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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.

Indigenous struggle at the heart of Brazil

Culture Summary

A public sphere in Amazonia?

Dialogic dreams

Akwẽ-Shavante society

Tapirs, tractors, and tapes

The Akwe-Xavante in history at the end of the 20th century

Social practice and ontology in Akwe-Xavante naming and myth

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Author	Title	Publication Date
Garfield, Seth	Indigenous struggle at the heart of Brazil	2001
Graham, Laura R.	Culture Summary	2025
Graham, Laura R.	A public sphere in Amazonia?	1993
Graham, Laura R.	Dialogic dreams	1994
Maybury-Lewis, David	Akwẽ-Shavante society	1967
Santos, Ricardo Ventura	Tapirs, tractors, and tapes	1997
Silva, Aracy Lopes da	The Akwe-Xavante in history at the end of the 20th century	2000
Silva, Aracy Lopes da	Social practice and ontology in Akwe-Xavante naming and myth	1989

Xavante

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