Xavante
South Americaprimarily hunter-gatherersMap
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