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Chapter 6 Subsistence, Ecology, and the Development Trap If one reads reports by scientists, journalists, and other travelers who crossed Central Brazil in the first half of the twentieth century it is not uncommon to come across descriptions of the cerrado as an extremely inhospitable environment for human life. The engineer Manuel Rodrigues Ferreira, a member of the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico de São Paulo, who took part in the Roncador-Xingu Expedition in the 1940s, wrote: These Indians live in a region which is hostile to animal life, since the soil is not fertile, watercourses are few, and the vegetation consists predominantly of wizened scrub. These aborigines, therefore, are subjected to all the harshness of the environment. There are no fish, and birds are rare. . . . To survive, the Xavánte struggle against the hostile nature that surrounds them. (Ferreira 1946, 72–73) Anthropological accounts also characterized the cerrado as a difficult place to make a living, describing the regions inhabited by Jêspeaking peoples as “relatively arid and unproductive uplands” (Steward and Faron 1959, 363) or an “infertile plateau of sandy soil covered by scrubby xerophytic growth” (430). In-depth anthropological research carried out among the Xavánte since the late 1950s has produced a body of information describing how indigenous peoples of Central Brazil relate to the cerrado in a way that sharply contrasts with descriptions such as these. According to Maybury-Lewis, The way in which Shavante make use of a seemingly unpromising environment to supply their needs is a feature of their life which strikes an outside observer most forcibly. . . . Shavante life was so well adapted to their environment that as late as 1958 a visitor got 151 152 The Xavánte in Transition an impression of abundance and efficiency in their villages, which was in striking contrast to the feeling of poverty and inadequacy conveyed by Brazilian settlements in Central Brazil (1967, 61) Early descriptions of the cerrado as unproductive have changed in recent decades as more research has been carried out. Actually, it was not until the 1970s that the ecology of Brazilian cerrado landscapes really started to become better known, as an increasing number of research projects in the fields of botany, zoology, and agronomy were initiated.1 The picture that has emerged from this large array of research is the cerrado as a diversified environment rich in both plant and animal species. Resources and Subsistence The Xavánte have exploited the cerrado in a myriad of ways. Their traditional subsistence may be characterized as a combination of hunting , gathering, and horticulture. Emphasis placed on each one of these practices has changed over time as the Xavánte have experienced different historical and sociopolitical conditions. At present, although substantial modifications have taken place, the Etéñitépa group still largely relies on the cerrado, so much so that early ethnographic descriptions of subsistence practices, such as those of Giaccaria and Heide (1984) and Maybury-Lewis (1967), might sound remarkably contemporaneous to someone coming to their village today. The use of faunal and floral resources from the cerrado by the Etéñitépa community is probably more intensive than that of any other Xavánte group. In part this stems from the fact that Pimentel Barbosa is the largest Xavánte reservation (table 2.1), the one with the least degraded vegetation, and the one enjoying the lowest population density. Gathering According to Maybury-Lewis (1967, 43), without hunting, Shavante culture would have been very different; but without gathering, the Shavante could not have existed at all. In 1958 the São Domingos Shavante did not eat meat every day and even went without meat for a number of days at a stretch when they Subsistence, Ecology, and the Development Trap 153 were too busy to hunt. A day never went by, however, when the wild products of the region were not available in the community. This statement clearly illustrates the importance in the Xavánte diet of gathered wild products, especially roots and tubers. This pattern has changed dramatically over the decades. In spite of this, the cerrado flora continues to serve as a vital source of diversity in Etéñitépa Xavánte subsistence. Palm nuts and hearts of palm are highly appreciated and often, though not always, eaten fresh. Hearts of palm may be dried in the sun and pounded into flour, which is boiled to make a kind of thick soup considered suitable food...

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