Villas-Bôas brothers

Orlando (1914–2002) and his brothers Cláudio (1916–1998) and Leonardo Villas-Bôas (1918–1961) were Brazilian activists regarding indigenous peoples.

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Achievements

In 1961 they succeeded in getting the entire upper Xingu legally protected – the first huge indigenous area in all South America, and the prototype for dozens of similar reserves all over the continent. Two of the Villas-Bôas brothers, Orlando and Cláudio, were jointly awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s gold medal, as much for their geographical explorations as for their humanitarian work. They also received the GEO prize, delivered by the president of Germany, Richard von Weizsäcker, and the Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt, in 1984, as a recognition for their humanitarian work.

Pioneers

The British historian, John Hemming, wrote that the Villas-Bôas were pioneers in many ways. They were almost the first non-missionaries to live permanently with the Indians; and they treated them as their equals and friends. They persuaded tribes to end internecine feuds and unite to confront the encroaching settlement frontier. They were the first to empower indigenous people to run their own affairs. 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".

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, from Survival International, wrote 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 is due entirely to the Villas-Bôas brothers and the total dedication of their lives to this work over the last 25 years." [1] (Since 1971, when this was written, more indigenous parks and reserves have been created, such as the Tumucumaque Indigenous National Park in northern Pará state, but the Xingu park remains the most important of them.)

The anthropologist Shelton Davis wrote that "The Villas-Bôas brothers further argued that it 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." [2]

In 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 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.[3]

Personal lives and deaths

Of the 11 siblings, only the three brothers banded together in their pioneering work.

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 [4] and died of 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.[4]

References

  1. ^ Robin Hanbury-Tenison. Report of a visit to the Indians of Brazil on behalf of the Primitive People Fund/Survival International. London: Quintrell & Co. Ltd., Printers, Wadebridge, 1971, p. 9.
  2. ^ Shelton Davis, Victims of the miracle: development and the Indians of Brazil. Cambridge University Press, UK, 1977, p. 50.
  3. ^ Kenneth S. Brecher. Foreword in Villas-Bôas, Orlando; Villas-Bôas, Cláudio. Xingu: the Indians, Their Myths, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1973.
  4. ^ a b http://www.phfawcettsweb.org/claudio.htm

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