Xavante

South Americaprimarily hunter-gatherers
Map
expand_more Description

The Xavante live in dispersed communities in eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil. They have a strong egalitarian and collective ethos, with community decisions made in men’s councils, balancing lineage and moiety interests while reinforcing age-grade and gender power differentials. The degree of consensus thereby obtained facilitated not just a flexible, wide-ranging economy of semi-sedentary hunting, gathering, and swidden agriculture, but also a successful resistance to assimilation until the mid-twentieth century, when a government development program involving forced resettlement of indigenous peoples resulted in restricted mobility and a loss of lands. Under a changed political climate later in the century, the Xavante managed to regain some lands, reclaim their history and revitalize their culture.

Identifier
Region
  • South America
Subregion
  • Eastern South America
Subsistence Type
  • primarily hunter-gatherers
Samples
Countries
  • Brazil