Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil: State Policy, Frontier Expansion, and the Xavante Indians, 1937–1988
by Seth Garfield
Duke University Press, 2001 Paper: 978-0-8223-2665-6 | eISBN: 978-0-8223-8141-9 | Cloth: 978-0-8223-2661-8 Library of Congress Classification F2520.1.A4G37 2001 Dewey Decimal Classification 323.11984
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil examines the dynamic interplay between the Brazilian government and the Xavante Indians of central Brazil in the context of twentieth-century western frontier expansion and the state’s indigenous policy. Offering a window onto Brazilian developmental policy in Amazonia and the subsequent process of indigenous political mobilization, Seth Garfield bridges historical and anthropological approaches to reconsider state formation and ethnic identity in twentieth-century Brazil. Garfield explains how state officials, eager to promote capital accumulation, social harmony, and national security on the western front, sought to delimit indigenous reserves and assimilate native peoples. Yet he also shows that state efforts to celebrate Indians as primordial Brazilians and nationalist icons simultaneously served to underscore and redefine ethnic difference. Garfield explores how various other social actors—elites, missionaries, military officials, intellectuals, international critics, and the Indians themselves—strove to remold this multifaceted project. Paying particular attention to the Xavante’s methods of engaging state power after experience with exile, territorial loss, and violence in the “white” world, Garfield describes how they emerged under military rule not as the patriotic Brazilians heralded by state propagandists but as a highly politicized ethnic group clamoring for its constitutional land rights and social entitlements. Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil will interest not only historians and anthropologists but also those studying nationbuilding, Brazil, Latin America, comparative frontiers, race, and ethnicity.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Seth Garfield is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin.
REVIEWS
"[An] excellent monograph. . . . One of the author’s important contributions is to detail how the Xavante succeeded in resisting the government efforts to turn them into exemplary Indians. . . . [T]his well-written and admirably researched monograph will be an invaluable source for scholars wishing to compare Indian policies under such disparate political systems as those of Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S."
- Thomas E. Skidmore, Journal of Anthropological Research
"This book should be widely read by scholars of Brazilian history or, more generally, persons interested in Latin American indigenous history. . . ." - Jerry Dávila, Luso-Brazilian Review
"[A] fresh approach. . . . Specialists in various fields will find Garfield’s work useful. . . . Garfield displays a masterful command of the historical and theoretical literature, and his particular framework will help to enlighten the course of the indigenous struggle in other epochs and regions of Latin America. . . . Garfield’s work is a significant contribution. . . ." - Kenneth P. Serbin, American Historical Review
"Seth Garfield deftly straddles the boundary between history and anthropology." - Donna Lee Van Cott, Latin American Research Review
"[A] well-documented study. . . . This book is a valuable source for graduate students in Latin American history, anthropology, and political science, as well as for practitioners working on indigenous issues. Garfield's impressive integration of Xavante history with national policies and frontier dynamics derives from his thorough research and is enriched by the voices of Xavante leaders." - Xenia V. Wilkinson, Hispanic American Historical Review
"This is a lively, well-researched, well-written, and engaging work. . . . This is a must read for scholars interested in modern Brazilian political science, state planning, indigenous peoples, conflict resolution, and frontier dynamics." - Sheldon Avenius, Perspectives on Political Science
“A pioneering analysis of Brazilian government policy toward the indigenous population from the standpoint of contemporary history. Garfield goes beyond the sensationalism which characterizes so much criticism of government policy to provide a thoughtful, well-balanced, and highly revealing study.”—Thomas E. Skidmore, author of Brazil: Five Centuries of Change
“This fine historical study illuminates a host of crucial questions about Brazilian state formation, racial discourses, and national identity. Its pathbreaking reconstruction of the complicated interaction between the Xavante communities and the Brazilian state provides us with vivid examples of the way in which the policies of a modernizing state serve to reduce the complexities of indigenous culture but at the same time create possibilities for entirely new strategies of resistance and negotiation.”—Barbara Weinstein, author of For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paolo, 1920–1964
"[A] fresh approach. . . . Specialists in various fields will find Garfield’s work useful. . . . Garfield displays a masterful command of the historical and theoretical literature, and his particular framework will help to enlighten the course of the indigenous struggle in other epochs and regions of Latin America. . . . Garfield’s work is a significant contribution. . . ."
-- Kenneth P. Serbin American Historical Review
"[A] well-documented study. . . . This book is a valuable source for graduate students in Latin American history, anthropology, and political science, as well as for practitioners working on indigenous issues. Garfield's impressive integration of Xavante history with national policies and frontier dynamics derives from his thorough research and is enriched by the voices of Xavante leaders."
-- Xenia V. Wilkinson Hispanic American Historical Review
"[An] excellent monograph. . . . One of the author’s important contributions is to detail how the Xavante succeeded in resisting the government efforts to turn them into exemplary Indians. . . . [T]his well-written and admirably researched monograph will be an invaluable source for scholars wishing to compare Indian policies under such disparate political systems as those of Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S."
-- Thomas E. Skidmore Journal of Anthropological Research
"Seth Garfield deftly straddles the boundary between history and anthropology."
-- Donna Lee Van Cott Latin American Research Review
"This book should be widely read by scholars of Brazilian history or, more generally, persons interested in Latin American indigenous history. . . ."
-- Jerry Dávila Luso-Brazilian Review
"This is a lively, well-researched, well-written, and engaging work. . . . This is a must read for scholars interested in modern Brazilian political science, state planning, indigenous peoples, conflict resolution, and frontier dynamics."
-- Sheldon Avenius Perspectives on Political Science
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Indians and the Nation-State in Brazil
2. “The Base of Our National Character”: Indians and the Estado Novo, 1937–1945
3. “Pacifying” the Xavante: 1941–1966
4. “The Father of the Family Provoking Opposition”: State Efforts to Remake the Xavante, 1946–1961
5. “Noble Gestures of Independence and Pride”: Land Policies in Mato Grosso, 1946–1964
6. “Brazilindians”: Accommodation with Waradzu, 1950–1964
7. “Where the Earth Touches the Sky”: New Horizons for Indigenous Policy under Early Military Rule, 1964–1972
8. The Exiles Return, 1972–1980
9. The Xavante Project, 1978–1988
10. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil: State Policy, Frontier Expansion, and the Xavante Indians, 1937–1988
by Seth Garfield
Duke University Press, 2001 Paper: 978-0-8223-2665-6 eISBN: 978-0-8223-8141-9 Cloth: 978-0-8223-2661-8
Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil examines the dynamic interplay between the Brazilian government and the Xavante Indians of central Brazil in the context of twentieth-century western frontier expansion and the state’s indigenous policy. Offering a window onto Brazilian developmental policy in Amazonia and the subsequent process of indigenous political mobilization, Seth Garfield bridges historical and anthropological approaches to reconsider state formation and ethnic identity in twentieth-century Brazil. Garfield explains how state officials, eager to promote capital accumulation, social harmony, and national security on the western front, sought to delimit indigenous reserves and assimilate native peoples. Yet he also shows that state efforts to celebrate Indians as primordial Brazilians and nationalist icons simultaneously served to underscore and redefine ethnic difference. Garfield explores how various other social actors—elites, missionaries, military officials, intellectuals, international critics, and the Indians themselves—strove to remold this multifaceted project. Paying particular attention to the Xavante’s methods of engaging state power after experience with exile, territorial loss, and violence in the “white” world, Garfield describes how they emerged under military rule not as the patriotic Brazilians heralded by state propagandists but as a highly politicized ethnic group clamoring for its constitutional land rights and social entitlements. Indigenous Struggle at the Heart of Brazil will interest not only historians and anthropologists but also those studying nationbuilding, Brazil, Latin America, comparative frontiers, race, and ethnicity.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Seth Garfield is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin.
REVIEWS
"[An] excellent monograph. . . . One of the author’s important contributions is to detail how the Xavante succeeded in resisting the government efforts to turn them into exemplary Indians. . . . [T]his well-written and admirably researched monograph will be an invaluable source for scholars wishing to compare Indian policies under such disparate political systems as those of Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S."
- Thomas E. Skidmore, Journal of Anthropological Research
"This book should be widely read by scholars of Brazilian history or, more generally, persons interested in Latin American indigenous history. . . ." - Jerry Dávila, Luso-Brazilian Review
"[A] fresh approach. . . . Specialists in various fields will find Garfield’s work useful. . . . Garfield displays a masterful command of the historical and theoretical literature, and his particular framework will help to enlighten the course of the indigenous struggle in other epochs and regions of Latin America. . . . Garfield’s work is a significant contribution. . . ." - Kenneth P. Serbin, American Historical Review
"Seth Garfield deftly straddles the boundary between history and anthropology." - Donna Lee Van Cott, Latin American Research Review
"[A] well-documented study. . . . This book is a valuable source for graduate students in Latin American history, anthropology, and political science, as well as for practitioners working on indigenous issues. Garfield's impressive integration of Xavante history with national policies and frontier dynamics derives from his thorough research and is enriched by the voices of Xavante leaders." - Xenia V. Wilkinson, Hispanic American Historical Review
"This is a lively, well-researched, well-written, and engaging work. . . . This is a must read for scholars interested in modern Brazilian political science, state planning, indigenous peoples, conflict resolution, and frontier dynamics." - Sheldon Avenius, Perspectives on Political Science
“A pioneering analysis of Brazilian government policy toward the indigenous population from the standpoint of contemporary history. Garfield goes beyond the sensationalism which characterizes so much criticism of government policy to provide a thoughtful, well-balanced, and highly revealing study.”—Thomas E. Skidmore, author of Brazil: Five Centuries of Change
“This fine historical study illuminates a host of crucial questions about Brazilian state formation, racial discourses, and national identity. Its pathbreaking reconstruction of the complicated interaction between the Xavante communities and the Brazilian state provides us with vivid examples of the way in which the policies of a modernizing state serve to reduce the complexities of indigenous culture but at the same time create possibilities for entirely new strategies of resistance and negotiation.”—Barbara Weinstein, author of For Social Peace in Brazil: Industrialists and the Remaking of the Working Class in São Paolo, 1920–1964
"[A] fresh approach. . . . Specialists in various fields will find Garfield’s work useful. . . . Garfield displays a masterful command of the historical and theoretical literature, and his particular framework will help to enlighten the course of the indigenous struggle in other epochs and regions of Latin America. . . . Garfield’s work is a significant contribution. . . ."
-- Kenneth P. Serbin American Historical Review
"[A] well-documented study. . . . This book is a valuable source for graduate students in Latin American history, anthropology, and political science, as well as for practitioners working on indigenous issues. Garfield's impressive integration of Xavante history with national policies and frontier dynamics derives from his thorough research and is enriched by the voices of Xavante leaders."
-- Xenia V. Wilkinson Hispanic American Historical Review
"[An] excellent monograph. . . . One of the author’s important contributions is to detail how the Xavante succeeded in resisting the government efforts to turn them into exemplary Indians. . . . [T]his well-written and admirably researched monograph will be an invaluable source for scholars wishing to compare Indian policies under such disparate political systems as those of Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S."
-- Thomas E. Skidmore Journal of Anthropological Research
"Seth Garfield deftly straddles the boundary between history and anthropology."
-- Donna Lee Van Cott Latin American Research Review
"This book should be widely read by scholars of Brazilian history or, more generally, persons interested in Latin American indigenous history. . . ."
-- Jerry Dávila Luso-Brazilian Review
"This is a lively, well-researched, well-written, and engaging work. . . . This is a must read for scholars interested in modern Brazilian political science, state planning, indigenous peoples, conflict resolution, and frontier dynamics."
-- Sheldon Avenius Perspectives on Political Science
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: Indians and the Nation-State in Brazil
2. “The Base of Our National Character”: Indians and the Estado Novo, 1937–1945
3. “Pacifying” the Xavante: 1941–1966
4. “The Father of the Family Provoking Opposition”: State Efforts to Remake the Xavante, 1946–1961
5. “Noble Gestures of Independence and Pride”: Land Policies in Mato Grosso, 1946–1964
6. “Brazilindians”: Accommodation with Waradzu, 1950–1964
7. “Where the Earth Touches the Sky”: New Horizons for Indigenous Policy under Early Military Rule, 1964–1972
8. The Exiles Return, 1972–1980
9. The Xavante Project, 1978–1988
10. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE