PARESI (BRAZIL) CULTURAL HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Flavia Prado Moi

Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Ambientais, (NEPAN/Unicamp)

Walter Fagundes Morales

Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Arqueológicas da Bahía, (NEPAB/UESC)

Introduction

In the Brazilian context, the dizzying growth of archeological investigations

related to heritage preservation legislation is a consequence of the

democratization of the country and the adoption of public policy that fosters citizen

participation in the management of their own cultural heritage. This growth has

created a forum for discussion about archeological and patrimonial questions and

their relationship to the wider realm of the economy, culture, politics, ethics, and

government as well as to social, educational and management questions. There

has also been a gradual growth in the promotion of the rights of indigenous people

to make and take part in decisions about the treatment, interpretation and

management of their sites and objects (Funari 1999, 2001, 2004; Ascherson 2000;

Funari et al. 2005).

The investigation that we have carried out with the Paresi, an indigenous

group located in Chapada dos Parecis (Mato Grosso, Brazil), emerged from the

growing concern for the public components of archeology (i.e., financial planning,

social issues, and politics related to the regulatory practices in a variety of

contexts). The investigation seeks to discover and discuss the political, socio-

cultural and economic developments since the 1990s through the lens of

environmental impact studies before the implantation of the Small Hydroelectric

Centers (PCHs) in various rivers in the region. Over the course of our fieldwork, 1

1 Flavia Prado Moi coordinated the fieldwork for the cultural heritage in the municipalities located ubicados in the area of influence of the PCHs Sacre 1, Sacre 2 and another 11 in the channel of the Juruena River. In the

we note that some technical aspects of these studies are related to an emerging

awareness of ethnic identity and preservation and archeological patrimony

management. As a result, with the knowledge of a larger context of discussion that

extended beyond the legal requirements of the environmental licensing process,

we began an investigation to help equip programs that provide parameters to

strengthen the application of public politics in this area. Our goal was to carry out a

case study to aid the assessment, management and preservation of the

archeological patrimony with the effective participation of the indigenous groups

and ensure that the results were employed in the service of these communities.

This context inspired the doctoral investigation2 Arqueologia pública em

território paresi: uma análise dos desdobramentos políticos, socioculturais e

econômicos decorrentes das pesquisas arqueológicas (Moi 2006), which seeks to

identify the strategies of investigative archeological programs in the area (theories,

methods, discoveries, and dissemination of results); the social, political and

economic factors of these projects, and the extent of the reciprocal relationship

established between participants and the ethnic Paresi, in a critical and political

dimension, with the goal of amplifying the realm of discussion about the rights and

duties of the Paresi and about their cultural environment. The investigation

discusses the uses and ideological applications that the Paresi could make use of

(or not) with the results of the archeological works and the epistemological

questions that address social identities and the political nature of the science. The

information produced, used and/or adopted by the local populations permits the

investigators to expand the range and the results of their work and increase the

level of interest and identification with respect to the archeological heritage,

increasing its estimation and preservation.

Indigenous emancipation, economic development and sustainability

area influenced by these projects were the Enawenê-nawê, Nambikwara and Paresi groups, directly affected by the construction of the PCH Sacre 2, whose introduction dependended on making use of a waterfall that boardered the village Sacre 2, Terra Indígena Utiariti. Walter Fagundes Morales coordinated the archeological fieldwork of these PCHs (Documento Antropología e Arqueologia 2001a, 2001b, 2003). 2 Investigation being carried out in NEPAM/UNICAMP under the leadership of Pedro Paulo de Abreu Funari of NEE/Arqueologia Pública da Unicamp.

The twentieth century bore witness to a large economic boom closely

related to marked demographic growth, principally in the poorest countries, which

produced environmental consequences such as pollution and ecological

deterioration; furthermore, the internet created a swift, intense and rapid influx in

information transmission. The indiscriminate appropriation of resources on a

worldwide scale in the postwar era fostered the emergence of social protest

movements in different capitalist countries at the beginning of the 1960s:

counterculture, anti-racism and student movements rejecting militarism,

industrialism, and dominant colonialism and critical of a society of consumerism

(Hobsbawm 1995). Though the criticism of these movements was predominantly

cultural and targeted at the American lifestyle, they questioned what it was being

done to the world and the way natural resources were being appropriated and

exhausted (Goudie 1990; Arbix et al. 2002). As time passed, the subject of

ecology escaped from the limited sphere of specialist and small groups and

reached the masses, above all, identified as the root of the disasters caused by oil

freighters and the serious accidents that involved nuclear reactors and large-scale

toxic contamination as was the case for Three-Mile Island (United States, 1979)),

Bhopal (India, 1984), Seveso (Italy, 1976) and Chernobyl (Ukraine, 1986). News

of these accidents, spread by the velocity and power of information, the media,

and the activity of environmental NGOs with a global mission (like Greenpeace

and WWF), extended beyond the local level and serving to ferment a globalized

environmental conscience (Garrard 2006). With the intensification of

environmental problems and the recognition that they could not be regarded as

having only a localized impact but rather that their consequences affect the whole

world (although with varying intensity and in different ways), numerous new

international players emerged. In the search of sustainable forms of development,

traditional social groups, ethnic minorities, religious groups, NGOs and

representatives of developing countries (previously knows as the Third World)

began to be heard in the international arena (Acselrad 2004). Direct evidence of

this new trend include when the United Nations declared 1995-2004 the

International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People and in 2002 created the

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Through these avenues, various new

ethnic groups have gained ground, especially those that occupy territories that

environmentalists consider natural preserves, and apply traditional knowledge that

can better the future of humanity; others have benefited through the recognition of

their historical fight against environmental degradation. Furthermore, globalization

has both permitted and stimulated the organization of indigenous people; many of

them have obtained international financing and have gone on to participate in

international networks with other groups, and thus achieve greater impact and

political reach than before.

In Brazil, the indigenous cause has also succeeded in making it to the

international arena, evolving from a situation of complete guardianship in the

1960s to a phase of assemblies (1870s) and interethnic unions (1980s), to finally

establishing interethnic political, social and economic projects in the last decade

(Neves 2003). The most important triumphs for the Brazilian indigenous

movement occurred in the 1980s with the end of the military regime, the

indigenous groups’ mobilization and an advantageous political climate. In 1988 the

actual constitution was enacted and recognized the right to cultural difference; so

various ethnic groups intensified the fight for the demarcation and recognition of

their lands. The new federal constitution has modified the judicial normative

framework addressing environmental and indigenous questions. Chapter II, Article

22, indicated that the State would take jurisdiction over legislation on themes

related to the indigenous groups and Article 24 gives the Union jurisdiction,

concurrently with the State and the Federal District, the power to legislate on

environmental questions. Chapter VI, Article 225, establishes that it is incumbent

upon legislators to require environmental impact studies for projects or activities

that can harm the environment (Paragraph 1, IV). Chapter VIII, Article 231,

recognizes the indigenous people, their social organization, customs, languages,

traditions and original rights to the lands they traditionally occupied, requiring the

Union to demarcate them, protect them, respect them and enforce the respect of

others. And Article 232 says that the indigenous people and their organizations

are legitimate parts of the work in defending their rights and interests.

The majority of the indigenous people live in environmental preserves (Gray

et al. 1998 and Vicenzo 2003). Since in many of these areas the natural resources

have been better conserved3, a strong parallelism was established between the

environmental and indigenous question (Toledo 1992, Berkes et al. 1993), which

have been treated as inseparable issues in the last four decades (Reichel-

Dolmatoff 1976; Alarcón-Cháires 2006). This situation provoked the regular use of

the concept of sustainability in an environmental arena and multicultural

emancipator in the indigenous realm, which led to the emergence of intrinsically

related semantic linkages between nature and human populations under the term

“people of the jungle” (povos da floresta).

Along with the growing articulation of the connection between indigenous

politics and the perspective of sustainable development, the pressure has

increased on countries that still control a significant part of their natural reserves

and that opted for reproducing the economic model of developed countries (PNUD

2004), like Colombia (Board and Mejía 2006), Argentina (Gordillo and Leguizamón

2002) and Brazil. Nevertheless, the new global necessities, which are not a new

phenomenon (Harvey 1985, 1989, 1996), accelerated the investments in the

production of electric energy and for the promotion of extraction industries

(petroleum, gas, mineral and wood) increasing the impact on the environment and

threatening the survival of various indigenous groups that occupy territories with

valuable natural resources.

These alterations have been reflected in the groups that have gained

growing autonomy in the management of the resources at their disposition in the

political, social, economic and environmental arena. The majority of the Brazilian

indigenous groups want to maintain (or gain) differentiated status as an ethnic

group with their own languages and customs, within and outside their reserves,

and, at the same time, profit from consumer profits and the benefits of the society

3Vicenzo (2003) documented that the Brazilian Tierras Indígenas show a greater degree of nature conservation than the Unidades de Conserviación.

around them. Nevertheless, the increased involvement of indigenous groups in the

world of the “white man” has resulted in confrontations with urban and rural

segments of society and given rise to the phrase “a lot of land for few indigenous

people” and has begun and been replaced (by the media, the political lobbyists,

and the large corporations) by the sentence “there aren’t indigenous people

anymore.”

Symptomatically, after a series of victories and a considerable improvement

in the health conditions of diverse ethnic groups (which has been reflected in their

demographic expansion) since the 1990s, a decrease in the force and the

sympathy of various sectors of Brazilian society for the indigenous cause began.

Among the different reasons that brought about the change is the succession of

images presented by the media of indigenous people as owners of cars and

airplanes as a result of the exploration or lease of their reserves’ natural

resources. 2006 was marked by headlines announcing conflicts created by

indigenous communities that demanded financial compensation for the injury

caused by large economic groups that occupied their territories of use and

circulation. Among the most notable conflicts was the invasion of the largest open-

pit iron mill in the world4 by the Xikrin indigenous group; this ethnic group

demanded a revenue increase of 9 millions of reais annually (about 4.5 million

dollars, according to the exchange rate in March 2007) they received from the

CVRD as compensation for the mineral exploration in their territory5. Another

revealing event was the invasion of lands by the company Aracruz Celulose, to the

north of Estado Espírito Santo, by the Tupinquins and the Guarani, who

successfully demanded the return of 11 thousand of the 250 thousand hectares

farmed by the company6; the company recommended that the indigenous groups

sign a document that guaranteed that the demarcated land would not be

registered as traditional indigenous territory but rather as a indigenous reserve

donated by the company and that before taking definite possession the company

4 In the mineral province of Carajás (Pará) of the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD). 5 htpp://cartamaior.uol.com.br. 6 http://aracruz.com.br.

reserved the right to all the existing improvements7. A third conflict involved an

archeological team and was a telling example of the new situations in which

Brazilian archeologists found themselves implicated. Fourteen ethnic groups of

Parque Indígena do Xingú (PIX) invaded, halted the projects and contested the

anthropological and archeological investigations that they were conducting as part

of environmental studies for the construction of the PCH Paranatinga II (in the

Culuene River, one of the sources of the Xingu River), alleging that they would be

building in the known sacred site of Sagihenhu, where the first ritual of kuarup

from the high Xinguana took place (Agostinho 1974). The archeologist that

organized the multidisciplinary team and was hired by the construction company

(Paranatinga Energética SA) disagreed and claimed that the sacred site was

seven kilometers below the outlet of the PCH, and therefore safe from any harm8.

This type of invasion and stoppage sullied the image of the indigenous

groups in the eyes of Brazilian society because in their imagination, in the media

and in political circles, the belief persisted that the indigenous groups should keep

living in isolation, receiving trifles, wearing feathers in their hair and paint on their

bodies and should wait for the whites to resolve their needs and defend them in a

situation of eternal guardianship. That is, although there is a growing ethnic

indigenous emancipation as they become independent social agents, the velocity

of events of the last years created a disconnect between the maturity of the ethnic

groups and the way they were perceived by Brazilian society.

To attempt to keep up with the changes that occur in the indigenous

groups, a series of activities, projects, short courses and training have been

carried out by NGOs, universities and religious institutions, and government

organizations, for example the Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI), etc. Many of

these activities share a common goal of supporting indigenous groups in their

search for autonomy and to help them gain economic independence, which can be

achieved through sustainable exploration of the richness that exist in their lands.

7 Fórum de Entidades Nacionais de Direitos Humanos (http: www.direitos.org.br). 8 The discussion about this case can be found at the website of Instituto Socioambiental (htpp//:www.socioambiental.org) and of Sociedade de Arqueología Brasileira (http//:www.sabnet.com.br).

These activities demonstrate the same definition of culture that supposedly is

constantly changing and adapting to our new everyday realities.

These advances don’t occur at the same pace or in the same way in the

various Brazilian indigenous groups because there are significant differences in

political participation (in demographic terms) and in the resources and riches that

exist in the indigenous territories, which increase or decrease their ability to

interact with the “world of the white man”. In Brazil, unknown or isolated

indigenous groups still exist. Some ethnic groups have simple and modest plans

to raise chickens or create communal gardens that allow for survival. The ethnic

groups vary widely, from those that have the capacity to organize the election of

indigenous politicians to those who plan the felling of the forest for the cultivation

of soy, permit the extraction of wood, or alter the course of water for the extraction

of precious metals within their reserves, which is prohibited by Brazilian law. The

contact with the white man and the inclusion of these groups in the Brazilian

economy brings them each time closer to the growth of desires and needs that,

with difficulty, they satisfy9. The boundary between the dispensable and the

indispensible is tenuous and subjective and in the ends relates to the possibility of

acquiring products.

The industrialized products obtained through these monetary resources or

in the form of direct donations came to be considered indispensible to the daily life

of the communities. For example, a motor vehicle comes with costs because it

requires fuel, spare parts, repairs, drivers, and tax payments. These unexpected

situations have caused an increasingly common phenomenon; indigenous groups

want to profit from the richness of their lands, and therefore, to be able to

consume the desired products. Various Brazilian indigenous societies want to

obtain consumer goods and, at the same time, maintain their differentiated status

as ethnic groups with their own languages and customs, within and outside of their

reserves.

9 As Marshall Sahlins said (1978:8) "the needs can be ‘easily satisfied’ by either producing a lot or wanting little”.

The processes of political and economic emancipation of indigenous

groups ended up creating a divergence between their interests and the way that

the surrounding society perceived them; about the understanding of their needs

for territory, the financial support of the federal government, the preservation of the

areas that they occupy and the cultural changes resulting from the need to use

their economic resources to achieve a better quality of life. Although the

indigenous groups are recognized as protectors of the jungle, more and more

native groups (like the Paresi, Irantxe and Nanbikwara, that live in the Mato

Grosso Province, or the Kadiwéu, in Mato Grosso do Sul) use their lands for

financial profit, disrupting the historic process of preservation of their territories

from the exploration and capitalist gain. Although the justification for large tracts of

lands earmarked for the indigenous groups rested heavily on the idea of an

environmental preserve, the actual use of some of these lands by many

indigenous groups has generated a negative and contradictory image that has

been cleverly used by sectors that seek to stop the demarcation or the upkeep of

the current limits of indigenous lands. The indigenous groups that seek to maintain

their ethnic identities and cultural differences and preserve certain characteristics

that they consider important face a dilemma. How to reconcile the traditional

needs and physical demands of consumption and with the new lifestyle made

possible by economic opportunities offered by the environmental conservation

community?

One of the Paresi’s answers to these questions is raised by the new

international economic politics vision regards the indigenous culture as potential

financial resource (Judie 2004). In June of 2005, the Paresi-Haliti indigenous

association of the Seringal village, along with the government of Estado de Mato

Grosse and the municipal town council of Campo Novo de Parecis, scheduled the

State Seminar on Ecotourism in Indigenous Lands, concurrently with the Fifth

Festival of Indigenous Culture and Games10, in the frame of an ecotourism project

underway since the 1990s. Among the themes of the seminary (indigenous

10 Among the ethnicities that attended were representatives of the Paresi, Irantxe, Mynky, Bororo, Cinta-larga, Rikbaktsa, Arara, Nambikwara and Umutina competing in the traditional indigenous games: jikunahati (head soccer), jakatiye (bow and arrow), jitsoti (diving), temati (running) and nolokakakwati (tug of war).

diversity, Paresi body painting and indigenous architecture) its economical

sustainability, including ecotourism, was also discussed. In the seminar program a

space was reserved to present the archeological investigations in the region and

the unedited information of the environmental impact suits underway. Walter

Fagundes Morales, who traveled to Mato Grosso to present the paper Primeira

mostra de arqueología haliti was attacked by one of the Paresi leaders, who lived

in the town Sacre 2, the most benefited (or injured, in his point of view) by the

installation of the PHC Sacre 2, to request that he not carry out the project

because it could add to the existing problems in Paresi society.

The goal of these events goes beyond disseminating indigenous culture

and evaluating the athletic skill of the competitors. The seminar sought to create

conditions to structure cultural tourism in Paresi territory. One of the activities

supported the idea of constructing a village according to the traditional model,

exclusively reserved for Brazilian and foreign tourists. The intention was to

organize a “tourist village” in which the visitors would pay indigenous guides to

tour the trails of the forest and watch animals and birds, dive in the crystal waters

of the rivers and enjoy the fantastic waterfalls of the region.

Furthermore, they intend to increase artisanal production to sell in the

village both because it would provide a source of income and for its cultural

heritage value. Due to conflicts among indigenous leaders about the subject and

for lack of adequate infrastructure, these activities still have not reaches the scope

desired by the Paresi. The visits are still sporadic, unstructured and with little

intensity and payoff. Still Paresi youth are training little by little for this work and

taking classes in environmental education with the eventual goal of developing

consistent and sustainable projects.

A case study: the Paresi of Chapada

The Paresi, an indigenous Brazilian group that self-define as Halití (people

of the town), speak a language classified by some linguists as pertaining to the

Aruák family and that they don’t maintain any genetic relation with any other

linguistic root (Montserrat 1994). For Greg Urban (1992) the Paresi language

would be part of the branching of the Aruák family, the Maipure, and suggests a

long chronology of some 3000 years. The Paresi, who have been very studied

from an anthropological point of view (Costa 1985; Pivetta and Freire 1993; Filho

1994, 1996; Costa 2002), are divided into 4 distinct subgroups (Kazíiniti, Waimaré,

Warére and Káwali) that formerly inhabited territories with well-defined borders

within a vast high plain that stretched from the headwaters of the Arinos rivers and

Paraguay to the headwaters of the Guaporé and Juruena rivers, in the center west

of Estado de Mato Grosso. The written registers of Paresi presence in the area

traces back to the XVIII century (Badariotti 1898; Silva 1993; Lévi-Strauss 1996);

nevertheless, though the Paresi occupied this vast territory since the days of the

European colonization, now they are now found living on politically defined zones

(that are called indigenous lands) with a different and reduced size and

environmental diversity. According to the data provided by Fundação Nacional do

Índio (FUNAI) de Cuiabá, now the Paresi are found divided into 11 different and

non-contiguous TIs11 and that are located in Chapada: TI Utiariti, TI Estação

Paresi, TI Estivadinho, TI Figueiras, TI Juininha, TI Paresi, TI Ponte de Pedra, TI

Rio Formoso, TI Tirecatinga, TI Uirapurú (Capitão Marco) and TI Umutina. The

Paresi occupy pieces of their traditional territory including their identification of the

site of Stone Bridge, the place of their myth of origin, where the world began,

located 70 kilometers from Campo Novo dos Parecis12.

A Chronology of Contact13

11 Barros (2002) said that there is a population of about 1273 people. The majority is bilingual: they speak Portuguese and their native tongue with fluencia that varies according to age and the degree of individual involvement in the the spheres of the society around them (Filho 1996). 12 Located 384 kilometers from Cuiabá, the capital of Mato Grosso, the municipality of Campo Novo dos Parecis occupies an área of 9.936 km²; 30% of the territory is part of indigenous lands. According to the municipal cultural census, in 2000 there were 14.620 urban inhabitants y 2909 rural. The region, known as a "national production granery", has shown a high growth rate in population taht reaches 6.61% each year. 13 The historical information that is presented summarizes the field data and the documantation carried out by the autors in the environmental licencing study in the region of the basins of the Sacre, Juruena, Sangue and Ponte de Pedra Rivers, in the Estado de Mato Grosso, from the end of the 1990s (Morales 1998; Moi and Morales 2003; Morales and Moi 2001, 2003).

Throughout time the traditional Paresi territory has born witness to the

passage of various human groups. From historical times, the presence has been

felt of the Nambikwara and Irántxe, of the Comissão Constructora da Linha

Telegráphica Estratégica de Mato Grosso ao Amazonas, of religious groups

(Abreu 1988; Silva 1993; Filho 1996; Lévi-Strauss 1996) and, recently, of great

single-crop growing landowners. The recent history of occupation included

expanding fronts that changed the history of the region (with an inevitable impact

on indigenous groups), initially through the strategic activities of the Comissão

Constructora da Linha Telegráphica Estratégica de Mato Grosso ao Amazonas

and, after, through industrialized agriculture (which has injected a significant

amount of resources into the region, evidenced by the various infrastructure

projects, but that has produced a negative ecological impact).

The presence of the Comissão Constructora da Linha Telegráphica

Estratégica de Mato Grosso ao Amazonas in the region dates from 1907, when it

was led by Colonel Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon who, motivated by positivist

ideals (Diacon 2006), named the commission that carried his name (Comissão

Rondon); its objective was to install a telegraph line that connected the city of

Cuiabá to Santo Antonio de Madeira the starting point for the construction of the

railroad Madeira-Mamoré, in Rondônia. The strategic objective was a definitive

occupation of the territories. The activities carried out to get to know the region

were the compilation of geographic, forest and mineral assessments and contact

with the indigenous populations (Missão Rondon 1946). In 1914 a scientific

expedition coordinated by Theodore Roosevelt, the former president of the United

States, partnered with The Comissão Rondon in Mato Grosso14. The Comissão

Rondon began a new chapter in the history of contact with indigenous groups in

Mato Grosso so that the indigenous people would permanently be found under its

care. The Paresi people were known as the indigenous group most directly

involved in the installation and maintenance of the telegraphic lines (Roberto

1987:3-4). Families, even whole Paresi villages, migrated drawn by the telegraph

14 The official title of this expedition was given by the Brazilian government: Expedição Científica Roosevelt-Rondon (Roosevelt 1976:15-17).

lines; however, this contact brought successive epidemics and a drastic

demographic decline. Compounding the problem of diseases were invasions of

rubber growers and attacks from enemy tribes, which forces the Paresi survivors

to seek out more and more protection and assistance from Rondon in the

telegraph stations that crossed their territory (Rondon 1946). Due to the

epidemics, many orphans grew up dependent on the continuance of the

telegraphs (Roberto 1987:4). Lévi-Strauss (1996:246), who traversed the region in

the 1930s, said that:

“This ignorance, combined with the narrations of the still recent incursions into the American Far-West and of the subsequent Gold Rush, inspired crazy hopes in the population of Mato Grosso and, even in people on the coast. After Rondon’s men put in the telegraph wires, a wave of immigrants would invade territories to exploit its unprecedented resources, to build a Brazilian Chicago. A harsh reality awaited: as with the initial impression of the Northeast region, where Euclides da Cunha painted a picture of a cursed Brazilian land in “Os sertões”, the mountain range of the North (named “serra do Norte”) would reveal itself to be a half-desert-like savannah and one of the most desolate regions of the continent. Furthermore, the birth of radiotelegraphy in 1922 coincided with the conclusion of the telegraph line, thereby making telegraph communication obsolete, relegating it the status of an archaeological relic of a scientific innovation that became out-dated just in time for its début. It saw its one hour of glory, in 1924, when the rebellion of São Paulo against the federal government isolated the government from the interior. By the telegraph, Rio de Janeiro could communicate with Cuiabá, through Belém and Manaus. Shortly after the decline began: the scores of eager people that fought for a job with the telegraph service dispersed or remained and were forgotten. When I arrived there, many years had passed since they had received any supplies. Nobody dared to close down the line, but nobody was interested in using it, either. The poles were falling down, the wire was left to rust. Meanwhile, the last survivors remained at their posts, without the courage or the means to leave it, they were extinguished slowly, decimated by illness, hunger and solitude15”.

As a result of the contact with national society’s expanding fronts the Paresi

and their Nanbikwara neighbors also suffered due to the presence of a Jesuit

mission, the congregation of the sisters of Paulina, whose objective was to convert

them to Christianity. To carry out their mission, this congregation joined with the

Prelazia de Diamantino and implanted a nucleus of missionaries to convert the

15 Translated by the authors.

indigenous people that lived close to the other important rivers in this region, the

Juruena (Costa 2002). In about 1941, Carlos Luis Freitas (sf: 19), a Portuguese

cleric who helped in the construction of this nucleus, recounted the difficult times

for missionaries in his work Minhas memórias:

“There were two houses of caboclos (people of mixed Amerindian and European heritage) with a little clay and thatch roof. In one of the houses lived four nuns and in the other, four monks: two missionary communities that sacrificed for a love of other souls. Our hut had a small living room that serves as a dining room and four small rooms. We could hang our nets, as well as a little table and, two boxes of kerosene for a shelf. Each compartment had a half-meter square window.”

The mission operated until 1945; after it transferred to the Utiariti Falls. The

new site was more accessible to the roads left by the Comissão Rondon and was

far from the malaria that devastated the region. A year after the jump to the Utiariti,

it became an educational center under the direction of the Missão Anchieta, which

applied the boarding school model to the indigenous community.

The catechism of the period prohibited the indigenous people who lived in

the mission (Irantxe, Paresi and Nambikwara) from speaking their native language

and living according to their customs (Price 1976a, 1976b, 1983; Pivetta and

Freire 1993; Filho 1996). Luiz Campos Nambikwara, who studied in the mission

and is now a professor in the village of the Utiariti, in where the ruins of the

mission are located, wrote his impressions:

“In a way it was even good, wasn’t it? People learned many things. But in a way it was not good at all. Because it took away many people, the culture. for example, the language of the people, the mother tongue, they did not teach. They did not teach it at all; speaking it was forbidden. One could not speak one’s own language. It was forbidden to do so, to conduct rituals..."16.

Nevertheless, the treatment of indigenous populations of Latin America

changed drastically after the Second Vatican Council (1966); the perspective of

the colonizer was abandoned and the possibility of ideological and cultural

pluralism became accepted. In accordance with the new directives of the Catholic

16 Interview granted to Flavia Prado Moi and Walter Fagundes Morales in Utiariti in February of 2003.

Church, the mission allowed indigenous communities to practice their native

languages. In 1968 the boarding schools were eliminated and the “village”

populations returned to their communities of origin:

"They have left. The priests have gone. They have left. I mean, at that time, there were already farmers coming. The farmers were already arriving. Here, in the Utiariti. Then, the farmers were already arriving. And the priests were worried, weren’t they? Because the Indians have to pass through everything here, and then they are left without any land to live on. Without a village, aren’t they? One didn’t know where the village was anymore. The farmers wanted to take over, then the priests scattered them again. They were giving out land... looking for us with FUNAI by their side. A small parcel of land for each tribe to build its own village."17.

The advance of the surrounding society into the lands formerly occupied by

indigenous groups produced a marked demographic decline in the indigenous

populations and shrunk their area of circulation. As a direct result of these fronts of

expansion, the territories of these groups were reduced, and today are

circumscribed to the definite limits of official indigenous lands. In a certain way,

more fortunate than their Nambikwara neighbors, the Paresi succeeded, at least,

in maintaining parcels of their traditional territories of occupation, gathering and

use of natural resources. Part of the Nambikwara group was separated from their

traditional territory and today occupy areas that they and the Paresi recognize as

Paresi territory:

" The Nambikwara did not live here. They were from Juruena and the people who lived here were the Paresi. There was a village already here before the priests and their mission arrived here. I don’t remember now what the village had been called before it was called Utiariti. There was a name, of course. In the language, I don’t know what it was... On the other side of the Nambikwaras, it was on the other side of the Juruena. It was Nambikwara too, but also another, another, another, how do you say? They are Nambikwara, but they are… They belong to another group, don’t they? These Nambikwaras here, the ones that live here, they are called Wakalitesu. And these ones that live over there are called Halotesu. They speak the same language, don’t they?"18.

17 Luiz Campos Nambikwara, interview by Flavia Prado Moi and Walter Fagundes Morales, Utiariti (Februrary of 2003). 18 Luiz Campos Nambikwara, interview by Flavia Prado Moi and Édison Rodríguez, Utiariti (February of 2003).

The systematic process of occupation of the region began at the end of the

1960s; the fronts of agricultural expansion by the national society initiated the

territorial conflicts between landowners and indigenous people. In this period the

OPAN19 was created and it began the organization of work done by FUNAI in the

region. In the 1980s the gradual (and not always peaceful) stabilization of the new

agricultural situation occurred; in this time period various indigenous lands were

delimited and were reserved, confirmed or put under interdiction for the indigenous

groups. Thereby the large ranches and estates came to have defined borders. In

the 1990s the Paresi saw the beginning of various energy projects (they were

called small hydroelectric centers) in the rivers of their territory. The installation of

these PCHs was a result of State investments in basic infrastructure to create the

necessary conditions for national and multinational capital. Small communities

and surrounding areas became proto-urban or urban.

One of the first works of energy production developed in the region at the

end of the 1980s came to a discouraging end and had a negative impact in

various spheres. The problem had to do with the construction of the PCH Ponte

de Pedra (Bridge of Stone) that was begun and never finished. In 2003 the federal

courts stalled the completion of the work and the Elma Eletricidade de Mato

Grosso Company, the Fundação Estadual do Meio Ambiente (FEMA), the FUNAI,

ANEEL (Agência Nacional de Energía Elétrica) and the Paresi Halitinã and

Wáimare associations were held responsible for having initiated the construction

of a PCH in indigenous Paresi territory. The decision of the court canceled the

contract of concession granted by the ANEEL, the licensing done by FEMA and

the contracts made by the associations.

The area where they planned to construct the PCH was an ancient claim of

the Paresi people, considered of great importance for their reproduction and

physical and cultural survival. The Procuradoria da República required two

additional anthropological studies in the region. These studies20 prove that a

Paresi village existed in Stone Bridge until the arrival of Rondon; after this period

19 Operação Amazônia Nativa, an NGO that promotes projects of support and solidarity with the indigenous communities in the center-west and north of Brazil (http://www.opan.org.br). 20 Carried out by the anthropologist Fátima Roberto Machado (Universidad Federal de Mato Grosso).

the indigenous people were uprooted from the site but continued making periodic

visits. The Ministério Público Federal heeded the report and the federal judge

recognized the importance of the area for the Paresi and suspended the project.

FEMA protested against the judicial decision, won, and maintained its license with

the argument that they were working on private property. FUNAI protested against

the new decision, arguing that they had already formed a working group to identify

and define the territory and recognize it as an indigenous area. The judge ordered

the concession agreements nullified and required FUNAI to complete the

demarcation of the lands within a year; if the company began the construction of

the projects it would pay a daily fine.

This fact has not discouraged the consortium of electric energy generators

who are interested in exploiting the potential of the rivers in the region. The state

of Mato Grosso, considered a “granary” of food products and a rich producer of

energy and mineral resources, continues to invest in infrastructure for the

transport of their products (Prefeitura de Campo Novo do Parecis 2002). The

changes in their economic base are accompanied by changes in the political and

cultural sphere: in the political arena the alliance between modern capitalism and

the traditional oligarchy resulted in the vigorous renewal of the abandoned

“political of the colonels” and in the cultural sphere, the incorporation of national

norms in the heart of the local culture (Secchi 1995).

Although the alterations in the model of occupation did little to change the

adverse reality of the indigenous people, little by little the Paresi people have

made themselves active players in determining their own destinies and have been

called to give their opinions on the process of environmental licensing for the

works that are implemented in their territory (a right guaranteed by the

Constitution); besides negotiating among themselves (many times the conflicting

opinions provoke internal schisms) they also negotiate with external subjects.

Similar to the events in the PCH Ponte de Pedra when the Halitinã y Wáimare

associations negotiated the construction of the work, the inhabitants of Sacre 2

had a favorable attitude towards the construction of a PCH in a river that formed

the border of their territory because in their opinion, the royalties generated from

the electricity of the hydroelectric plant are important for the survival and

development of their community. Although there is consent among some Paresi

leaders for the realization of the project, they must follow Brazilian law. They must

go through the environmental licensing processes to guaranty that the negative

impact caused to the environment is less than the potential benefits. For the

Paresi, who are not familiar with the archeological procedure, the investigation

carried out seemed like a political reaffirmation and, perhaps, a way for economic

gain, cultural respect and reaffirm their territorial rights.

Territory, myth and memory

The situation of imposed contact and the Paresi produces various socio-

cultural and economic impacts in their society but did not eliminate their culture;

instead, new norms and rules were incorporated. Over three centuries the Paresi

reformulated, transformed and adapted their cultural standards so that their

cultural base adapted to the new contexts; they thereby maintained characteristics

that were (or are) unique. The internal characteristics of ancient cultural models

and symbols were adapted to the new realities, absorbing new meanings

(Carneiro da Cunha 1985, 1986). While some values were maintained others were

transformed or were substituted, without eliminating a common identity or cultural

continuity over the long term in the Chapada dos Parecis (Balandier 1963;

Shennan 1994, 2000; Thomas 1996).

The contact between cultural and ethnic standards and social conditions,

including distinct acts of domination, resistance and assimilation ended up

generating articulations and solutions to live with the imposed necessities. Some

people, individually or in groups, were active agents in the elaboration of a social

order and not simply passive recipients of new conditions. The identity of the

group is variable; it depends on the way in which the individuals recognize

themselves and others from formulated categories stemming from an origin or

from common cultural elements. This process creates the so-called ethnic groups

that have the power to define who pertains to their group and who does not (Barth

1969).

The strategy of the Paresi to actively seek out better conditions could be

part of the affirmation or negation of their ethnic origin. In some historical

moments, such as in the remote period of the just wars (Perrone-Moisés 1992), to

be “pleasant” and of “good character” was the easiest road to survival. The

Nambikwara, their neighbors and their ancestral enemies “opted” for another road

and were involved in constant fights with the expanding colonial fronts, considered

as allies of the Paresi. At the end of this true “proof of resistance”, after so many

mix-ups, obstacles and a drastic demographic decline, the ethnic Paresi have

succeeded in maintaining their language and some of their fundamental

institutions. How was it possible? How did they succeed in defending their

common values, with more determination each time, without resorting to violence

when faced with a surrounding society that sought to annihilate or integrate them?

Among many factors that have led to their physical and cultural survival, one of the

most important was the chance to establish “points of contact” that were

represented by palpable elements (their territory and the landmarks that exist in

the countryside) to integrate the generations and establish a sense of belonging

and community unity (Machado 2002). These “points of contact” were the result of

a body of historical, social and cultural events that the oral tradition managed to

maintain in a coherent form over a long period of time and that permitted

individuals and collective to adopt common elements that were transformed into

the substratum of their ethnicity (that could have incorporated other groups that

were previously ethnically distinct) when faced with strange and adverse agents

and situations. Their point of departure was the fact that the Paresi had occupied

the region since long ago; the “point of contact” most known from this occupation

is their myth of origin from the north of Stone Bridge:

“In the myth of origin of the Halití people, recorded at the beginning of the century by the German anthropologist Max Schmidt21 a group of siblings emerged

21 See: Schmidt, M. "Os aruaques. Uma contribuição ao estudo da difusão cultural." Translation of the original in German: "Die Aruaken: Ein Beitrag zum problem der Kulturver-beitrung. Studien zur Ethnologie und

from inside the earth, sprouting from cracks and holes of the rocks in the Sakuriu wiña River, which the Imóti, the non-indians, the “civilized people” called Stone Bride or Sucuruína, a tributary of the Arinos. As they emerged from he rocks the Halití discovered the world and all its rivers, its birds, the trees that existed but had not yet been named. Wazáre, the eldest’s of the siblings, guided the others to the exit, installing each in his own territory (Machado 2002).

For the Paresi, the world began in this location, les than 70 kilometers from

Utiariti; physical evidence that testifies to this fact was found: the Bridge and

House of Stone. Furthermore, one of the telegraph stations set up by Rondon

was installed here, where the indigenous people gathered in search of protection

at the beginning of the twentieth century. As Damião, a 100 year-old Paresi who

lived in Sacre II until his death in 2006 and guide of Rondon, said: “The Stone

Bridge is the proof that we were here, in this land, since the beginning of the world

and we were Paresi” 22. The myth of Stone Bridge passes from generation to

generation, conferring on them a sense of continuation and integration. On this

theme Giddens (1990:37-38) noted:

“In the traditional societies the past is venerated and the symbols are valued because they contain and perpetuate the experience of generations. Tradition is a way of fighting with time and space, establishing whatever particular activity or experience in the continuity of the past, present and future, which are, in turn, structured for recurring social practices”.

The sum of these palatable elements, which are found in the landscape and

oral tradition, fosters a feeling of belonging and union that decreases the distance

and the differences among individuals who, in other situations, could be enemies.

That is to say, it succeeds in unifying the descendents of distinct subgroups such

as the Kaxiniti, Waimaré, Kawáli, Waréré and Kozarini.

To these appropriations of images, other “points of contact” are added. As

they have inhabited the region since pre-colonial times, an ethno-toponymic

knowledge of their ancient territory (areas of circulation, borders, waterways, hills,

paths, geographic accidents, abandoned villages) exists that is utilized to justify

their claim over the territory and the territory of every subgroup within it (Souza

Soziologie." Herausgeben von Vierkandt, Heft 1. Leipzig, 1917. Copy available in the Biblioteca del PPGAS del Museu Nacional, UFRJ, RJ. 22 Interview granted to Flavia Prado Moi and Édison Rodrigues in Sacre 2 in 2003.

1997:31). This explains why the villages, including the youngest, are built next to

large waterfalls, reappearing on sites of previous villages; this fact was proved

through archeological investigations conducted in the area23:

“The villages have their definitive localization within a territory that has a mythical significance. As I mentioned before, Wazáre, the hero of the original group of brothers, distributed the Halíti descendents over the vast high plain, that, even today, retains its name Planalto dos Parecis” (Machado 2002).

As pointed out by Souza (1997:31):

“They explain the differences within the group, and the sense of belonging that unites the, because of the myth. Within the Paresi territory Wazaré also chose and set aside adequate spaces for each subgroup so that his people lived on the land (vide Costa 1985:59-60) and constructed their villages. The Paresi explain that because of these villages, even the most recent, are build in sites where there had already been other villages”.

The territory is the substratum of collective memory and the oral storytelling

is an integral agent among generations and people. To be part of this past is to be

part of something bigger: it is to have an identity that creates differences so that

other groups accept them, defining relationship categories and dichotomies in

which “we” is juxtaposed with “others”. Real differences, imaginarily or imposed,

emerge and are constructed from this relationship.

The occupation of territory has permitted the ethnic appropriation of the

land (Jones, 1997, 1999), a political construction over the territory. This

appropriation, consisting of language and other cultural characteristics, allowed

the Paresi to utilize differentiated spaces for self-determination within the group

and to recognize “others” because identity changes according to the way in which

the subjects are interpellated or represented. When the identification is not

automatic, it can be gained or lost and become an issue of internal politics in the

process that creates a political change in identity (of class) in the politics of

23 The examples are the ancient villages (in the present-day archeological sites) Kotikiko, Salto do Utiariti, Ponte de Pedra and Sacre.

difference (Hall 2003:21). This phenomenon can be perceived among the Paresi,

the “white man,” and the Nambikwara. Historically, the Nambikwara and the Paresi

were enemies but since they now occupy the same territory, recognized as Paresi,

they have stopped being enemies and have become allies in a pact that doesn’t

erase the bellicose past (the old feuds that are always remembered by the elders).

One of the favorite activities of a Paresi is to complain about a Nambikwara and

vice versa; “to speak badly” about one another is common and doesn’t prevent

interethnic marriages and good friendships. They refer to political games and

strategies constantly carried out in front of the “white man”; when the “white man”

is not near it is easy to imagine whom the Paresi and the Nambikwara are talking

about. The juxtaposition is only one more way to reinforce their identity and shared

past. To distinguish themselves from other indigenous groups, the Paresi self-

define as Halití (people of the town) and as such they are known; nevertheless, to

differentiate themselves from the “white man” living in their zones they self-define

as Paresis. For the “white man” the Paresi are, simply, indigenous.

The myth of Stone Bridge and the other transgenerational references give a

sense of continuity and integration and form part of the oral universe, which has

been underscored by the archeological investigation that we have carried out in

Paresi territory. To preserve this cultural heritage is not only important for raising

the self-esteem of the Paresi but also for better understanding the significance of

the transformations and growth of some communication genres, deepening the

knowledge of these societies and highlighting the importance of the methodic use

of oral sources for archeology and its consequential social responsibility.

These types of societies are rooted in the notions of memory and orality

that, nevertheless, are some of the most vulnerable aspects of their cultural

identity. These notions are of fundamental importance for the minority groups and

the indigenous populations because they are a vital source of an identity rooted in

tradition. In these communities the values, wisdom, celebrations and forms of

expression are transmitted orally, and thus orality is the foundation of their

communal life (Moi 2003).

Intangible heritage24 is transformed over time because the means of

transmission of knowledge are collectively recreated and reformulated (Sperber

1996); Therefore, through the study of the oral sources it is possible (a) to

understand their change in the present, which guaranties the maintenance, the

transformation and the generation of knowledge (b) to understand the society

through the adequacy for to the present; and (c) to construct and/or reconstruct

cultural expression. The myths of origin, the family histories and the narratives

allow access to the cultural and the period. The history and myth are forms of

social conciseness through which people develop their shared interpretations (Hill

1988). Myth serves in the construction and reproduction of the difference between

those people who live in the present and those powerful entities of times past;

thereby not only is a continuation with their origin established (as is the case with

the myth Stone Bridge) but also relates to ethnic boundaries, available to

archeological verification. In this way we attempt not only to construct and/or

reconstruct facts or events of a society but also rather to understand them in their

reality (Lummis 1992).

(Re) constructing identity: archeology and ancestry

The environmental impact studies in archeology and the following surveys

and rescue programs of the identified sites provide the first systematic studies of

the pre-colonial occupation of the region of Chapada dos Parecis, which led to the

identification, excavation and analysis of many archeological sites25. Some

investigations are being carried out in nearby regions (Oliveira and Viana 1989;

Migliácio 2000, 2006; Vialou 2005), in parts of the Brazilian territory that are thus

24 The "intangible cultural heritage" are the uses, representations, expressions, knowledge and technology (along with the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces of which they are inherent) that the comunities, the groups, and in some cases, the individuals recognize as an integral part of their cultural heritage. The intangible cultural heritage (that is transmitted from generation to generation) is constantly recreated in response to the environment and interaction with nature and history, infusing a sense of identity and continuity and contributying to the promotion of respect for cultural diversity and human creativity (UNESCO 2003). 25 Consult the field reports (Morales 1998; Morales and Moi 2001, 2003; Moi and Morales 2003), the diagnostics of the companies (Documento Antropología e Arqueología 2001a, 2001b, 2003; Griphus 2003) and the works presented in the congresses (Moi 2003).

far unexplored from the archeological perspective. The projects done over the past

few years in the region of valleys and rivers of Ponte de Pedra, Sangue, Sacre,

Papagaio and Juruena revealed very high archeological potential; they include

pre-colonial and historic lithic and ceramic sites, both open-air and sheltered, that

allows us to reconstruct a cultural mosaic of human occupation that could reach

back thousands of years and provide a final link to current indigenous activities.

Despite this significant archeological potential in the Paresi area, regional

contexts of other more precise human activities have yet to be pieced together.

Based on the information obtained by the fieldwork (Morales 1998; Morales and

Moi 2001; Moi and Morales 2003) the presence of ancient buried lithic sites in the

deepest layers of the terrain is now known. The vestiges of these settlements are

found on the riverbanks of the Sangue, at 1.5 meters deep, and reveals

sophisticated technology of craftsmanship in premium material of excellent quality;

proving this are remnants that suggest the presence of bifacial pieces. The sites

associated with this activity have been identified in the area surrounding the

waterfalls of the river, in plains with gravel ground now covered by dense

vegetation. More recent lithic activities located in the high water sites in Sacre 2,

and the Sacre River, were found in small hills close to the river, in fertile soil with

dense tree cover. There heavier artifacts made of silicified sandstone have been

found.

The ceramic groups have been discovered in two ways: (a) they were

identified by the Paresi as settlements associated with ancient villages of their

tribe; their preliminary analysis, conducted based on the fieldwork, t demonstrated

that the material in these areas of vegetation are thickened, yearly, by fires and

are situated close to the larges rivers. These ceramics demonstrate great

technological diversity, decoration with incisions, marks of basketry in the walls

and different types of clay; and b) the site associated with the archeological

tradition is called Uru; in this case the pieces are similar to those identified in the

Planalto Central and in Mato Grosso (Oliveira and Viana 1989; Wüst 1990;

Robrahn-González 1996; Morales 2005, 2007 e 2008); they consist of grey, light

fragments with a cariapé desgrasante and fired at a low temperature; there is no

decoration on the walls; the sites are a little farther from the major waterways,

close to 300-400 meters in sandy areas.

There are also graphics in the two sheltered sections next to the Sangue

and Ponte de Pedra rivers; the latter, as we already indicated, is a sacred site for

the Paresi people. In the region of the Ponte de Pedra River there are schematic

graphics and concavities for the polishing/sharpening of axes. There the

archeological vestiges are not limited to the rocks and artifacts; the landscape has

mythological meanings that were incorporated into the Paresi imaginary. There

lies the Stone Bridge, the exact site where a hole was opened for human beings to

emerge, la Stone House and a sandstone outcropping that gives unique contours

to the stretch of the river. In this place, decades ago, one of the Rondon’s

telegraphic stations was installed, the Ponte de Pedra station; few vestiges remain

of this historic activity; nickel plates, munitions cartridges, tin remnants, eroded

graves, the base of a foundation for the telegraph post and an inscription in brittle

sandstone next to the Stone Bridge where the date 1915 and the initials A M can

be read. In the first discovered shelters situated next to the Sangue River, various

petroglyphs have been identified. One of them is located next to the river canyon

in a small concavity created by the water during the largest floods; others are

located in a more elevated zone and have walls replete with graphics and few

stratigraphic vestiges in the interior. This outcropping is in a region that oral

knowledge, ethno histories and ethnographies identify as Paresi territory (Moi

2003).

The archeological investigations have awoken a lot of attention among the

indigenous communities that we work with26. For some leaders with a nose for

opportunity and more attuned to the changing role of archeologists, this new

“species” in the pantheon of investigators who traverse indigenous lands, has

generated a hope and bewilderment. Bewilderment because they always arrive

with unusual questions that do not adhere to those formulated by anthropologists

or FUNAI officials a long time ago. The archeologists, in the indigenous people’s

26 We conducted archeological research with the help of the Xerente, Nambikwara and Paresi indigenous groups.

own words, ask questions with difficult answers that, almost always, cause

surprise if not indignation. That was the reaction in the case of the Xerente, when

we asked them if they had heard of an era in which the elders carved in stone,

worked leather and skin animals medical use (Moi 2007): or with the Nambikwara

and Paresi when we asked about the existence of villages “from ancient times”.

Winds of change can bring new information and unknown facts that can be utilized

to better understand the territory where they live and the tools that they used in the

not too distant past. This knowledge is valuable because it revives a cultural

heritage that forms a part of their daily lives and can serve other purposes in the

future. Hope because the indigenous groups see in the archeological

investigations an opportunity that recognized and demarked the areas that before

belonged to their territories of use and circulation. For this reason the investigators

instigated an effort to identify archeological sites outside the limits of the

indigenous lands, utilizing their results as a way to incorporate these ancient

settlements.

Over the course of this process we could perceive how the maintenance

and the propagation of myth reinforce the Paresi identity and how some results of

the archeological investigations have been incorporated into their mythological

pantheon and orality (Moi 2003). The archeological investigations carried out in

Paresi territory revealed a rocky refuge next to the Sangue River, up until then

unknown to the indigenous people. The unedited images of this sheltered area

were shown to a Paresi woman, who identified the graphic style as those of her

own people; after they were shown to members of the Nambikwara group, who

also recognized them for their Paresi graphic style. The interviews that we

conducted in different sites yielded similar reports of the meaning of the images

(Moi 2003). The informants confirmed the association of the graphics with their

people because they recognized familiar schematic representations of instruments

used to hunt. Thereby the archeological investigation uncovered a direct relation

between the Paresi and the unedited stone images, suggesting the possibility that

the drawing were a type of “manual” for the manufacture of hunting instruments.

Rony Azoinayce Paresi, son of Daniel Cabixi, professor and important

indigenous leader who works with the revitalization of body graphics among young

people, was brought to the refuge to see and learn more about the inscriptions;

after long contemplation, he confirmed the association between some geometric

graphics with some currently used by the Paresi and, as other people had already

done, he named them in his language (especially some zoomorphic and

anthropomorphic images like the snake, a human foot and the sun). When we

asked him if in his studies these drawings already existed or if they were regularly

used he said no but that he they would be because they were found together with

others that, without a doubt, came from his people; furthermore, he indicated that

these new drawings (known or not) would become a part of his classes on the

revitalization of body graphics. From then on the stone graphics next to the

Sangue River became (or again came to be) a part of the tradition, the myth and

the history of the Paresi. The reintroduction of these images to the indigenous

people allowed us to understand the dimension of the ideological/conceptual

context of those who are in charge of transmission and communication in the

Paresi society; these people could and/or were going to act as a social and

political force that assimilates, excludes or manipulates the events according to

the situation.

In the case of the Paresi, the archeological investigation is only a part of the

larger context that, besides addressing themes like cultural heritage (the

ancestry), also involves political actions that help win the recognition (and the free

use) of their ancestral lands and property rights over the objects that are in

museum custody. Therefore, the archeological investigations (like other

investigations that are carried out in the indigenous areas) should be exercise

social responsibility, recognizing the historic, social role and the political context of

the discipline and the need to make them important again for society, although

how the results of the investigation are put to use may escape from the control of

the investigators and have some unexpected consequences.

The interests and actors involved in our work in Paresi territory are many

and diverse, which forces one to push aside simplistic viewpoints with two defined

and polarized sides. In many cases the interests are tenuous and at times, the

differences are reduced to an argument about the fundamental rights of the

community (at least among some of its most influential leaders), the energy

companies, the agricultural companies, the local government of the Campo Novo

of the Parecis and the Estado de Mato Grosso want to develop projects in the

region. The explanation for the concurrence of interests is that the works that

impact the environmental and cultural heritage also come with financial benefits

(compensating and appeasing measures for the indigenous people and for the

municipality), higher taxes for the municipality and the state and improvements in

infrastructure, which permits a better circulation of people and merchandise.

The Paresi participate in a complex political, economic and symbolic game

on which their physical and cultural survival depends. The indigenous people “are

in line for the jackknife” (hanging by a thread). The arms and ammunition available

to them are the riches of the lands in which they live, the cultural patrimony

inherited from their ancestors and the experiences accumulated from the fronts of

expansion and the damages caused in the two last centuries by the “world of the

white man”. The Paresi organize themselves into associations, argue their cause

in national and international media and mobilize environmentalists, organisms of

indigenous assistance and politicians genuinely interested in the environmental

question or in search of an electoral opportunity. The Paresi do not hide the fact

that they want financial resources supplied by tourist activity on their lands, the

profits generated by the turbines of the PCHs or the dividends produced through

the leasing of their land for the cultivation of soy; but neither do they renounce

their differentiated status in national society and their constitutional rights that

guarantee them their lands, territories of circulation, traditions, sacred sites,

languages, customs, and furthermore, the assistance of governmental

organizations in the area of justice, health, and education. As part of this game,

they have begun to employ the archeologists and the information they generate

through their investigations in order to carry out projects to reconstruct their past

and the history of those of the indigenous groups that occupied the region since

times immemorial.

Final Considerations

Through this investigation we sought to delineate and discuss the uses and

the ideological and political appropriations that the Paresi employ (or don’t) as a

result of archeological works carried out on their territory. As a result we noted a

growing interest in the investigations (for example, the incorporation of the stone

graphic designs in the revitalization of body painting), beyond the already known

use to justify the expansion of their lands. Such consequences caused by

archeological investigations are an example of the political and social involvement

of archeological activity in the contemporary context, even though the discipline is

dedicated to the construction of the past (Miller and Tilley 1984; Hodder 1986;

Funari 1999, 2001, 2004; Ascherson 2000; Funari et al. 2005).

Acknowledgments To Edison Rodrigues de Souza of Operação Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) for his comments and suggestions.

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