FORAGER-FARMERS: THE XAVANTE INDIANS OF CENTRAL BRAZIL.
Item
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Title
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FORAGER-FARMERS: THE XAVANTE INDIANS OF CENTRAL BRAZIL.
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Identifier
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AAI8312344
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identifier
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8312344
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Creator
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FLOWERS, NANCY MAY.
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Contributor
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Daniel Gross
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Date
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1983
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Anthropology, Cultural
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Abstract
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This thesis is a study of the adaptation of the Xavante Indians to their physical and human environments. The Xavante, like other native groups of Central Brazil, until they were circumscribed by Brazilian settlement, combined cultivation of crops with extensive foraging. The Xavante resisted domination by the national society for over 200 years. I discuss aspects of their subsistence system and social structure that contributed to the effectiveness of this resistence. The Xavante were finally pacified in the 1940's, and are now settled on a reservation where they grow rice as a staple crop and are beginning to participate in the local market economy. I examine some of the effects of contact and subsistence change on nutrition, on fertility and mortality patterns, and on social organization. Finally, I discuss some of the implications of the Xavante experience for studies of cultural evolution. I suggest that, although the Xavante and other modern groups should not be regarded as representing "stages" in human evolution, we may fruitfully examine the interaction of competing human groups with different technologies for clues to general processes. These processes may help to explain events more distant in time, such as the agricultural transition.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Anthropology
