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24-611: The Kalapalo were the first Xingu tribe to be contacted by the Villas-Bôas brothers in 1945. Before the arrival of the Villas Boas, the people had sporadic contact with Europeans. The name 'Kalapalo' was given to this group by white settlers in the late 19th century. The Cariban dialect of the Kalapalos shows that they have not always lived in the Upper Xingu. The Kalapalo speak a dialect of

48-504: A bow and arrow. Since contact with outsiders they have used more modern means of fishing like firearms, fishing gear and razors. The Kalapalo also grow piqui fruit, maize, peppers, beans and sweet manioc. When the Kalapalo are planting or harvesting manioc, they often bathe three or four times a day . In Kalapalo society, every adult is responsible for contributing food to the food supply, however, if they don't or can't, they are still allowed

72-581: A language that belongs to the southern branch of the Guyana Carib language family and their closest linguistic relatives are Ye'kuana or Makiritare in southern Venezuela and Hixkaryana language , spoken in the Nhamundá area in Brazil and Guyana . The Kalapalos and these tribes also share certain oral legends which describe their encounters with the white man and Christian rituals. This oral tradition suggests that

96-599: A share of the food. The Kalopalo believe that if they dance during certain ceremonies, the animal spirits will protect the living. The type of ceremony depends on if it is during the dry season or the wet season. Each dance has a certain value that they believe in (Smith). They display certain dietary restrictions based on spiritual practice; they don't eat land animals, only aquatic animals. They believe that if they eat only aquatic animals, it will bring them moral beauty (Basso). Some members of their tribe compete in bow and arrow competitions. Their bows are made out of peach palm,

120-516: A special wood that comes from the Amazon. They also make their arrows out of that wood but have feathers split in two to make the fletching (the part of an arrow that guides its trajectory). These arrows are normally about 2 meters long. They also have games such as wrestling, where the hosts wrestle guests from other tribes, otherwise known as "egitsu" to the Kalapalos. About once a year they have "Jogos Indigenas" (Indigenous Games), their tribal equivalent of

144-402: A strict code of ethics established by them that distinguish them from other peoples inhabiting the Upper Xingu. They all collectively share their culture as their fishing . Any public quarrels and fights are a serious violation of their code and are punished. They refrain from hunting land animals for fur by simply eating aquatic animals including fish . The Kalapalo social organization

168-501: A stroke in his São Paulo apartment on March 1, 1998. Indians called him "The Father" and by 1994 there were 6000 Indians in 18 settlements from different tribes. Leonardo died in 1961 at age 43. Álvaro was born 1926 in São Paulo and worked with his brothers in the Xingu area from 1961 to 1962. He then settled in São Paulo, where he provided logistical support to his brothers' missions in

192-503: Is a big part of their population. In most other tribes, only the males gather the food, but in the Kalapalo tribe, both the male and the females gather it. If they do not come back with food, others will share with them as long as they do not always rely on others. Villas-B%C3%B4as brothers Orlando (1914–2002) and his brothers Cláudio (1916–1998) and Leonardo Villas-Bôas (1918–1961) were Brazilian brothers who worked in indigenous activism . In 1961 they succeeded in getting

216-566: Is due entirely to the Villas-Bôas brothers and the total dedication of their lives to this work over the last 25 years." Since 1971, more indigenous parks and reserves have been created, such as the Tumucumaque National Park (38,800 km ) in northern Pará state, but the Xingu park (26,400 km ) remains the most important of them. The anthropologist Shelton Davis wrote that "The Villas-Bôas brothers further argued that it

240-777: Is known as Aifa Otomo, or "those who live in a ripe area." Before the creation of the Xingu National Park in 1961, the Kalapalos lived at the confluence of the Tanguro and Kuluene, which are tributaries of the river Xingu . Since then, the Brazilian government has convinced them to settle near the Leonardo station, where medical treatment was made available. However, they frequently return to their former villages where they can grow cassava and cotton and where they can gather shellfish for art and craft-making purposes. The Kalapalos have

264-421: Is very flexible. The two most important social units in Kalapalo and other upper Xingu societies are the village and household groups. The choice of a Kalapalo to join a group is based on their relationship to an individual in the group, not their religious affiliation, or ancestral rights or obligations . Because of this, membership of villages and households are constantly changing. Leadership extends only over

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288-514: The Brazilian graffiti artist Speto created an extensive artwork dedicated to the Villas-Bôas titled 3 Brothers on 14 concrete pillars of the elevated metro track of Krieau station in Vienna commissioned by Wiener Linien and KÖR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum . Honoring the brothers' legacy, Speto painted characters from Brazilian mythology like Boitatá , Iara or Boto and tribal pattern designs on

312-570: The Kalapalos encountered explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett and may have been the last to see his expedition alive . These stories suggest that the Caribs of the Xingu region left the Caribbean area after being in contact with Spaniards , possibly to escape from them after experiencing violent contact, some time in the second half of the 18th century. Among the Cariban-speaking Indians, the tribe

336-565: The Olympics, where people from different tribes convene and compete against one another. At every ceremony, it is either the males or females that lead the way, depending on the time of year. If it is the males' turn, the females cannot even look at the males or they will be abused; the males have similar consequences when it is the females' turn. Much of the time, women eat a special diet that they believe makes it easier for them to get pregnant. Kalapalo women have an average of 5 children, so this diet

360-573: The country's interior. He assumed the presidency of FUNAI ( Fundação Nacional do Índio ) for a short period in 1985. Died in Bauru , São Paulo, on August 22, 1995. Two of the Villas-Bôas brothers, Orlando and Cláudio, were jointly awarded the Royal Geographical Society ’s gold medal in 1967, as much for their geographical explorations as for their humanitarian work. They also received the GEO prize from

384-453: The encroaching settlement frontier. The Villas-Bôas were the first to appreciate the value of politics and the media in furthering the indigenous cause. They also devised a policy of "change, but only at the speed the Indians want". In the 1950s, Brazilian explorer and defender of indigenous people, Cândido Rondon , supported the Villas-Bôas brothers' campaign, which faced strong opposition from

408-474: The entire upper Xingu legally protected, making it the first massive indigenous area in all South America , and the prototype for dozens of similar reserves all over the continent. The explorer John Hemming wrote that the Villas-Bôas were pioneers in many ways. They were almost the first non-missionaries to live permanently with the natives; and they treated them as their equals and friends. They persuaded tribes to end internecine feuds and unite to confront

432-455: The expedition disbanded they remained in the jungle to protect the Xinguanos from the land speculators, state senators, diamond prospectors, skin hunters, and rubber gatherers who had followed in their wake. (...) That the Xingu tribes continue to exist, in fact to thrive, is due largely to the extreme dedication, intelligence, cunning, and physical strength of these brothers. Of the 11 siblings,

456-471: The foreword of the book Xingu: the Indians, Their Myths the anthropologist Kenneth S. Brecher wrote that It is now almost 30 years since the Villas-Bôas brothers (...) led the expedition known as 'Brazil's march to the West' which was intended to open up the heart of the interior for colonization. They were overwhelmed by the beauty and cultural richness of the network of Xingu tribes which they discovered, and when

480-568: The government and the ranchers of Mato Grosso and led to the establishment of the first Brazilian National Park for indigenous people along the Xingu River in 1961. Robin Hanbury-Tenison , from Survival International , wrote in 1971 that "The Xingu is the only closed park in Brazil, which means that it is the only area in which Indians are safe from deliberate or accidental contact with undesirable representatives of Western civilization. This

504-409: The household group. The leader represents the village in matters that involve other upper Xingu groups ("Countries and Their Cultures"). The Kalapalo fish for their main source of food. May to September is the dry season in the upper Xingu region during which time food is abundant. They used nets, basket traps and bait to lure the fish to the surface of the water, where they would shoot the fish with

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528-604: The president of Germany, Richard von Weizsäcker and the ex-Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt in 1984, in recognition of their humanitarian work. The two were twice nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1971 and again in 1975. Matupá Airport , in Matupá , Mato Grosso , Brazil is named after the brother Orlando. The Villas-Bôas brothers are the main protagonists in Cao Hamburger 's 2012 film Xingu . In April 2014

552-562: The three brothers banded together in their pioneering work, later supported by their younger brother Alvaro. Orlando died in 2002. When a major chief dies, the Xingu Indians hold a great funerary festival (the Kuarup) in his honour. They did this for Orlando even though he was white. He had two sons, Noel and Orlando. Claudio was born on December 8, 1916, in Botucatu , São Paulo and died of

576-488: Was the responsibility of the federal government to provide a secure protective buffer, in the form of closed Indian parks and reserves, between Indians and the frontiers of national society. In time, the three brothers believed, Indians would integrate into Brazilian national society. This process of integration, however, should be a gradual one and should guarantee the Indians’s survival, ethnic identities and ways of life." In

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