Book
Amazon gold rush: markets and the Mundurucu Indians
University Microfilms International • Ann Arbor, Mich. • Published In 2001 • Pages:
By: Burkhalter, Steve Brian.
Abstract
This dissertation examines in detail the profound changes that have taken place in Mundurucu society as the result of contact with the outside world. Not only have introduced concepts of health care and education affected them greatly, but also their economic relations with traders, merchants, Indian agents, missionaries, Brazilian peasants, and gold miners have done much to reshape their thoughts and actions. Despite the affects of acculturation on the society in which many of their former customs have fallen into disuse, the ethnic identity of the Mundurucu as a people has been largely retained , except in fringe areas where some members of the society pass themselves off as rural Brazilian peasants. Burkhalter suggests that their cultural persistence as a people has depended upon strong female groups in individual villages, as a result of matrilocal residence, which has had a tendency to conserve traditional cultural patterns. However, the author notes in conclusion that the Mundurucu economic relations with the outside world '…ties them ever more firmly into the national and international economies and threatens their integrity as an ethnic group' (introductory, p. vii).
- HRAF PubDate
- 2003
- Region
- South America
- Sub Region
- Amazon and Orinoco
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 2001
- Field Date
- January 1979-March 1981
- Coverage Date
- 1979-1981
- Coverage Place
- Upper Tapajós River area, State of Para, Brazil
- Notes
- Steve Brian Burkhalter
- UM8307555
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-214)
- Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Columbia University, 1982
- LCSH
- Munduruku Indians