Kayapo Indians: Gold, Culture, and Resistance in the Amazon

[00:00:02][Music] [Applause] the [Music] [Music] UT is a kaiapo Indian Chief from Central Brazil today he's traveled from his own village on the edge of the Amazon forest to this mining town on a special Mission UT is here to visit his bank manager gold has been found on kaiapo land and UT is today checking a village account which gets some $2 million a year from Brazilian miners [Music] deep in the vast Amazon rainforest 500 m to the Southwest on the jingu river live another group of kaiapo Indians they oppose the mining of gold their leader Chief rney is on the radio you to Chief rney kaiapo land is Untouchable using radio to cover the vast distances rney lectures his brother kaiapo about allowing Brazilian gold prospectors onto their land [Applause] [Music] some 2,000 caiapo Indians live scattered in Brazil's Amazon rainforest their aggressive attitude towards other Indians and Brazilian settlers makes them the most feared tribe of the region half the caiapo live on traditional land in the gorti reserve where gold was recently found in return for some of the revenue they allow Brazilian miners onto their land 500 mil away on the shingu river in the village of capot live Chief R's group of kaiapo who oppos this policy 340 of these kaiapo live completely isolated in the traditional circular Village of capot our story starts with this group and the debate they're having about the gold miners but today the village is almost empty a great ceremonial hunt lasting a month is taking place away in the forest and chief ropne is taking his family down river to join the hunters for traditional leaders like rney this is one of the most important events of the Year Terry Turner professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago has known the tribe for 25 years I've known RNE since I first began working with the people of kaput all his life he's had to fight off Brazilian incursions into his people's land some 50 Brazilians have died in the skirmishes he's fought over the years he's also an intelligent political leader and Diplomat it was he who persuaded the Brazilian authorities to Grant his people the legal title to the land bordering this stretch of the shingu river rney flaun his martial exploits by using a motorboat captured from Brazilians unwise enough to come onto his kaiapo [Music] land for for K the kapo relationship to their land is Central to their culture it is supremely expressed in ceremonial Hunting Expeditions which rney and his people undertake several times a year and which last for several weeks a great hunting camp has been constructed deep in the forest away from the river it's a temporary Village of some 250 caiapo from capot which will move every 2 days when the game is exhausted the way this hunting camp is organized shows why the caiapo are such a potent political force both the men and women are divided into different age groups which work collectively and highly organized teams it's it's a system based on seniority with the older men the heads of households who do the hunting at the top it's now early morning and the senior men like ropy in their important hunting role leave as a group for the shoot [Applause] [Applause] next in the pecking order are the young Bachelor youths they also work together as a group clearing the trail to the next day's campsite a distance of one or two miles as a group they too must follow the directions of the senior Huntsmen above them the younger boys also work as a team cutting wooden racks to hold the large tortoises brought in by the hunters once again they're subservient to the older youths and the men above them [Music] [Music] adult women working in teams build the houses of each new camp they cut firewood cook the food and transport most of the family possessions between [Music] camps younger unmarried girls work together carrying water and tending the children the whole system functions smoothly and automatically as a support network for the senior men and their prestigious role as Hunters cromar a senior kaiapo though not a chief has been designated leader of the hunt Kare is looking for animal tracks away from the main camp for the k the forest is not merely a source of game animals or edible fruits it is a world infinitely rich in meanings where every plant or creature may have a specific use in magic or medicine ritual or bodily decoration unlike many Amazonian peoples the caiapo don't believe in a Divine being nor do they use drugs or alcohol even their magic must have practical purposes Kari has noted that the bees are fat so logically if he rubs them on his hunting dog it will bring back fat game back at the hunting camp it's early evening and returning Hunters an ants from the forest they have taken important game land tortoises are the main prey on this ceremonial [Music] hunt they're the only species of game capable of being stored alive for the month or so that people are in the forest then they will be killed at a great feast back in the village organized to chrisen a young child with a beautiful name Pan the father of the child being named acts as the focus for all the Intensive hunting activity the tortoises as they are brought in are tied in racks still alive and displayed in front of his shelter I'm every kaiapo has common names but only some receive beautiful names for the child to receive beautiful status the whole village must participate in the months-long ceremony and hunt the beauty of the name given by the ceremony is the essence of the kaiapo idea of wealth this wealth becomes a permanent part of a person's identity it can't be bought or sold like our money or Commodities Beauty in this sense is one of the highest values of kaiapo society fore fore good fore foree in the center of the hunting camp is the men's Hut and as in the village the men's Hut is the center of kaiapo public [Music] activity each men's age group has its separate sitting place within it and it's here that the system of respect can be most clearly seen with the bachelors's listening differentially as senior men strut and orate before them fore [Music] fueled by the controversy about gold Kari begins an ntion to the assembled Bachelors on the meaning of the naming ceremony [Music] next morning the village is on the move again to a new campsite a mile away deeper in the forest ropy sings to scare away wild animals from the [Music] car no I got [Applause] it took just one hour to abandon the Old Camp it takes just one hour for the women working as a team to construct another [Applause] [Applause] it's now 3 weeks on in the near deserted home Village of capot an ancient warrior myori signals with his lone Dance The Hunting Party is ready to return [Applause] fires are lit to prepare food and during the night payan has come up River to supervise the festivities which will lead to the naming of his [Music] child after 5 weeks away from the village the exhausted Hunters are back now Laden with 13 precious racks of tortoises from the forest [Applause] [Music] high-pitched wailing or Keening from the women greets the young Bachelors as they perform their last duty of hauling the 200lb racks of tortoises into the Village Circle Keening is for women what oratory is for men a stylized form of speech performed by senior women on important occasions like the return of the hunting party cromar as leader of the Expedition ends the hunt by delivering a special chant called Ben Ben resembles a more stylized form of the senior men's oratory and is normally reserved for Chiefs alone The Hunting Party divides the tortoises are taken to Pan's house where he and his family will start the great task of preparing them for the rest of the village meanwhile the older men the hunters retire to the the men's house in the center of the village [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the layout of the traditional kapo Village of kot is similar to that of the hunting camp the men's house called na the word for Center is in the center of the plaza where the ceremonies are held with the family households of the women and their husbands around the circumference the political order of relations among the age groups and the performance of public ceremony have their focus in the men's house a boy at the age of eight is removed from his family house around the edge of the circle and goes to live in the men's house which functions like a boarding school here youths and Bachelors learn to behave as a group in relation to the more senior men's and women's age sets in practice this means the married men who reside in the households on the edge of the Village Circle and who use the men's house as a kind of Club when a youth gets a girl he is courting pregnant he moves up from the bachelor's age group to the group of senior men and also moves out of the men's house to take up residence with his wife and her parents house on the edge of the circle Baka a is kari's son-in-law he now lives in kari's family house he explains what happened when he first courted kokar one of kari's daughters some years ago then Baka a moved in with kokar into her father's house kari's house contains 28 members of his near kin his extended family kari's own immediate family that of his wife's sister and the families of his two daughters and sons-in-law here Baka a has to obey his new parents-in-law just as he obeys the seniors in the men's house gold is on ry's mind when he begins a fierce artion to the boys and bachelors in the men's house on the true meaning of the naming ceremony which is about to [Music] begin for [Music] [Music] the men dance out of the men's house in the first of the climactic rights of the ceremony these will culminate in the great tortoise feast and the giving of beautiful names to Pan's child a few days later the separation of the age groups is now overcome in the continuous line of dancers the structure of ceremony thus draws together the groups divided in the men's house structure this Unity creates for the kapo the beauty that is passed on to the child by the ceremony [Applause] the dancing will go on for 5 days hearing that we must depart for the gold Rich Village of gorti rney because he cannot write asked to send a message on our tape recorder criticizing the gtii leaders for [Music] another group of 700 kaiapo Indians live in the village of gtii and the gtii reserve from the gold mine they control 10 m away gorti has an income of $2 million a [Applause] year at its air strip the two Village Chiefs fly in from Brazilia the nation's capital in the first plane is the Senior Chief Kyon Toto e the other Chief flies in in in a second plane there are two other family members in the party who are equally important tapette a nephew of one of the Chiefs and kuini Son of the other schooled in Brazilian ways they've enabled gtii to deal with the gold mine and the banking system in effect these two have become the first kaiapo technocrats Chief Canyon has been in Brazilia trying to see the president of Brazil gtii has a serious problem there are rumors that the government want to build a hydroelectric scheme that could flood huge areas of kaiapo [Laughter] land K Crow Chief Toto's wife Keening in the customary kaiapo greeting over kui her returning son The Wailing expresses the sadness she felt while he was away the new brick houses of Goro TI built along their Brazilian style Street together with the men's house made of corrugated iron at the head of the street exemplify the changes brought by gold and Timber [Music] wealth when Toto e the second Chief arrives a meeting is called for the whole village in the men's House at the End of the Street gold has brought dramatic changes here youths and Bachelors no longer sleep in the men's house but live with their parents instead word has got around that Chief rney has sent a message critic izing the gorer people the whole village including the women crowed into the men's house to listen to R's words Chief Kyon and his people are angry [Music] for for [Music] a general debate over relations with the Brazilians and the changes these might bring to their own Society is Raging among the gor and other kapo this degree of self-awareness about their own culture is in itself a great change in kaiapo history Central to the debate is what to do about the huge gold mine at Maria Bonita on kaiapo land 10 mi from G the kaiapo were presented with a fat compley when in 1982 gold was found and 3,000 tough and determined Brazilians invaded [Music] [Music] Maria Bonita has become a wild west Frontier post hacked from the Jungle the only way in is by light planes which land on the Main Street of the town the kaiapo managed to keep control of the Mine by Force of Arms laying down three rules for the miners no guns no women and no alcohol and today only four kaiapo Warriors run the site this is iio their leader son-in-law of one of the gorti Chiefs IO makes up the third of the three kapo technocrats who run the gold business before a minor is paid by the treasury he presents himself to IO and a percentage of the gold he scratched from the soil is taken by the kapo you know this is the Brazilian government treasury at the mine initially they offered the kaiapo a tiny percentage of the gold from the mine but when production quickly Rose to $40 million a year the kaiapo decided to take a 5% share by force some 200 kaiapo Warriors seized control of the Maria Bonita mine in April 1985 they did it by occupying the airstrip the only means of access to the site decorated in traditional battle paint and feathers and armed with war clubs rifles and bows and arrows they cowed the 3,000 miners on the site by this calculated exhibition of savagery the miners offer no resistance now that they are in firm control the kyopo successfully police the mine at its shops and inspect the baggage of wall departing miners for smuggled gold with only four Warriors armed with war clubs all of this represents a conscious use by the kaiapo of their reputation among the local Brazilians as Savage killers the success of the caiapo in seizing and running the mines is a remarkable achievement for an Amazonian Indian people it is however a success which could raise impossible problems ahead how will the Newfound wealth affect kaiapo society and values and how will they control the miners who've gained a foothold on their territory as always the kaiapo main concern is for their land and the answer they have come up with is straightforward and simple if perhaps optimistic [Music] [Applause] for spee IO returns from the mine to his village of gorti iio is back because a beautiful naming ceremony is taking place in gtii the ceremony is called the Coco and again as in capot the whole village must participate also getting ready for for the ceremony are the two other young technocrats tapette who runs the banking system nephew of one of the Chiefs and Kuban who runs the government post here son of the other chief [Music] ad for foree spee for Fore spee Jo [Music] the Coco naming ceremony will go on day and night in the village for nearly 3 months as in capot before a beautiful name can be given to a young child the whole Community must take part in the [Applause] ritual the ceremony consists of a series of mask dancers involving two ant heers a male and a female the male circles the female courting her and guarding against enemies such as [Music] monkeys the monkeys alternatively escort and harass the aners who in turn are watched over by the mysterious coo masks during the 3mon long ceremony three children from gtii will gain beautiful names every morning and every evening during the ritual the children are protected and shelter under the Coco masks the Coco masks have the faces of catfish but also the presence of human ghosts they are warned by the ceremonial friends or godkin of the child being named their role is to guard the child during important ritual transitions like the receiving of a ceremonial name each morning and each evening the Coco masks are slowly escorted back to their resting places in the houses of the children who will be [Applause] named the parents of the name receiving children don't take part in the celebration instead said they must work to feed the dancers twice a day for up to 3 months a heavy obligation in a community of 700 people dancers sit in the men's house divided into their age groups of Bachelors young married men and seniors calling impatiently for [Music] food branka and myu are the parents of one of the children receiving a beautiful name fore [Music] [Music] gold Revenue comes into the community in other ways the gtii Chiefs have bought themselves into the 20th century by purchasing a light aircraft and hiring a Brazilian pilot with the plane in use to patrol their land the kaiapo have become the first Amazonian tribe to have an Air Force today tapette is on a routine flight searching for squatters on kaiapo land [Music] [Music] gorti land is about the size of an average English County four vigilante posts used by teams of armed kaiapo Warriors have been set up to frighten off invading settlers the kaiapo employ these Brazilian workers paid by the gold to run the [Music] posts for another example of gold money finding its way into the Community gorer Village watching television but this is no ordinary viewing they're watching material shot on their own video camera [Music] this is their own recording of a war dance performed by a neighboring Kaio Village the Chiefs perceive video as a way of storing kapo culture major kaiapo negotiations with Brazilians are also recorded when a group of Pilots tried to change their contract for flying planes to the mine the discussion was played back to them afterwards the acquisition of aeroplanes and video cameras by the kaiapo is an ingenious use of their golden Timber revenues to protect their own culture when tapette led the war party of 200 kaiapo Warriors to invade the mine and get back 5% of the gold gor's own camera was there to record this important piece of kaiapo [Applause] history with the Chiefs controlling the bank accounts little if any real money circulates in gtii this can produce strange paradoxes be Nar has a gold nugget he wants to sell the traditional circular Village plan has been abandoned at gor but the changes appear to go much further than that the new Brazilian style houses tend to shelter single families rather than the old style extended families only 35% of the houses at goru still contain sons-in-law living with their wives parents as compared with 85% at capot and even more striking change has occurred in the men's house at the head of the street the young boys and Bachelors no longer sleep there as they do at capot instead they live with their parents until they are ready to marry and set up their own households do these apparent interrelated changes represent a major breakdown of kaiapo society or put differently has the acquisition of gold and other wealth undermine the traditional order of kaiapo [Music] society the answer of the guru tii themselves is no the beautiful naming ceremonies such as this one the quango are celebrated if anything more vigorously than ever and the age groups in the men's house continue to organized Village activities the quak Kongo is unique in that both men's and women's age groups dance together this is clear as each group dances in a series of concentric arcs [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] one major side effect of the gold mine is the pollution stretching 10 Mi down river to the Village this doesn't stop the children of gorti from playing in the water but it has forced the kaiapo to rely more on alternative fishing methods in outlying streams and ponds one such is the ancient kaiapo method which they call the attack on the fish in a Pond away from the river bundles of vines are beaten in the water to produce sap which deprives the water of oxygen after a Time the fish are forced to the [Applause] surface the actual beating is organized by age groups with the bachelors and seniors working in separate teams while waiting for the fish kapran poy one of the fishermen takes issue with charges that g is abandoning its culture for [Music] spee [Applause] again go back to drop that an even more Vivid method of instilling the young Bachelors of goldridge goru with traditional age group values is the ordeal called the attack on the Wasps this is a dangerous and painful ritual in which youths of the bachelor's age group must plunge their fists into a wasp nest in a tree high above the ground under the unrelenting gaze of the senior men The Bachelors must demonstrate their discipline and aggressiveness by braving the stings and descending the scaffold before they are overcome by the pain [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] oh iio the kaiapo leader at the mine rights like this demonstrate the continuing Vitality of the age group system of [Music] gor for a whole week the Chiefs have remained silent about their visit to Brazilia the nation's capital but rumors of the propos hydroelectric Dam are causing concern in the village Chief Canyon calls for all the men to assemble in the men's house with their War clubs fore raiding other tribes or the Brazilians was until recently an important way that the kaiapo constructed their own identity now I sense that their recent successes in dealing with the Brazilians have had something of the same effect you can feel their pride in themselves as they dance their traditional War dance the women with their babies dancing among the men extending their arms protectively above them the fate of the whole society at stake they danced this as they went out to seize the gold mine of Maria Bonita in 19 85 I think they'll be dancing it again if the hydroelectric dams start going up on the shingu river [Applause] [Music] [Music] e