a kind of spirit or double in the person's image) or by the attack of a forest animal's mekaron. In curing, they employ various plants to prepare bandages, baths, and fumigations. Plants related to certain game animals or to the jaguar and the anaconda are also used. If strict food taboos and prescribed diets are not obeyed, the animal mekaron can attack an individual, causing illness and even death. For wounds, the Kayapó use fumigation with tobacco smoke, and for muscular pains, light scarification. For neuralgia, they apply a fire-heated polished stone.

The Kayapó accept medical treatment introduced by Whites because they are well aware of the fact that they are being attacked by a series of grave illnesses that did not exist before contact. At the same time, however, they continue practicing their native medicine, but more with an end to recovering the mekaron and of addressing psychological dimensions of curing.

Death and Afterlife. The Kayapó are afraid to die and do not have a highly developed eschatology of humankind's ultimate destiny. A person dies because of the loss of his or her mekaron, which is believed to be on its way to the village of the dead, located on tribal land, near a mountain range. There the mekaron continues to live a life similar to that of those in the village of the living. The body of the deceased is buried in a cemetery, and after some time the bones are retrieved, washed, painted with urucú, and submitted to secondary burial.

Bibliography

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LUX VIDAL (Translated by Ruth Gubler)