Demografia e identidade do povo xipaya no médio Rio Xingu, PA

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to analyze the relationship between identity and demography of the xipaya people living in the middle course of the river Xingu. To carry out such analytical movement both the bibliography on the indigenous groups of the region and the production of data that accompanies it are used, in order to unveil the descriptions and the mechanisms of such production. It is worth noting that the xipaya people, who share with other indigenous peoples in the Middle Xingu a similar bibliographical trajectory, is present in the first reports on the occupation of the area above the Volta Grande do Xingu (stretch of the river that separates its middle and lower course), and that due to a particular reading on the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous societies, specially caused by the expansion of the occupation of the area resulting from the rubber trade, has been described as extinct for being "integrated" to the regional society. Which meant that this group was perceived as an indigenous people who was not economically, religiously or linguistically independent of the regional population. However, from the late 1970, through an ethnic resurgence movement, the Brazilian State recognized the Xipaya as an indigenous group and its right to land through the demarcation of the Xipaya indigenous land. The xipaya population currently lives in three localities in Pará: in the city of Altamira, on their indigenous land and on riverside communities on the banks of the rivers Xingu and Iriri. They are thus recognized as indigenous groups who live in the city (citadinos), indigenous groups that live in communities in their land (aldeados) and indigenous groups that live alongside the rivers (ribeirinhos). Therefore, to understand the historical and descriptive processes by which the xipaya population passed, passes, and how it was described and accounted for in the context of demographic and historical sources on the Xingu region, a historical and bibliographical view is presented in the first chapter, following the occupation of the area from the first attempts to establish a missionary village up to recent expansion development cycles, of which the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant emerges as an important milestone. In the second chapter, population data are presented in all its phases (design, implementation and reception) as political and social disputes, and from that discussion the description dynamics of the alleged disappearance of xipaya indigenous group is analyzed, followed by the study of the descriptive dynamics of their ethnic resurgence, in the context of the 1970's and of recent history. Finally, in the third chapter, xviii the data produced on the population xipaya and other indigenous peoples in the Middle Xingu is specifically studied, showing the different sources and their production. KeywordsIndigenous peoples -Amazon; Indians of South America -Demography; Xipaya people; Xipaya people -Xingu River (MT and PA).