Biblioteca Digital Curt Nimuendajú

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https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00029915/00001

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This is a study of the ethnic survival of the Tenetehara Indians of the State of Maranhão, Brazil. The Tenetehara are presently one of the largest Indian groups in Brazil, comprising a total population of about 4,300 people. There are over 40 Tenetehara villages located in five reservation areas in the State of Maranhao. All of these areas have recently suffered invasions of Brazilian landless peasants. This, along with the aggressive interests of local landowners, has caused a great deal of anxiety on the part of the Tenetehara. They have been helped by the National Foundation for the Indian (FUNAI) in combating this threat to their lands, but the situation is still to be legally solved. In 1975, there was some friction between the Tenetehara and Brazilian peasants and landowners concerning the boundaries of Tenetehara lands and the expulsion of the peasants from these lands. The ownership of land looms as the greatest problem for the continuing existence of the Tenetehara as well as other Indian groups.

This dissertation focuses on the Tenetehara mode of production, of which the land question is but one basic factor. The Tenetehara mode of production is analyzed as an important element for the continuing existence of the Tenetehara ethnic group. This analysis is carried out in both historical and structural terms. The Tenetehara have been in contact with Western civilization for over 350 years. They have suffered but successfully survived the impact of Western diseases, the processes of predation, enslavement, serfdom, and the general dominance of the forming Brazilian society. They have modified their society and culture in order to survive this impact, but in this they have not simply stood as passive recipients. They have also reacted to this impact and in the process they have played a part in shaping the kind of contact relationship they have had with the Brazilian society.

This contact relationship has taken place because of the mutual need of Brazilians and Tenetehara to obtain goods from each other. In this process the Tenetehara have modified their mode of production, and consequently their society and culture in general, to meet the market demands for their goods. However, they have continued, with some exceptions, to produce for internal consumption, thus keeping the economic basis upon which their ethnic autonomy rests. The process of acculturation and loss of ethnic identification has taken place when the conditions for the continuation of production for internal consumption were superseded by the conditions for production for trade and by the rapid increase of the Brazilian population in the area. The Tenetehara have survived, and indeed have increased their population since aboriginal times, because they have been able to maintain a distinct mode of production apart from that of the Brazilian society. The future of the Tenetehara lies in continuing this strategy, a possibility which poses new problems in view of the recent developments of the rural Maranhão society.

Disponível originalmente em
https://original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/AA00029915/00001

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