The Canela (Eastern Timbira), I: An Ethnographic Introduction.
By William H.Crocker
Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology,
Number 33, 487 pages, 11 tables, 51 figures, 78 plates, 1990.

<<back  table of contents  next>>
<<return to literature

Part II: Ethnographic Background

Among existing lowland South American indigenous groups (Map 1) that have been studied, the Canela are unusual in having retained their tribal cohesion in spite of contact and pacification for more than a century and a half [II.B.1.a]. Also unlike most tribes situated as far east as the Canela, they have remained intact while others have either not survived or been detribalized or even urbanized. Although pacified in 1814, the Canela were not settled and stabilized in their present location until about 1830 or 1835. Then they experienced about 100 years of regularized but limited contact with backlanders and Barra do Corda town dwellers. In reconstructing their aboriginal culture it is necessary to factor in what might have been innovated by them or accepted from backlanders during the past century. The effects of the cessation of tribal warfare on the sociocultural system have to be viewed in this context, as well as the shift from their principal reliance on food collecting to food producing. My long-term fieldwork makes it easier for these extra-societal factors to be analyzed to a fuller extent than usual.

Besides reporting on extra-cultural sectors, I describe here what I have called "expressive culture"-life cycle and daily cycle activities, recreation, and material culture-to make the Canela come alive for the reader. In addition, since a principal orientation of this monograph is descriptive ethnography, it is appropriate to include material on how the Canela enjoy themselves and on how they view and value their world.

[II.a] DATA SOURCES

Sources of fieldwork practices, information [Pr.2], and data collection are provided in Appendix 6.

[II.b] CATEGORIZING CULTURE AREAS

A number of scholars, including Kroeber (1948) and Murdock (1951), have attempted to categorize South American and Brazilian Indians in terms of culture areas. However, Steward, Galvão, and Ribeiro are the principal designators pertinent to the Canela. For Steward (1946-1959), the Canela and all Gê-speaking tribes are Marginal in his famous ecological four-way categorization of all South American tribes which is better evolved in Steward and Faron (1959:12). Galvão (1960,1967) offers another system for Brazilian tribes in which he places the Canela in his Culture Area VI(A), "Tocantins-Xingú," with most other Timbira, while the Central Gê are VI(B) and the Kayapó, Gavião, Ozoneí, Tapirapé, Karajá and others are VI(C). Kietzman (1967) develops Galvão's approach, especially for the Summer Institute of Linguistics personnel. Earlier, Darcy Ribeiro (1957, 1967) designated Brazilian tribes as being in "isolation," "intermittent contact," "permanent contact" (Canela), or "integration." Currently, Ribeiro is evolving another system for Brazilian Indians covering all of these peoples in a near exhaustive manner to replace Steward's Handbook of South American Indians for Brazil.

[II.c] ECOLOGICAL CONTEXT DURING 200 YEARS OF CONTACT

Like other lowland South American tribes, the Canela are assumed to have been in a changing environment (a two-way relationship) with the floral, faunal, and climatic systems around them in earlier times. By the mid-1950s, culture contact and resulting acculturation had disrupted this two-way relationship. Thus, precise ecological studies along these dimensions revealing aboriginal conditions were impossible, so I did not carry out the protein, soil depletion, and carrying capacity analyses of some colleagues. Instead, I researched the current ecological differences between the Canela and the Apanyekra, and the differences between the cerrado and dry forest environments for the Canela (W. Crocker,1972).

[II.d] SOCIOECONOMY

Concerning the external socioeconomic context, warfare and trade relations with other tribes have been disrupted for about two centuries and have been largely cut off for over a century and a half. Thus, Canela and Apanyekra tribal experiences contrast sharply with ethnological studies of the Kayapó (Lukesch, 1976; Posey, 1982, 1983b; T. Turner, 1966; Verswijver, 1978; Vidal, 1977a) and other tribes to the west, groups of which came out of isolation since the 1930s (Agostinho,1974; Arnaud,1964,1975; Basso,1973; Chagnon, 1968; Gregor, 1977; Laráia and Da Matta, 1967; and Taylor, 1977). Francisco Ribeiro (1815 [1870], 1819a [1841], 1819b [1874]) provides little on external socioeconomic context for the Canela just after their pacification. In contrast, Murphy (1960) furnishes an acculturation study of several comparative stages for the Mundurucú, and Cardoso (1976) provides some insight into the process of assimilation at still later stages of acculturation for the Terena and Tukuna.

To gain some perspective on Canela acculturation, I began a survey of the socioeconomic scene in neighboring backland communities in 1960. My plan for more extensive studies of this sort was interrupted by the ranchers' 1963 attack on the Canela messianic movement [II.B.2.f]. Thus, bad feelings against the Canela in the backlands made it politically impossible for me to continue such studies until the late 1970s, by which time my priorities had changed, so such data was not collected. I did, however, make one visit to Jenipapo do Resplandes in 1979 (Map 3) to record conspicuous changes since the late 1950s.

Data provided in works on other backland communities in eastern Maranhão, Piaui, and Ceará (Chandler, 1972) would help determine what is aboriginally Canela and what is the result of culture contact. Folkloric studies of the Northeast (Campos, 1959) might also be helpful. See Forman (1975: 203–225) for folk Catholic and psychological attitudes of dependence similar to those of the backlander of the Canela-Apanyekra region; Hall (1978: 15-54) for characteristics of the drought of the Northeast and its socio-economic problems, including backland ranching and sharecropping; Tipos e Aspectos do Brasil for socio-economic descriptions and actual drawings representative of the Canela-Apanyekra backland area (IBGE, 1956:64–66, 75–80, 91–97, 103–105, 124–127, 141–144, 164–166, 399–402, 406–425); and Johnson (1971) for general material on sharecroppers (all on a larger scale) and photographs characteristic of the Canela-Apanyekra backlands, except for the vegetation and irrigation. To the lesser extent that Amazonian traits were influencing customs of the area, Wagley's Amazon Town (1953) provides background material.

[II.e] HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Turning to the external historical context of the Canela, it would be desirable to have more data on the município of Barra do Corda and adjacent municípios. The archives of cities and communities in Maranhao may contain both general materials on this part of the state and specific materials related to contacts with the Canela. (See the ethnohistorical publications in the bibliography on the Guajajara by Mércio Gomes, 1977.) My data, however, were principally obtained by talking with research assistants and knowledgeable Brazilians.

[II.A] GÊ LANGUAGE FAMILY, ITS POPULATIONS, AND ECOLOGY

Gê (Glossary) is the language of both the Canela and the Apanyekra. The two dialects are very similar and have been converging since about 1950 because of lessening hostilities and increasing frequency of contacts between the two tribes. The Gê language is more widely spread (Map 1) than the region covered by the three geographic biomes converging near the Canela area. Estimated population numbers for all Gê-speaking peoples [II.A.2] stress the scope of this linguistic context. The geography of the intermediate zone where the Canela live lies between the tropical forests of Amazonia (hiléia), the drought-stricken lands of the Northeast (caatinga), and the closed savannas (cerrado) of the central highlands to the southwest (informally, chapada). Geographic and cultural contrasts throughout the Canela backland region and the município of Barra do Corda are also presented.

[II.A.1] Gê Language Family

The Krahó, who live in five or six villages about 330 kilometers to the southwest of the Canela and Apanyekra (Map 1), speak a dialect of Gê, which Jack Popjes, the SIL linguist, considers technically the same language. The Krïkatí and Pukobyé, who live about 160 kilometers to the west in Montes Altos and Amarante (Map 2), respectively, speak a distinct but related language, as do the Gavião northeast of Marabá, about 400 kilometers to the northwest of the Canela. Collectively, the above-mentioned tribes are called the Eastern Timbira (Map 4). Somewhat west of the Krïkatí (about 90 kilometers) near the confluence of the Tocantins and Araguáia rivers live the Apinayé, who were sufficiently different from the Eastern Timbira for Nimuendajú (1946:6) to classify them as the "Western Timbira."

The experts and their general and principal publications on the Timbira are Arnaud (1964,1984) for the Gavião, Da Matta (1976, 1982) for the Apinayé, Lave (1971, 1979) for the Krïkatí, Carneiro da Cunha (1978, 1986) and J. Melatti (1967, 1970, 1978) for the Krahó, Newton (1974, 1981) for the Pukobyé, and Nimuendajú (1937, 1938, 1946) and W. Crocker (1974a, 1974b, 1984a) for the Canela. There are no separate, modern publications on the Apanyekra.

At least a dozen groups of Kayapó Indians live much farther to the west (550 to 1100 kilometers) in the state of Pará between the Araguáia and Xingú rivers and beyond, formerly to the Tapajós. Kayapó is sufficiently different that most Canela have considerable difficulty understanding it; but some claim to comprehend enough Kayapó to get along well. In the late 1970s, when asked which Indians could be included in their category, më-hii (the-ones with-characteristic-aspects: Indians like themselves), they allowed the Kayapó this degree of familiarity. Taking a more traditional stand than the present Canela linguistic one, however, I equate mëhii with "Eastern Timbira," as the Canela probably did in earlier times (Nimuendajú, 1946:12)[IV.C.1.f]. (For general publications on the Kayapó, see Bamberger,1971; Diniz,1962; Dreyfus,1963; Hamú, 1987 (bibliography); Lukesch, 1976; Moreira Neto, 1959; T. Turner, 1966, 1979; Posey, 1983b; Vidal, 1977a; Verswijver,1978, and Werner,1984a.)

Farther to the south (775 kilometers) in the Xingú Indigenous Park (Map 1) are the Suyá (Seeger, 1981, 1987), and somewhat to their north are the Kreen-akore (Panará). These tribes are classified as linguistically separate from both the Kayapó and each other, but taken all together, and including the Eastern and Western Timbira, these groups comprise the Northern Gê speakers. It is not known whether the Canela understand Suyá and Kreen-akore, but from comparing published words and sentences in Suyá (Seeger, 1981) with Canela ones (Rumsey, 1971), I believe that communication would be more difficult than with the Kayapó.

There are only two Central Gê tribes, the Sherente and Shavante (Maybury-Lewis, 1965,1967,1971). The former live along the eastern banks of the Tocantins River just south of the Krahó, and the latter live further south on the Araguáia and one of its tributaries, the Rio das Mortes (Map 1). These languages are obviously too different from Canela for intercommunication, but Canela and Shavante contain a number of similar words, such as inkre (egg), tep (fish), hii (meat), náá (mother), and ta (rain).

The Southern Gê tribes in southern Brazil are known as the Kaingang (Santos, 1970) and the Xokleng (D. Melatti, 1976; Santos, 1970, 1973). These tribes (Map 1) are linguistically quite distant from the Northern Gê, though the words in the above paragraph are also cognates, and in addition, so is pi ("tree").

[II.A.2] Population of Gê-speaking Indians

The Canela population was about 300 in 1936 (Nimuendajú, 1946:33) and increased slowly to 412 (±3) by July 1960. The number diminished to 394 (±2) by mid-1964 as a consequence of five deaths from attack, 17 departures from the tribe and additional deaths in the dry forest, some due to different ecological conditions. Additional departures and returns (13 and 2), and deaths and births, reduced the population to 382 (±2) by mid-1966. With the return to the cerrado in 1968, the population total rose to 397 (±1) by 1 September 1969, to 416 by the same date in 1970, and to 436 by the same date in 1971 (W. Crocker, 1972, table 2). The Canela population reached 514 (?1) on 1 September 1975, 616 (±3) by the same date in 1979, and 903 by Indian service count on 1 March 1989. In 1919, Nimuendajú estimated 118 Apanyekra (J. Melatti, 1985:4), and in 1929 he counted 130 (Nimuendajú, 1946:31). By 1970, they had increased to 205 (±3), by 1971 to 213 (±2), and by 1975 to 225 (±1).4

By 1986 there were 791 Canela and 294 Apanyekra (CEDI, 1986). All the following tribal population numbers in this section come from this publication and are credited there to the FUNAI unless stated otherwise here; census takers and years cited below in brackets in this section can be found in the above cited Povos Indígenas no Brasil (CEDI,1986). Thus, combined with 912 Krahó Indians [in the year 1984], there were approximately 2000 speakers of Canela-Krahó. The Krïkatí of Montes Altos numbered 360 [J.1. Santos, in 1986], the Gavião-Parkateje near Marabá were 176 [Ferraz, in 1985], and the Gavião-Pukobyé of Amarante were reported at about 300 in 1986. Living with the Guajajara on the Pindaré were 20 Krëjê [in 1986] and 9 Kokuiregatejê [in 1986]. Thus, there were about 2500 Eastern Timbira Indians. (I prefer round numbers since these censuses are not precise.) Adding the Western Timbira, the Apinayé [565 in 1986], to these numbers, there were 3000 to 3100 Timbira Indians in the mid-1980s.

For the many Kayapó groups, the Gorotire/Kikretum/ Kubenkranken/Aúkre/Kokraimoro count comes to 1598, the Kararao to 36, the Mekragnoti to 526, and the Xikrin of the Bacaja River to 186, all in 1986. Other Kayapó groups are listed without population numbers. Vidal counted 304 Xikrin on the Catete River in 1985. In the Xingú Indigenous Park, three Metuktire groups number 374 [Turner, in 1986]. Thus, the Kayapó count is 3024. Considering the listed though not counted groups, the total Kayapó population figure may be about 3500 or higher. The Suyá are listed as being 114 [in 1984] and the Kreen-akore (Panará) as 84 [Biral, 1985]. Thus the Northern Gê total about 6800 Indians in the mid-1980s.

For the Central Gê, the Sherente number 850 in two groups as reported by Silva e Pena [in 1984]. The Shavante in six groups total 4834 [in 1984], but the count in a seventh group was not reported. Thus, the Central Gê sum is 5684 or at least 5700 Indians. For the Southern Gê, the Kaingang in 24 groups, some of them urban, total 11,042, and the Xokleng 634. Thus, there are about 24,000 Gê language family Indians in Brazil. No Gê-speaking Indians exist outside Brazil, but tribes grouped in the greater category of Macro-Gê (Steward and Faron, 1959:22) are widespread, such as Caribbean and Arawakan speakers in the Antilles and northern South America.

The summarizing tabulation on the following page lists the above figures as stated, not the approximations. The years are mixed but are from the mid-1980s. (Gê tabulation)

[II.A.3] Effects of Ecology on Survival, Demography, Acculturation, Geography

Ecological effects on a tribe's history, survival, location, demography, and degree of acculturation or deculturation are often not taken into account in monographic studies. Some factors of this sort are discussed here such as (1) aboriginal tribal location near pioneer front movements in relation to river basins and mountain ranges; (2) later tribal location in relation to rivers, waterfalls, necessary settlement dispersal, and road construction, and (3) the two tribal locations in relation to their current contrasting environments. To facilitate comprehension of the above-mentioned factors affecting Apanyekra and Canela culture, I describe the geography of the Barra do Corda region and certain problems cerrado cover presents for human beings specifically and generally.

[II.A.3.a] HISTORICAL ISOLATION

Earlier and later movements bypassed the Canela region. Pastos Bons, 150 kilometers to the southeast of the modern Canela region, was an outpost of settler activity since the middle of the 18th century (Map 4). Earlier still (1694), Francisco Garcia de Avila led "a great expedition of 1350 men to the region of the Itapicuru headwaters" (Nimuendajú, 1946:3) (Map 4) on the edge of the territory held by Canela ancestors, the Capiekran (Nimuendajú, 1946:32). Consequently, dangers to the Canela from early settlers came initially from the southeast rather than from the north, from São Luis, by way of the Mearim and Corda rivers (Nimuendajú,1946:2).

[II.A.3.a.(1)]

The Krahó occupied the area west of Pastos Bons and São Raimundo da Mangabeira (Map 4), and so, were in the direct line of march of pioneer cattle ranchers, as they first moved west between 1810 and 1820 into the watershed of the Tocantins River, along the relatively flat and fertile basins of the Itapicuru and Parnaíba rivers (Hemming, 1987:190; J. Melatti, 1967:20). Thus, the pioneer front drove the Krahó out of their aboriginal habitat to the Tocantins, causing them numerous defeats, disorganization, and deculturation. The Capiekran, in contrast, living entirely north of the Itapicuru River, merely retreated further into their traditional lands north of the Alpercatas River, escaping the main thrust of the pioneer front. The hilly, still largely unsettled region between the Alpercatas and Itapicuru, now set aside as the Parque Nacional do Mirador (Map 2), protected the Canela to a considerable extent in the 1810s and 1820s, as did the Serra Das Alpercatas immediately to their south (Map 3).

[II.A.3.a.(2)]

Over a century and a quarter later, the first tire track truck road reached the city of Barra do Corda (Map 2), coming in from the southeast. It bypassed the Canela area (Map 3), still protected by the Serra das Alpercatas. This road came from Floriano, Mirador, and Conceição. Such access into Barra do Corda was possible only after a bridge was built in 1956 across the Alpercatas River at Campo Largo, 24 kilometers east of Jenipapo do Resplandes.

By 1960, a central (an unpaved highway elevated above the terrain) passed 100 kilometers south of the Canela lands. It came from the Brazilian Northeast by way of Floriano and Picos through Pastos Bons to reach São Raimundo da Mangabeira, and from there continued to Carolina and on the Tocantins River. This was also the principal route of pioneer movements during the early part of the 18th century, as mentioned above. Thus, it is apparent that the advantages of the Canela geographical location in relation to river valleys and mountain ranges spared them considerable cultural disruption and even physical relocation.

The highway now running north of the Canela area and through Barra do Corda did not exist in 1956, river and air transportation being the principal modes of access. The section of the road passing through Presidente Dutra to Imperatriz was completed only in the early 1970s. (See earth moving construction on the left in Plate 3a.) This road and the one 150 kilometers to the south passing through São Raimundo da Mangabeira are built on firmer and flatter ground than is found in the hilly and sandy cerrado region of the Canela. Thus, physical geography again played an important protective role in the Canela and Apanyekra survival into modern times. The Krahó have survived as well but are considerably more deculturated.

[II.A.3.a.(3)]

Continuing their aboriginal habit of going on trek [II.D.3.i] even as late as the late 1950s, the Canela did not travel due south to São Raimundo da Mangabeira located on the new central. Instead, they went the round-about, more populated way of Leandro, Campo Largo (Map 3), Conceição, Mirador, Pastos Bons, Floriano, Picos to eventually reach Juazeiro (Map 2), from where they caught trains to São Paulo in the south or went by highway to Recife and Salvador in the Northeast. In Juazeiro, even in the last century, they were in a well populated and developed region, the valley of the São Francisco River.

In the late 1950s, the Canela and Apanyekra told elaborate and extensive stories about the social "disasters" (due to misunderstandings) that occurred on such trips. Such "trekking" was a major part of their existence during the 1890s and up until the 1970s. When they arrived in a town, they looked for the mayor and asked him for food and lodging. Usually they were asked to sing and dance, and did so, and were housed in the jail for the night. Often they sold artifacts at prices that were far higher than in the Barra do Corda area. The next day they asked the mayor for transportation to the next town, which was often given, probably to get them out of town and trouble.

Sometime before May in 1958, a group of about nine Canela males went to Rio de Janeiro: Ropkhà, 57 years old; Waakhay, 22; the younger Krôôtô, 23; Hàwpùù, 30; Khrùt, 23; Khrèt, 22; the younger Kaapêltùk, 23; Yõõkhên, 21; and Hikhuu, early 20s. Hàwpùù and Waakay are sons of Ropkhà; Khrùt, Khrèt, and Kaapêltùk are classificatory sons-in-law of Ropkhà; and Krôôtô, Yõõkhên, and Hikhuu are not related to Ropkhà. The young men, except for Waakay and Hàwpùù, are not closely related. They all belong to the Lower age-set of Kaapêltùk except for Hàwpùù who belongs to the adjacent older Upper age-set, while Ropkhà belongs to the Upper age-set 20 years older than Hàwpùù's. They took to the Indian service in Rio de Janeiro two sets of bows and arrows, five clubs (khô-po) [II.G.3.d.(1)], and the ceremonial belt with pendant tapir hoof tips (tsù) [II.G.3.a.(3)] of the sing-dance master Rãrãk, age 46, according to the service agent Raimundo Ferreira Sobrinho. They were given in return 466 meters of cloth (at least 156 wraparound skirts), 3 shot guns, and about 20 machetes. The bows, possibly ceremonial, could have been made of what was known locally as "purplewood" (pau roxo) and the clubs of "brazilwood" (pau brasil), both nonexistent in the area by the late 1970s because of their value. The belt might have had 18 to 24 tapir hoof tips. Thus, by the exchange standards of the backlands and Barra do Corda in the late 1950s, the payment was very high, but by the international standards of the late 1970s, the payment was extremely low.

Today, the Canela travel far less (being more controlled by the Indian service), but follow modern bus routes which take them to Belém and Brasília, not to the Northeast. They still, nevertheless, want to come back from large cities with travel trophies like in aboriginal times [IV.C.1.c.(5)], which now take the form of hunting and farming equipment and even trucks and cattle. New chiefs demonstrate their leadership ability to their people by going to cities and coming back with whatever goods they can. In the 1980s, Kaarà?khre came back with a truck, though an ex-chief, while the younger Kaapêltùk returned with 30 head of cattle.

[II.A.3.b] PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

As Nimuendajú (1946:37) has mentioned, the Canela and other Timbira tribes were especially adapted to their closed savanna (cerrado; Glossary) and stream-side gallery forest (Glossary) environments. Whereas the Eastern and Western Timbira live in the closed savannas (except for the Gavião; Nimuendajú, 1946:19), the other Northern Gê-speaking tribes inhabit mostly forests. The Kayapó occupy both environments J. Turner, 1967) and go on trek in closed savannas as well as through certain tropical forest locations in order to gather particular kinds of produce from each environment (Vidal, 1977a).

The Canela and Apanyekra live almost entirely in the cerrado, close to six degrees south of the equator and 45 degrees west longitude. Because the "elevation" (Nimuendajú, 1946:2) is between 200 to 300 meters above sea level (with the highest immediate mesas and ridges being around 400 meters), and because they are about 650 kilometers southeast of the mouth of the Amazon River (i.e., Belém), the climate of the region is quite moderate.

[II.A.3.b.(1)]

Both the Canela and the Apanyekra are located in the município of Barra do Corda, which is slightly south of the center point of Maranhão state. This location places them in the general region of the intersection of three biomes. From the northwest and Amazonia, tropical forests (hiléia) reach to within 250 kilometers of the Barra do Corda area. Dry forests (mata seca, avarandado, Figure 5)—extensions of these hiléia rain forests almost reach Barra do Corda, and do reach the Apanyekra (Map 8) and the Indian service post of Sardinha (Map 3), 15 kilometers from Barra do Corda. The undergrowth in these dry forests, though not wet, is too dense to walk through; one must clear the way with a machete. Some of these forests are deciduous (Figure 6), losing most of their leaves in September and October.

Dry forests are the characteristic vegetation around the village of Sardinha (Plates 32, 33), where the Canela lived from 1963 through 1968. There the trees range from 15 to 30 meters tall, but farther north and west they are higher. The Apanyekra were living in the cerrado when occupying their Rancharia village during the mid- to late-1960s, but nevertheless were on the edge of these dry forests, which run roughly along the left bank of the Corda River (Map 8). Their principal village of Porquinhos is also in the cerrado and not far from these dry forests, which lie about 10 kilometers west of the village. Much of the soil in the dry forests is good for growing crops in the traditional manner. The soil of the cerrado requires expensive additives and machinery to accomplish the same production levels (Abelson and Rowe, 1987).

From the east and southeast of Barra do Corda, the caatinga biome of the Brazilian Northeast (IBGE, 1956:88-90) reaches close to the Canela area (50 to 100 kilometers). These semi-arid lands, almost deserts, spread over most parts of the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, Alagoas, Ceará, and Piaui, except in the mountains and on the coast.

True caatinga countryside occurs in many places east of the capital of the state of Piaui, Terezina, and can be found in patches here and there almost into Barra do Corda. The vegetation around and just to the east of Barra do Corda, however, is scrub: small bushes and low trees with tangled underbrush. This variety of caatinga develops where rainfall is slightly higher than elsewhere in the Northeast.

The Brazilian Northeast is historically famous for droughts, which occur approximately every seven years. During such times, it scarcely rains for about 18 months, and water is obtained from open wells that are dug 5 to 10 meters into the ground. During these droughts, large populations have died or migrated out of the area, either to the south or to the west, and cattle herds have been considerably reduced in size. According to Canela research assistants, such a drought has reached as far west as the Canela area only once (about 1915).

From the states of Mato Grosso, Pará, and Goiás to the southwest of Barra do Corda, the cerrado biome reaches the Canela and Apanyekra areas, but not the area around the city of Barra do Corda, ending just short of Ourives (Map 3), 25 kilometers from Barra. The cerrado flora mixes with the extensions of the tropical forest flora (i.e., the dry deciduous forest) and with the caatinga ground cover, prevailing over both these biomes. The Canela and Apanyekra live in these finger-like extensions of cerrado lands (IBGE, 1956:64-66, agreste; Ferri, 1969:19), reaching into their area from the southwest. Unlike the Apanyekra who live adjacent to the dry forests, the Canela have to go either to the Apanyekra (Map 8) or to Sardinha (Map 3) to retrieve products from the dry forests, such as macaw tail feathers, resin used to glue falcon down on bodies, or genipap, a blue-black ceremonial body paint.

[II.A.3.b.(2)]

Cerrado (Nimuendajú, 1946:1: steppes; Eiten, 1971:159-168) is a general term (known as chapada or campestre locally) that describes a continuum of changing vegetation, ranging from semi-open grassy terrain to almost closed woodlands. (The traveler sees cerrado countryside-quite similar to the Canela principal vegetation-around Brasília.) Campos, at the other extreme, are fields of open grass largely free of shrubbery, but such vegetation is rare in the Canela region, found only near the sources of streams. Several transitional formations exist distinguished by different densities and heights of trees. The term "cerrado" (meaning "closed") applies to all of these formations but especially to woodlands (Plate 13 c,d); that is, where trees grow closer together, many of them touching (Ferri, 1971,1974). These cerrado trees often take strange shapes: gnarled, twisted, and turned. (For a list of cerrado trees, see Nimuendajú, 1946:1.) A person on a horse or in a jeep can move freely almost anywhere between the trees even in the more wooded cerrado (Figure 3), except where crossing a stream bordered by a gallery forest (Glossary) (Figure 4). This person's vision, however, is totally blocked by trees 10 to 50 meters away, depending on their varying density. Mesas, or extended ridges, are sometimes seen in the distance, helping the orientation of the person within the cerrado environment.

In 1970, I was returning from the Apanyekra to the new village of Escalvado with a group of Canela. To save time after passing Papagáio, we followed a course with no trail or markings from Por Enquanto (Map 3) directly east to Escalvado instead of taking the much longer, permanent trail to the south. The terrain in this area generally slopes to the north. It also slopes to the east or west at streams, but rarely to the south, which is upstream, as the land rises toward the Serra das Alpercatas (Map 3), a west-to-east mesa-like ridge forming much of the southern boundary of the Canela reservation. The sun was not visible in the overcast sky and the cerrado trees were high enough so we could not see the Alpercatas ridge, which should have been some 10 kilometers to the south. The younger Kaapêltùk [I.G.4] was sure our course was correct, so we continued. Becoming increasingly concerned however, I asked Kaapêl to have a boy climb a tree to see how we were moving in relation to the Alpercatas ridge. He refused at first, being sure of his leadership, but finally ordered a youth up a tree to appease me. The young man came down looking embarrassed and reported that the Alpercatas ridge was to the north, exactly opposite from the expected direction. We had been traveling west, back to Por Enquanto, without knowing it.

This kind of mistake is easy to make where no trail exists and when the sun does not penetrate the clouds most of the day. One cannot see very far in the cerrado anyway, and in these conditions, one must depend on the general slope of the land, or a mesa, to keep on course. In May, 1960, while map-making in the cerrado with the younger Kaapêl, I used a compass course taken from the top of a small mesa to pass straight through an hour of unbroken cerrado instead of following a curved trail along a stream. We arrived in camp one half hour early, which surprised and pleased him.

The only time one cannot walk or run freely almost anywhere between the trees in the cerrado is when trying to cross most gallery forest streams. Here the underbrush can be so dense (Figure 4) that it must be hacked away by machete. Backlanders call established trails across and through the well-watered jungle terrain on both sides of the streams "passageways" (passagens). These crucial lines of communication sometimes resemble tunnels through green hills of massed vegetation. Swampy areas often line the edges of the Santo Estévão stream, and to a lesser extent the other streams of the Canela region. Thus, while some stream crossings might be free and clear (Plate 13e), others might be 100 meters long. Besides providing access to a fordable part of the stream, these passageways sometimes have long sections of built-up footbridges (më-hapàà: for-Eastern-Timbira a-bridge). Often a long grass called tiririca grows between the dense gallery forest and the cerrado. If a person pulls or rubs against this plant the wrong way, its sharp edges rip open the skin. Consequently, nobody without heavy clothing, which the Canela usually do not possess, is going to dash through a gallery forest except along the prepared passageway.

[II.A.3.c] SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS INHIBITING BRAZILIAN ENCROACHMENT

Settlements in the cerrado are located near streams because of the need for water. Soil of the Canela cerrado is unusually sandy and dry. Only in gallery forests (Plate 12d) are soils sufficiently damp and rich in proper nutrients to support crops grown in the traditional manner. Thus, the Canela farm plots, as well as the backlander's fields, are always placed in gallery forests or their broad extensions. Recent studies suggest that the cerrado is usable for agriculture if the farmer supplies appropriate additives (e.g., limestone, phosphorous) each year. Such fertilizers have to be specific for each location (Abelson and Rowe, 1987).

[II.A.3.c.(1)]

Encroachment on Canela lands was difficult for Brazilian pioneers because natural barriers restricted settlement to gallery forests and their cerrado edges. When moving toward Canela lands, migrants had to move their houses and farms in observable steps, advancing from stream to stream. Because streams were 6 to 10 kilometers apart, any movement in the direction of a Canela village was pronounced and easily recognizable, so complaints could be unequivocable. (See the distances between the stream-edge gallery forests in Maps 3 and 7.)

Access was also impeded by the absence of navigable riverine routes-the highways of earlier times. The Corda River is not navigable much above Barra do Corda, and its headwaters are only about 50 kilometers southwest of the Apanyekra village of Porquinhos. (See the southwest corner of Map 3). The Alpercatas River flows from west to east about 20 kilometers south of the village of Escalvado but is not navigable this far up.

[II.A.3.c.(2)]

The cerrado grasses of the states of Mato Grosso, southern Pará, and Goiás are famous for supporting cattle, but the grass in the Canela region will not support large herds. Most ranchers maintained herds of no more than 500 cattle during the late 1960s. Thus, the Canela cerrado region is marginal for raising cattle as well as for cultivating crops on a large scale. In addition, the fact that no natural products of great economic value exist in the Canela cerrados or gallery forests,-such as rubber trees, gold, or brazil nuts-partially explains why the Canela have not been more disturbed by the progress of the various Brazilian pioneer fronts and still live in their own lands in their tribal state.

[II.A.3.c.(3)]

The high degree of sandiness of the cerrado where the Canela live partly explains why, even into the mid-1980s (Map 2), no highways had been built through the area. The feeder roads running from the Brazilian Northeast to the Belém-Brasília highway in the west pass through more preferable, less sandy areas, where the ground is harder and therefore more suitable for jeeps and trucks. I have been in several vehicles stuck in the unusually sandy Canela-type cerrado, before the reinforced road was put in in 1971, but 4-wheel-drive is still necessary in many places.

[II.A.3.d] APANYEKRA VERSUS CANELA ACCULTURATION FACTORS

While both tribes live in cerrado lands, distinct differences exist between the Canela and the Apanyekra areas. The Apanyekra live at the edge of the dry forests, whereas the Canela live some 20 kilometers away from them, where dry forest occurs only as small islands in the cerrado vegetation. The Apanyekra village of Porquinhos is close to the rapidly flowing Corda River, 5-8 meters from bank to bank. The Canela live near meandering streams, 2-4 meters across. These differences mean that the Apanyekra have far better hunting and fishing possibilities. They can hunt in both cerrado and dry forest environments, whereas the Canela only have access to cerrado and islands of dry forest poor in game. Fish is an almost daily element in the Apanyekra diet but rarely found in Canela homes.

These conditions suggest that the Apanyekra may be better fed. The Apanyekra, on the average, are taller than the Canela, which could be the result of better nutrition. The greater height of the Apanyekra, however, may be due to other reasons. The Canela display more of the classical Mongoloid features of traditional physical anthropology, while the Apanyekra have less evidence of Mongoloid folds above the eyes as well as other associated characteristics.

[II.A.3.d.(1)]

The best lands for extensive farming and cattle ranching in the Canela-Apanyekra region are near the headwaters of the Corda River. The area just to the south of the Apanyekra lands along the relatively fertile foothills of the Serra das Alpercatas is occupied by the Ferreira ranching family, and the high area to the southeast of Porquinhos is occupied by the Arruda family of ranchers (see "Sítio dos Arrudas," Map 3). The Arrudas report that the Ferreiras arrived in the 1830s and that their own ancestors arrived 10 to 15 years later.

In contrast, the early settlements near the Canela were mainly small farms. The communities of Leandro and Jenipapo do Resplandes lie on flat lands and along lines of communication with the Northeast, and so were less isolated (see road to Mirador in the lower right corner of Map 3). They were settled by farmers who became less wealthy and less arrogant than the ranchers in the hills to the west (around the Apanyekra). These communities had numerous cowboys who were really gunmen maintaining law and order in the backlands for their rancher bosses. Consequently, it was easier for the Canela to establish relatively good relations with their neighbors than for the Apanyekra.

Stories the Apanyekra told in the late 1950s suggest extensive acculturative contacts with the Ferreira family during the last century. The Apanyekra have experienced far greater difficulties in retaining their lands. These two points may be related. In the late 1950s, backland farming families associated with the Ferreiras maintained farms only 2 kilometers away from the Apanyekra village on the Aguas Claras stream (Map 8). Because of the immediacy of such contacts over a long period, Apanyekra men were more likely than Canela men to wear cloth all the time in the late 1950s. Moreover, the Apanyekra knew how to dance in the embraced backland (Western) manner well before my arrival, while the Canela did not practice such paired dancing until 1959.

In contrast to the Apanyekra, Canela men often went naked in the late 1950s (Plate 40d). A great Canela grievance in those days was that men had to grab leaves to cover themselves as they passed the post building (Plate 11a) with its civilizada women, even when racing through its ford with heavy logs, or the insulted women would complain bitterly and the agent had to use strong words at meetings in the plaza.

[II.A.3.d.(2)]

The frequency and extent of the two tribes' contact with outsiders was reversed by the middle of the 20th century. The Canela had been relatively more isolated from their neighbors (small farmers) than the Apanyekra, because of their numbers and greater land controlling and holding abilities. In 1938 however, the Indian service sent a family to live beside the Canela village. They did not send a family to the Apanyekra area because it was too far and too difficult to maintain contact between such a family and Barra do Corda. Delfino Sousa, however, an unmarried developmentally handicapped backlander, was paid a small amount to live next to the Apanyekra villages as the Indian service representative there, from the 1950s until his death sometime before 1966. Sr. Delfino made several trips to Barra do Corda a year, but his representation of the Indian service and his influence on the Apanyekra were minimal compared to the overpowering effects on the Canela by the series of city-born (Barra do Corda) Indian service agents, teachers, artisans, and their wives and children during the 1940s and 1950s.

[II.A.3.d.(3)]

By Nimuendajú's time and after, acculturation proceeded more rapidly among the Canela than among the Apanyekra due to easier access from Barra do Corda and the consequent presence of Indian service personnel living among the Canela. The terrain was easier to pass through to reach the Canela villages, and the distance from Barra do Corda was significantly less.

The distance between Barra do Corda and the Canela villages is between 60 and 70 kilometers as the crow flies, whereas it is between 100 and 120 kilometers for the Apanyekra villages (Map 3). The trail between Barra do Corda and the Canela villages of Baixão Prêto, Escalvado, and Ponto passes through easily manageable low forest (bush) half the way, requiring only one stream crossing at Ourives. The trail is between 80 and 90 kilometers long, depending on the village.

In sharp contrast, the trail to the Apanyekra villages runs through denser and higher forests along the Corda River most of the way, requiring several stream and river crossings. On the ground the distance varies between 130 and 150 kilometers, for the Porquinhos and Rancharia villages respectively.

[II.A.3.d.(4)]

During the late 1950s, roads passable to jeeps and small trucks went through woods about one quarter of the way to each tribe, beyond which points (Mucunã and Baixão dos Peixes: Map 3) all travel had to be on horse, mule, or foot. Nevertheless, motor vehicles were rarely used except in emergencies, being too expensive. For transporting considerable equipment or in emergencies, such as for my first entry and last exit in the late 1950s and for service personnel during the messianic movement [II.B.2.f], Canela villages were reached by truck through Leandro (120 km). Apanyekra villages were unreachable by vehicle.

Using pack animals carrying supplies all the way took two to three layover nights to reach the Canela, whereas it took three to four night stops to reach the Apanyekra. A man traveling by horse at a fast walk (non-emergency) could reach the Canela in a day-and-a-half to two days (stopping one night). I once made an emergency trip by horse from Ponto to Barra do Corda in 18 hours, stopping only for 2 hours. It took, however, two to three full days (stopping two nights) to reach the Apanyekra traveling in non-emergency situations but without the delays required by a mule train.

These transportation differences, though not apparently great, made it significantly more difficult for the Indian service to maintain a family among the Apanyekra, until the 1970s, when the road from Escalvado past the Sítio dos Arrudas to Porquinhos was completed (Map 3).

[II.A.3.d.(5)]

The Apanyekra have one principal watercourse, the Corda River, with its ample gallery forests. Only one of the 12 Apanyekra abandoned village settlements I visited and measured was located on the banks of the Corda River (Ludgero), and some of them were occupied during the last century. All other sites were on small streams. The Apanyekra live on the smaller streams because they believe the Corda River's currents are too dangerous for babies and small children.

The streams by the Porquinhos and Rancharia villages were quite small. In the first (Map 6), the bathing pool reached to slightly above the knees at the deepest point, but the water was barely flowing. The Rancharia village was adjacent to a tepid lake unsuitable for drinking, and the headwaters of the stream where women went to get water commenced 200 meters below the village site (Map 8).

In contrast, the Canela rarely have had water problems while living on the Santo Estévão. This rapidly flowing stream is 2 to 4 meters across, and is usually ½ to 1½ meters in depth. Its waters are cool, fresh, and satisfactory for drinking. They originate from springs no more than 10 kilometers above Escalvado.

A number of streams run through the Canela lands to eventually meet the Ourives stream, a tributary of the Corda River. From west to east, they are the Galheirinho, Pau Grosso, Dois Riachos, Santo Estévão, Pombo, Raposa, Dos Bois, and Curicaca (Map 7). The Galheirinho, Pau Grosso, Dois Riachos, and Curicaca streams and gallery forests were not used by the Canela until well after their lands were demarcated, starting in 1971, because they were either inhabited or neutralized politically by the presence of nearby rancher-influenced families in Bacabal and Leandro. (For comparing stream spacing and forest growth between the two tribal areas, see Maps 7 and 8.)

[II.B] DIACHRONIC CONTEXT

The historical materials presented within this chapter provide a context within which current changes in Canela society have occurred and may be understood. Externally, the Canela have been in close contact with the people of Barra do Corda for many decades, an urban Brazilian society of well-developed sophistication. The Canela visit Barra do Corda constantly. On any particular day 6 to 60 may be found pursuing activities within the city, which has been part of their world since about 1900 [II.B.1.c.(3)].

[II.B.1] Indigenous Accounts of Canela History from Contact to 1929

Today the Canela view their mythology with considerable doubt. As recently as 1957, however, when I first arrived among them, the Canela retained much faith in their mythology. These beliefs included a large body of oral tradition, which certain elders enjoyed narrating to young people in the plaza during the late afternoon. These tales ranged from clearly mythological ones (Sun and Moon and Star-Woman), to war stories (Pèp and Wayatom), through post-pacification accounts (Tempê and Vão da Serra), and finally to narratives (Major Delfino Kô?kaypo and Nimuendajú [Kô?kaypo]) of events that took place in known village sites. Post-pacification accounts and village narratives, are included here as "indigenous accounts" along with the few published historical facts available up to the time of Nimuendajú.

The main source for reconstructing Canela ethnohistory is from the efforts of the research assistants, especially the older Mïïkhrô. We worked out the sequence of episodes together. Other Canela who are generations younger or who have not gone through the same long process of reflection probably would not put the events together in the same sequence in just one or several sittings. Other sources are Hemming (1987) and the first chapter of Nimuendajú (1946), as well as personal communication with residents of Barra do Corda, such as Olímpio Cruz, Olímpio Fialho, and Raimundo Miranda. This ethnohistorical reconstruction is only a summary account.

[II.B.1.a] FROM CONTACT TO PACIFICATION, LATE 1600s TO 1814

The Canela, or Capiekran⁵, as they were called in the 18th and 19th century chronicles (Nimuendajú, 1946:29) before their pacification (Glossary), may have been contacted first by Brazilian soldiers near the end of the 17th century, when Francisco Garcia de Avila made an expedition into the area (Nimuendajú, 1946:3). There is also some evidence that the Canela, though not the Apanyekra, may have come from a region farther east (W. Crocker, 1979:242), where they might have had contact with other Brazilian forces. (There were Timbira as far east as Oeiras in Piaui; Map 4.) Nimuendajú (1946:32) points out that the Capiekran were so badly defeated by the Càkamekra in 1814 that they surrendered to the Brazilian garrison in Pastos Bons that year for protection from other Gê tribes. In 1815, they were temporarily lured to Caxias by Brazilian leaders to fight the Càkamekra, where they were exposed to smallpox. (For the geographical positions of most Timbira tribes in earlier times, see Map 4, and for a publication on Brazilian militarily supported pioneer movements in general, see Morse,1965.)

By 1817, the smallpox epidemic had killed thousands of Timbira as far west as the Apinayé beyond the Tocantins. Those who survived returned (according to their tradition) to their old tribal area near the headwaters of the Santo Estévão stream and then moved on to the junction of the Porcos stream with the Corda River (Map 3), where they stayed for some years. (For a general account in English of the pioneer front contacts with most of the Timbira tribes between 1790 and 1850, see Hemming,1987:181-199.)

[II.B.1.b.] EARLY POST-PACIFICATION PERIOD, 1815-1840

There is little mention of the Canela until several decades later (1835), but several tribal stories supply some information. The first story that coincides with written history is the tale of Chief Tempê (Nimuendajú, 1946:32-33). He was the chief of the Canela just after their surrender to Brazilian militia (bandeiras) during their stay in Caxias and while they lived on the Porcos stream. During the late 1810s or early 1820s, the Canela lived in hiding near a spring in a valley (Vão da Serra) in the Serra das Alpercatas near the Sítio dos Arrudas, an area that was to become central to the territories of the three Canela tribes: the Apanyekra, Kenkateye, and Ramkokamekra [In.4.b]. During this period they were well aware of the devastation Brazilians could bring them. The tale goes that settlers found the spring and saw Indians coming to drink there. They sent for soldiers to attack the presumed dangerous warriors. Consequently, a military commandant came with troops and required the Canela to descend peacefully from the hills.

According to other Canela stories, the 1820s were years of considerable disorganization and miscegenation. In the tale of Barnabe, a Canela woman learned Portuguese as the mistress of a rancher and served as interpreter and go-between, facilitating good relations. Later, word came from the Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II (Awkhêê), that the backlanders should allow all Indian peoples working for them to return to their tribes. A similar order forbade miscegenation.

By the mid-1830s, a chief was appointed in the new pa?hi style [III.D.1.b] (Glossary), that is, chosen by a backland authority and accepted by the Canela. They called him Kawkhre and the backlanders called him Luis Domingo. On one of our walking trips to old village sites, the older Mïïkhrô, identified the remains of a Canela village founded by Kawkhre. It lay about half way between Escalvado and the Serra das Alpercatas to the south and just to the east of the headwaters of the Santo Estévão stream (Map 3).

In about 1838, a local Brazilian authority called Diogo summoned Chief Kawkhre to bring his men to help put down an uprising in the interior. Thus, according to the older Mïïkhrô, Kawkhre led his warriors into the Balaiada war (which was probably related to the Cabanagem rebellion of the same period based in Belém) (Hemming, 1987:227-237). The older Mïïkhrô also talked about when the Canela fought with backlanders against forest Gamella Indians (Map 4), and about a later Canela chief, Cadete Palkhre, who sang while in prison in Barra do Corda. The older Mïïkhrô also showed me Chief Cadete's village sites.

[II.B.1.c] TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY CULTURAL CLIMAX

On another occasion in 1959, the older Mïïkhrô walked with me from Baixão Prêto to Ponto. We visited about six former village sites (khrï-?wrèm:tapera) just east of the Santo Estévão stream. Some were occupied before he was born, around 1878, and some much later. He remembered best the two sites in the Escalvado area because he grew up there. The locations of most houses were still identifiable, and seeing them revived his memory about the experiences of individuals who lived in them.

In the days of the two old Escalvado villages, about 1894 to 1903, the Canela experienced a cultural climax largely in economic terms. The two important chiefs were Coronel Tomasinho and Major Delfino (Kô?kaypo). Quite clearly, economic surpluses existed in those days, as reported by research assistants. Kô?kaypo cultivated large fields of rice, which he took in a boat from Barra do Corda to São Luis for sale. (For a mid-20th century boat, see Plate 4b.) With his extra funds, he eventually bought and maintained about a dozen cattle. The Canela did not have to kill and eat them because they had enough food during that period. Unfortunately, while Kô?kaypo was away from the tribe traveling, he left his herd with a backland rancher in Leandro who let the cattle "disappear" completely.

Coronel Tomasinho was known for making smoking pipes of clay and for mending shotguns. Backlanders (Glossary) came from considerable distances for his mending services. We found the remains of Coronel Tomasinho's house (and a small piece of a clay pipe). The house had been built with reinforced mud-clay walls in the backland manner, a construction very unusual among the cerrado-oriented Canela who preferred palm thatch.

[II.B.1.c.(1)]

In 1900, the Càkamekra (Tsoo-khãm-më-?khra: fox in they Indian-person: the fox's place Indian dwellers) came from the Rio das Flores, Mucura (Map 4), to the northeast and joined the Canela in their Escalvado village. Both tribes carried out the Hà?kawrè ceremony, in which potential warriors and antagonists were symbolically and maybe actually reduced to passivity. In this ceremony men entered the camping area of the other tribe where renowned female sing-dancers—owners of the singing sash (Plate 58e,f) band of honor—satisfied them sexually. Other ceremonial acts also exist in which the potentiality of hostile activities is nullified by a female sexual presence.

[II.B.1.c.(2)]

In 1901, the Guajajara Indians of Alto Alegre (just west of Barra do Corda, Map 4) killed a number of monks and nuns and staged a strong military uprising against the backlanders. The authorities of Barra do Corda summoned the Canela to help defeat the Indians. Apparently the forest-dwelling Guajajara were more afraid of the cerrado-loving Canela than they were of the citizens of Barra do Corda. According to the poet and Indian service agent Olímpio Cruz (Figure 7), the Guajajara capitulated after the first rush of "wild" Canela, who shouted and blasted their horns as they arrived (Cruz, 1982). The older Mïïkhrô and the older Kaapêltùk told long and detailed stories about the Canela attack, led by Major Delfino Kô?kaypo. Nimuendajú states that 40 Canela warriors were involved (Nimuendajú, 1946:33).

[II.B.1.c.(3)]

Because of unsettled conditions in Barra do Corda after the uprising, the Canela withdrew several youths who were interned in the convent. Along with learning to read and write, they were taught Catholicism. A significant proportion of the folk Catholicism in the tribe today has its roots in the beliefs spread by these returning students, one of whom was the father of my research assistant Mulwa (Plate 71a).

[II.B.1.c.(4)]

In 1903, a very important event occurred: the execution of a sorcerer (kay). Francelino Kaawùy was accused of killing by witchcraft a woman who would not give herself to him sexually (Nimuendajú, 1946:240). He belonged to the extended family of Chief Kô?kaypo. While Kô?kaypo was away with most of his family, Chief Coronel Tomasinho held a hearing during which Kaawùy was condemned to death. The three men who volunteered to be the executioners caught Kaawùy by surprise by a clump of trees on the right margin of the Santo Estévão, about half a kilometer below the old Ponto village site. They beat him to death by hitting him on the head with heavy wooden clubs. (See Schultz, 1976b, for a similar execution in 1959 among the Krahó.) When officials in Barra do Corda heard about this matter, they came and took the three executioners (murderers to the officials) back to the city, where the executioners spent several months in jail.

In the meantime, Chief Kô?kaypo, who did not agree with the results of the hearing on witchcraft, withdrew from the tribe in protest with his followers. He established a new village, first in the Khen-te-kô-?katswèl (hill did water pierce) area and later in the Poo-tùk (cerrado- deer-female dead) region known as Os Bois (the cattle) (Map 3). Coronel Tomasinho also left the Escalvado area with the remaining two-thirds of the tribe and started a new village in the Pombo stream (Map 3).

[II.B.1.d] YEARS OF ECONOMIC DEFICIENCY, 1903-1922

In the Canela cerrado, traditional crops can be cultivated only in soils next to the streams and in the adjacent area of the removed gallery forest (Glossary) trees and shrubbery. Of the four streams that are central to the Canela lands (Santo Estévão, Pombo, Raposa, Os Bois), only the Santo Estévão is large enough to provide water for extensive cultivation. Outlying areas included in the reservation today, such as Pau Grosso, Dois Riachos, Galherinho, Campestre, Lagoa do André, Aldeia Velha, and Pak-re do have sufficient gallery forests and soils. These lands, however, were not available to the Canela until after the demarcation of their lands in the mid-1970s, because backland community politics rendered them unsafe.

According to the research assistants, a schism and moving away from the Santo Estévão stream marked the beginning of a period of economic deficiencies that ended only with the tribe's return to the Santo Estévão at Ponto around 1922. Apparently, when the tribe lived on some other stream, economic deficiencies were usual. This was also the case in 1935 when they moved away from the Santo Estévão stream (i.e., from Baixão Prêto) just after the smallpox epidemic, and then returned to it in 1939 at Ponto under the orders of Castello Branco, their first village Indian agent [II.B.2.b]. I question the validity of such research assistant declarations, but history supports their belief.

[II.B.1.d.(1)]

Following the tribal schism in 1903, Coronel Tomasinho made several attempts to bring Major Delfino Kô?kaypo and his people back to the major segment of the tribe. None were successful. Around 1907, Delfino and his people instituted a peace-maintaining ceremony in which a youth from each of the two villages of the tribe was made a Ceremonial-chief-of-the- whole-tribe (Khri-?kuni-á-më-hõõpa?hi: tribe its-whole superlative plural their-chief) (Glossary).

These two ceremonial positions have descended from father to son ever since. The ceremony itself has become enshrined in the Pepkahàk festival and is enacted in the Apikrawkraw-re performance. The two Ceremonial-chiefs-of-the-whole-tribe walk back and forth between two symbolically warring factions (the Pepkahàk and the Falcons), keeping them apart. In the late 1950s, the younger Kaapêltùk and Khrùt held these positions, which are the highest of any hàmren (Glossary) status posts in the tribe. In the 1970s, the younger Kaapêltùk's son, Kôyapàà (Plate 70a), and Khrùt's son, were installed. (Thus, at least one currently maintained festival act was created as recently as the early 20th century, and it is noteworthy that this act's two performers' hàmren ceremonial status is the highest in the tribe today.)

[II.B.1.d.(2)]

In 1913 a disaster befell the Kenkateye (Khen-katêyê: mountain people) living in the village of Chinello (Map 4). The Kenkateye were one of the three "Canela" tribes [In.4.b] as identified by backlanders. Nimuendajú's report of the Kenkateye massacre is full and complete (Nimuendajú, 1946:30), though stories I have collected from both the Apanyekra- and Ramkokamekra-Canela add some additional details.

Essentially, a backland cattle-ranching family and some 50 henchmen walked into the Kenkateye village and provided approximately 150 Kenkateye with a barrel of cachaça (cane liquor) and accordion music. After getting them thoroughly drunk, the backlanders tied most of the men together so they could not run away. Then they shot about 50 of them. The women and children, and a few adult males escaped to the Apanyekra and Krahó tribes, but they did not go to the Ramkokamekra-Canela (cf. Nimuendajú,1946:30), as both the Apanyekra and Canela say today.

[II.B.1.d.(3)]

The Ramkokamekra-Canela, terrified by news of the massacre, expected their turn would come next. Thus, they scattered into the gallery forests of all adjacent streams, hiding there dispersed, as they would do again in 1963 following the attack on their messianic movement. By this time Major Delfino had died, making reunion easier, so they came together forming a new village on the Raposa stream (Maps 3,7).

[II.B.1.d.(4)]

A great drought in the Brazilian Northeast in about 1915 spread as far west as the Canela location. It is the only drought they remember and talk about, any others being insufficiently severe. They call it the "great hunger" (prãm-ti). During its period, they subsisted largely on a root (mri-?ti: Caladium sp.) that grows in stream banks and supplies water as well as food (Nimuendajú,1946:73).

[II.B.1.d.(5)]

In about 1922, the Canela returned to the Santo Estévão stream, settling in the Ponto (Mak-pàl: mango-tree) area, which they had not inhabited since the 1880s. They claim they managed to cultivate sufficient crops to have yearly surpluses once again, eliminating the need to visit the houses of backlanders to make up the difference during the lean months of September through December [II.C.3.g], but surely a few families did go to the backlanders. They say that sharecropping on the farms of backlanders started with the tribal schism of 1903, but this practice probably originated earlier. In any case, they claim to have had surpluses in the Escalvado (1900) and Ponto villages until 1947 because they were on the Santo Estévão. Such surpluses are partly confirmed by Nimuendajú (1946:61) for his period (1929-1936).

[II.B.1.e] INTERGENERATIONAL CONTROL AND THE AGE-SET MARRIAGE CEREMONY

Failure to hold the age-set marriage ceremony, in which marriages were witnessed by everyone in the tribe and thereby reinforced [III.F.10], was one of the most important factors in the breakdown of the authoritative relationship between the generations during the 1920s,1930s, and 1940s [III.A.5.d].

In about 1923, the Canela failed to put on the age-set marriage ceremony, because the wife of Ropkhà, the age-set leader, was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Thus Ropkhà (Plate 71e) and his wife Yõtsen could not participate in the ceremony. To do so would have been considered visually ugly and improper. The age-set leader is a role model for other members of his age-set and their wives. Because their hàmren leader-guide of their marching file, Ropkhà, could not lead them in the ceremony (testing the propitiousness of the event) they believed it would be unwise to hold the ceremony at all. (See W. Crocker, 1984a:70, for a another account of this ceremony, and Maybury-Lewis, 1965:226-227, for a description of a similar age-set marriage ceremony among the Shavante.)

The ancient practice requiring post-pubertal girls and youths to have sexual relations almost only with older women and men for several years, formerly enforced by their uncles, was also breaking down. The age-set of the older Kaapêltùk, which graduated in 1933 (puberty for most of them having been in the 1920s), maintained these traditional post-pubertal restrictions against sex with young girls; the age-set of Chief Kaarà?khre, which graduated in 1941, only sometimes had sex with older women, and the age-set of the younger Kaapêltùk, which graduated in 1951, almost never had sex with women of older generations (W. Crocker,1984a:75).

[II.B.1.f] 1929 FORWARD

In 1929, Curt Nimuendajú arrived among the Canela. Thus, the continuation of their history is derived mainly from his writings or from historical events recalled casually by research assistants and Indian agents rather than from the organized study of myths, folk tales, and other oral styles. Soon after Nimuendajú's final departure in 1936, Indian service personnel began living beside the Canela village (Castello Branco in 1938 and Olímpio Cruz in 1940) so that I was able to learn more about internal Canela events from city-oriented Brazilians, especially from Olímpio Cruz (Figure 7).

[II.B.2] Acculturation Influences, 1930-1970

Data starting with the times of Nimuendajú are more reliable and ample. They come from "The Eastern Timbira," my field notes, accounts of research assistants, and statements of Indian service agents.

[II.B.2.a] NIMUENDAJÚ'S ERA

The Ajudância of the Indian Protection Service (SPI) in Barra do Corda was founded in 1920. The first agent, Marcelino Cézar de Miranda, was a man of sophistication and considerably facilitated Nimuendajú's research. He accepted that Nimuendajú would almost "go native" and would speak to the Canela to support their anti-backland attitudes. Soon after his arrival among the Canela, Nimuendajú was adopted into a family. One of his working principles, according to the older Kaapêltùk, was to observe and participate extensively but to ask few questions of the Canela.

Elderly Canela research assistants reported that he was most interested in festivals, individual rites, and photography. They said he hardly ever spoke in Canela and then poorly. The Canela loved his sense of fun and drama and said he was hà?kayren (generous: gave them many things)—a good man.

Nimuendajú (1946:33) usually came during the summer dry season (June-August) for one to three months, in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, and 1936, totaling almost 14 months. It is hard to assess his impact on them, but from what I have heard he gave them great confidence in their way of life and supported their hostility to backlanders, as well as their expectations of receiving large amounts of goods from big-city dwellers.

In 1935, smallpox broke out in a new village in the Baixão Prêto area on the Santo Estévão. This dreaded disease killed most of the older people, including the strong chief, the older Ropkhà (Fostino). My research assistants insist that their periods of significant change come just after the death of great leaders, so 1935 must be considered an important acculturative turning point.

Nimuendajú returned for the last time in 1936 to find the tribe split between villages on the Pombo and Os Bois streams (Map 3). He persuaded the two factions to come together on the Raposa stream, preventing a damaging tribal schism that might have lasted for years.

[II.B.2.b] INDIAN SERVICE'S INFLUENCES

Two years after Nimuendajú's final departure in 1936, the Indian service (Glossary) sent a very active and expert Indian agent, Castello Branco to the village on the Raposa stream. His job was to try to reverse the encroachments the backland ranchers had made since around 1830. He warned the ranchers that if their cattle strayed onto Indian lands, they would be shot and eaten just as if they were the wild game they were replacing. He did in fact shoot one or two head of backlander cattle, much to the Canela's delight. He also forced one family that had established a farm within the Indian lands near the sources of the Santo Estévão stream to leave. He was so fierce and hostile in his personal nature and so able and willing to demonstrate the use of his weapons that the backlanders complied swiftly.

After a year, Castello Branco persuaded the Canela to move their village on the Raposa stream back to the Ponto area on the Santo Estévão, because the soils there were so much better. He built a backland house for himself and his family in both villages. For the first time, the Canela had a Brazilian family living with them all the time just outside their village. This alien presence changed some of their customs [III.A.5.d].

[II.B.2.b.(1)] Olímpio Cruz

In 1940, Olímpio Martins Cruz (Figure 7) arrived with his family. Through his good rapport and his strength of character and leadership, Sr. Olímpio helped the Canela to work hard enough on their farms so that they once again were self-sufficient. After his departure in 1947, however, these farm surpluses disappeared. Consequently, they begged or worked as share-croppers during the lean months of September through December, when the produce of their own farms had been exhausted.

[II.B.2.b.(2)] Changing Perceptions of Outsiders

In 1944, a young Indian service school teacher, referred to simply as Nazaré by the Canela, a sister of António Ferreira do Nascimento, arrived among them. She taught a number of young boys to read and write well enough so that they could send written messages throughout the regional interior. Six of these youths could still write in 1957 when I arrived: the younger Kaapêltùk, the younger Pù?tô, Hàwpùù, the younger Tep-hot, Hakhà, and Yàmtê. In 1964, I asked the first three to write daily diaries, and later requested the younger Tep-hot to do the same. No teachers since Dona Nazaré (there have been about 6) have had significant success in teaching young Canela to write, except for Dona Risalva in 1979. Research assistants said Nazaré succeeded because she had learned to teach in Canela.

In 1948, Sr. António arrived as the Indian service agent in their Ponto village. The Canela said that he and Dona Nazaré were the two outsiders who had learned best to speak Canela, rather than Nimuendajú or Sr. Olímpio. (There were about two dozen Indian service employees who lived among the Canela during the 1930s,1940s, and 1950s who might have learned to speak Canela.) The effects of Castello Branco, Olímpio Cruz, and Dona Nazaré on the Canela must not be underestimated. Along with Nimuendajú, these people were "good" outsiders from the Canela point of view, a realization which broke down the strong, protective stereotype of all non-Indians as "bad."

[II.B.2.b.(3)] Youths Study in Capital

In 1949, two of the students taught by Dona Nazaré were sent to São Luis, the state capital, to live with Indian service personnel. The younger Kaapêltùk and Ha-khà (its lip/edge) spent almost a year and a half learning the ways of city dwellers, going to school, and working on farms that used irrigation and fertilizers. This enabled Kaapêltùk (the younger of the two) to become the most knowledgeable about the outside world and to become the best Portuguese speaker during the 1950s and 1960s. His achievement was surpassed in the 1970s by others who were younger. His abilities also made Kaapêl (Figure 51) the best research assistant both for me and for the Summer Institute of Linguistics missionary, Jack Popjes (Figure 11), during the 1960s and 1970s.

[II.B.2.c] DECULTURATIVE FACTORS

With the death of Hàk-too-kot (falcon-chick-green), known as Doroteu, in 1952, the Canela lost their last strong traditional chief. Thus they moved into a new era in which the chieftainship lacked significant power: the people did what they wanted, the economy was deficient, and the generation gap increased significantly. The Indian service agents and teachers were weak and of little help. The use of alcohol became rampant. The new chief was among the worst offenders until his dramatic conversion from alcohol [II.B.2.i.(5)] claiming that what was done under the influence of alcohol was the fault of the alcohol.

Potential chiefs who were relatively strong leaders tried to split the tribe, taking their relatives and followers to farm areas (new potential village sites), hoping to form a community of their own. The older Krôôtô took his group to the Rodeador area (Map 3) in 1953, and Ikhè and then the older Kaapêltùk led a village in the Baixão Prêto region (Map 3) starting in 1955. By that time the Rodeador settlement had failed due to a high incidence of deaths attributed to its semi-forested environment.

[II.B.2.d] ACCULTURATIVE CONTRACT BROKEN

For some time, the Indian service had provided materials and food to many tribes, including the Canela. Around 1955, a new policy was established by which the Indian was supposed to work as much as possible for what he received. In 1957, the Canela asserted that the Indian service was neglecting its responsibilities. Since Awkhêê, the Canela culture hero, had given the shotgun to the civilizado (Glossary) and the bow and arrow to the índio, they said, it was up to the civilizado to support the índio in any needed way [IV.C.1.b.(6)]. The Indian service had given this support, I was told, until a few years before the death of Rondon (1958), the Canela's great savior in the Indian service and its founder (1910) and head. Now the service, however, was giving them very little, it had relinquished its responsibilities. This was their rationalization for much that followed during the next few years.

[II.B.2.e] TURNING POINT

In 1958, a number of recently graduated teachers came from São Luis to spend a week with the Canela. One of the teachers asked Tel-khwèy (jussara woman) if she would let her son of about 12 years of age reside with the teacher in São Luis while she brought him up and sent him to school to educate him. (This practice followed Brazilian tradition, which included the Indian child or adolescent working for her or his host family.) Tel-khwèy (Plate 68b) told me about this offer with great disapproval, saying that the Canela were not like the Guajajara (Tupi-speakers) who, having only weak feelings, could give away their children to the city dweller to raise and educate in the cities. She said that the Guajajara have no feelings and do not care much for their children.

In 1964, in striking contrast, the same Tel-khwèy asked me to arrange for the adoption of one of her sons by a São Luis lady who was visiting the tribe. She had forgotten her negative declarations in 1958 about "giving" children to city dwellers. What had happened since 1958 to change her attitude so completely is a very important question. The tribal stereotype of outsiders being necessarily "bad" had lost its strength, letting the inverse stereotype become a possibility: that the outsider's ways were "good" and that their own ways were insufficient.

[II.B.2.f] MESSIANIC MOVEMENT OF 1963

A messianic movement of dramatic proportions occurred among the Canela in 1963. In January, Khêê-khwèy, age 40, a tall handsome woman, was working in the fields. The fetus in her womb kept telling her to go home to prepare the fire and boil water for her husband, who would be returning from the hunt with an armadillo and an agouti for cooking. At first Khêê-khwèy did not pay attention to her fetus, but later, since the sun was hot and she was tired, she did go home and prepare the boiling water. Shortly thereafter, her husband returned with a dead anteater and an agouti. Other signs occurred and soon Khêê-khwèy came to believe in the predictions of her fetus, as did many other Canela including leaders of the council of elders.

(For a summary article of this movement, see W. Crocker's report (1967) and its translation into Portuguese (1974b). Also see Carneiro da Cunha (1973, 1986) for interesting structural analyses of this same movement. René Ribeiro (1982:224–225, 234) places this movement in the general context of messianic movements in Brazil, Melatti (1972) provides a similar movement for the neighboring Krahó, and Wright and Hill (1985) furnish a recent analysis of an earlier movement in the northwestern Amazon.

[II.B.2.f.(1)]

The principal prediction was that on the l5th of May her child would be born, a girl whose name would be Kràà-khwèy (dry-woman). She would be the sister of the great acculturation hero, Awkhêê (Glossary), who on that day would come to change the world to the advantage of the índio. Since the civilizado (backlander or city dweller) was not living up to the social contract Awkhêê had given him at the time of his winning the shotgun, he would have to give the shotgun to the índio. The índio would then live in the cities, drive the trucks, and fly the planes, while the civilizado would hunt in the forests with the bow and arrow. (For a structural analysis of the Awkhêê myth, see Da Matta's (1970) complex study.)

[II.B.2.f.(2)]

To realize these predictions, the Canela would have to dance a great deal of the time and give Khêê-khwèy most of their possessions. (They danced in the traditional style on week days and in the "embraced" (abraçado) manner of the backlanders on the weekends.) Her helpers could sell the people's possessions to buy meat to feast on while they were dancing. Following her instructions, the Canela soon exhausted their resources with which to buy food. They began to steal cattle from the regional ranchers. The fetus indicated that this was all right because soon the índio would own the cattle of the civilizado anyway.

On May the 13th, Khêê-khwèy gave birth to a stillborn boy, and almost died when she could not deliver the afterbirth. She was saved by an able mid wife (Tel-khwèy). The younger Kaapêltùk then helped her reformulate her predictions so that the cult movement and the dancing could continue. There were, however, some significant defections, such as the withdrawal of the older Kaapêltùk, the Baixão Prêto village chief.

[II.B.2.f.(3)]

It was not long before the ranchers (fazendeiros) became aware that something unusual was happening in the tribe and that about forty head of cattle had disappeared in four months. This loss could not be tolerated and it provided a good excuse to take over the Canela lands, which they had coveted for years. They hired mercenaries (bandoleiros) from a nearby municipality (Tuntum) and prepared to eliminate the Canela, those "bichos do mato" (beasts of the forest).

On the 7th of July the first attack was made by the mercenaries to test the reactions of the Canela. A village in the Campestre region was completely burned. The inhabitants ran away, but one was killed. Consequently, a swift runner, the younger Tààmi (Plate 56d), was sent to Barra do Corda to inform the Indian service personnel.

[II.B.2.f.(4)]

On the 10th, some 200 ranchers and dependent farmers attacked the largest village, which at that time was in the Aldeia Velha area. But the Canela had been forewarned by the first attack and had posted scouts. When the attacking force was reported, the leading men, mostly under the direction of the younger Kaapêltùk, directed the women to cross the adjacent stream by running through the passageway formed by its gallery forest (Glossary) thickets (Figure 4). The men who still possessed the few unsold arms waited to defend this "bridge" after the women had passed along it into the woods beyond. In this way, five or six Canela, led by the younger Kaapêltùk, hidden in the brush along the ford, with their shotguns, were able to hold off 200 backlanders for the two hours needed for the women and children to move out of the area to the west.

In these two skirmishes and a third in the Ponto area, five Canela were killed and six wounded, while the ranchers may have lost one man, who died much later from an infected wound. On the 11th of July, the mayor of Barra do Corda, the head of the Indian service in Barra do Corda, two Service agents, and Tààmi, the Canela runner who had summoned them, arrived at the Aldeia Velha area from the east in a jeep, by a roundabout route through Leandro (Map 3). Because of the presence of the mayor, the backland ranchers respectfully allowed the jeep to pass through their lines, from which they were already preparing for another extermination attack. For the next attempt, the ranchers' intentions had been to start from Ourives (Map 3), half way between Ponto village and Barra do Corda, and to sweep south along all the Canela-inhabited streams to prevent them from escaping to the north toward Barra do Corda and the safety and sympathy found there.

[II.B.2.f.(5)]

The Indian service (Glossary) jeep easily rolled 35 kilometers west that same day through the cerrado grass lands and across three streams into the Ponto area. The Canela had fled and were hiding in the stream shrubbery by their farms. Tààmi, on instructions from the Indian service personnel, ran singing from farm hut to farm hut, advising and convincing the Canela to assemble. The plan was to leave their homelands, at least temporarily, passing north through the Ourives area (the most direct way) to Barra do Corda with the two Indian service agents, Virgílio Galvão Sobrinho and Bento Vieira, who had just arrived in the jeep to save them.

On the night of the 14th, the Canela marched some 35 kilometers through the ranchers' lines in the Ourives area, and another 15 kilometers toward Barra do Corda. They were accompanied by Sr. Virgílio and Sr. Bento, who were risking their lives in the line of duty. At the settlement of Matinho, the southern end of the principal dirt road into this backland region, a number of trucks were supplied by the Indian service for transportation into Barra do Corda. Swift movements and courage of certain Canela individuals and three Indian service personnel saved the lives of an entire Timbira tribe.

[II.B.2.g] "EXILE" AT SARDINHA, 1963-1968

The Guajajara Indians have had several large, legally demarcated reservations (Map 3) west of Barra do Corda and northeast of Grajau for a number of decades. They are best known by anthropologists through the book on the Tenetehara (a Guajajara group) by Wagley and Galvão (1949). The reservation lies entirely within the dry forests and is relatively close to the Apanyekra lands. Their Rancharia village (occupied in the late 1960s and early 1970s) is on the edge of the dry forests (Map 8) and only about 10 kilometers from the nearest Guajajara settlement on the extensive Guajajara reservation on the left bank of the Engeitado stream (Map 3). Sardinha, closer to Barra do Corda, is another Guajajara settlement where there is an Indian service post with minimal personnel.

[II.B.2.g.(1)]

The day after the Canela escaped from the ranchers at Ourives, they were taken by truck to Barra do Corda. From there, they walked 30 kilometers to the Sardinha Indian service post, which is about 50 kilometers to the northwest of their old Ponto area. The Canela, who had always lived in the cerrado, were expected to live, temporarily at least, in these dry forests.

[II.B.2.g.(2)]

Two days later, on the 18th of July, I arrived at the Sardinha post to find that the Canela had already cut down trees to form the circle that would be the plaza for their new village. It was located adjacent to the post and the road to Barra do Corda, presumably to enhance their psychological security. (The village houses nearest the post buildings had no back yards because they were so close.) No huts or houses had been erected yet, so they were living in the shade of trees and mats (Plate 38). This was not a hardship during July when it never rains, though the nights are the coldest of the entire year. The families had placed themselves in their traditional positions and order [III.E.2.e], around the potential village circle, in relation to the sun.

[II.B.2.g.(3)]

The Indian service personnel had told me about the stolen cattle and the ranchers' attack, but no one knew about the messianic movement that had caused the thefts. Thus it was a great surprise to me when my old Canela friends and research assistants told me about the dancing and the predictions of Khêê-khwèy. Little by little it became obvious that the Canela had had a full scale and very dramatic messianic movement. Khêê-khwèy was by now thoroughly discredited because of the deaths. She had predicted that if the ranchers attacked to avenge the appropriation of their cattle, Awkhêê would divert the bullets so that none of his people would be wounded or killed.

[II.B.2.g.(4)]

The dry forests (mata seca or avarandados; IBGE, 1957:405) were familiar to the Canela. They had been accustomed to traveling throughout the whole Barra do Corda municipality, and even to the great coastal cities (and recently Brasília) for at least a century. Still, they disliked the "tall" trees (Figure 5) and particularly the "closed in" shrubbery. There are no open spaces and no views (W. Crocker, 1972:255.) A person could not just walk through those woods as one could in the cerrado (Glossary); one had to stay on trails or cut one's way, at least to some extent, with a machete. Another negative aspect was their memory that deaths had been much more frequent in the village of Rodeador (occupied 1952-1954), which was on a projection of cerrado into dry forest (Map 3).

What was more important to the Canela, however, was the fact that they had been brought up in the cerrado and were used to it aesthetically. The cerrado gave them pleasure. It gratified their senses and made them feel at home. Because of the rolling hills and mesas (as found on a larger scale in the southwestern United States), a person could see great distances, and this furnished a special satisfaction. Moreover, most of their herbal medicines did not exist in the dry forests. The style of hunting they had practiced in the cerrado, tracking and running, could not be carried out. They easily lost their way because there were no hills from which to take their bearings. The trees were more difficult to fell, being bigger and closer together, and the soil was harder to penetrate, making the planting of crops far more work.

On the other hand, the Canela have no religious attachments to certain mountains, rocks, streams, springs, or lakes, as do so many other tribes. They need the cerrado as a biome for practical and aesthetic reasons and the streams, hills, and views individuals grew up with for emotional reasons.

[II.B.2.g.(5)]

Psychological reasons were the most important factors preventing the Canela's adaptation to the dry forest around Sardinha. Certain men in the younger Kaapêltùk's age-set did successfully adopt the new hunting and farming techniques. For hunting, it was more a question of knowing how to position oneself and waiting until game came along instead of tracking it down; and for farming, doing much heavier work taking far more time. However, in this new environment, game was more abundant and soils were far richer, so harvests could be considerably greater for the size of the area cleared and even for the amount of labor expended. Thus, what initially seemed an unwanted amount of work turned out to be well worth it in produce.

The younger Kaapêl, his group of followers, and most of his age-set preferred the forests where they had successfully established farms. There they could be more independent, and rely less on free goods from the Indian service and on sharecropping with the backlanders during the lean months. By far the larger portion of the Canela people, however, and especially the kin of Chief Kaarà?khre, his wife, and their political followers, wanted to go back to the cerrado. There were many more deaths in the forest, the work was harder there, and they simply wanted to be in their own lands. In addition, they were not welcomed in the reservation by the Guajajara Indians. The younger Kaapêl's group was the last portion of the Canela to move back to the cerrado, late in 1968.

There were also the psychological factors of not wanting to be where they had been forced to go and of knowing that they could go back. If the Canela had been transported 1000 kilometers away and had been relocated in the same type of dry forests, they would have adapted to them; but their own lands were only a tempting 65 kilometers away. When small groups occasionally went back to get cerrado herbal medicines, the contrast reminded them of their plight. One potential leader, Ikhè, with a small contingent of about two dozen Canela, returned to the Campestre (Map 3) area in 1965.

[II.B.2.g.(6)]

The Canela adopted many of the habits regarding dress of the Guajajara while in Sardinha. In their own lands, the Canela men had been used to going about naked, except when backland or urban women were present. On the Guajajara reservation, however, this custom was unacceptable. Guajajara women found nakedness in men intolerable. Furthermore the personal habits of the Guajajara (both women and men) with respect to elimination and exposure of the body were more conservative.

An improved dirt road connected Sardinha with Barra do Corda, resulting in far more intercourse with outsiders. Besides visits by Barra do Corda residents, Brazilian tourists and big game hunters drove through the region or detoured from Barra do Corda to see the Indians. As a consequence, the Canela males had to become used to wearing clothing all the time, and to be more circumspect in their personal hygiene. Canela women continued to go bare-breasted because in the eyes of Brazilians, this was appropriate for tribal Indians.

[II.B.2.g.(7)]

The Canela awareness of the different values of both small-and large-city dwellers was sharpened while at Sardinha. They discovered that large-city people viewed them with esteem, respect, and sometimes concern, and would therefore pay large sums for their artifacts, even if sloppily made. Consequently, a new way of making money was developed, as well as a new sense of self-worth, which was to make a difference to them in the late 1970s. If large-city dwellers admired them and their culture, they must have something of value.

They also learned to use different materials for building houses, such as mud and wattle for walls and raised clay for floors; their traditional material of palm thatch was difficult to find and farther away. In addition, utensils and tools of the city were easier to obtain.

[II.B.2.g.(8)]

The Canela reached a nadir in morale while in Sardinha. Many were essentially on strike—not preparing fields—to convince the Indian service of the need to return them to their homelands. They appeared to be "dying off," as service personnel said, but when numbers were counted, their low population was due more to youths traveling in the world than to deaths. However, some older people died before their time due to poor nutrition and higher disease rates. Some Canela spoke to outsiders about their plight. I contrasted these appearances with my impressions of old Ponto: the dignity of older individuals and the conviction that their ways were best.

[II.B.2.g.(8).(a)]

When I first arrived in the old Canela village of Ponto in 1957, my impressions were of individuals who showed great self-respect and pride, and believed in their traditions. I was impressed by the dignity and proud bearing of older people. They carried great personal presence into their activities.
In the late afternoons I saw old men in their 60s or 70s walking down the radial pathway from their houses to the plaza, with maybe just a square of cloth hanging in front from their leather belts and a delicately carved baton of some hard wood in their right hands. At the edge of the plaza, they almost always took the cloth off to enter their sacred place of conciliation naked, which showed more respect.

When visiting the Apanyekra a year later, I noticed one old woman with the same great dignity. I asked about the lady and was told she had been born and raised among the Canela of Ponto and had come to live in their village of Porquinhos only upon marriage to an Apanyekra. This did not surprise me because the Apanyekra did not present this sense of self-worth to the same degree as old Canela. These contrasting attitudes were reflected in their houses. Some Apanyekra merely put up a lean-to whereas almost all Canela houses (Plate 7) were better made and larger than Apanyekra ones.

[II.B.2.g.(8).(b)]

Since my arrival in 1957, most of these magnificent Canela old-timers had passed away. Some died in Sardinha of disease and malnutrition. An era had ended, and the age of the last strong chief, Hàktookot, had been superseded. In 1961, the leading age-set membership in the council of elders was passed down to an age-set 20 years younger [III.D.2.b.(4)]. Thus, the council of elders' leadership was passed from the age-set of the older Mïïkhrô to the age-set of the older Kaapêltùk. Individual members of this younger ruling age-set had vastly more experience in dealing with outsiders. Consequently, it is to be expected that the atmosphere in Sardinha was different both because of this major change in leadership and because of the recent disaster of the messianic movement, together with the deculturating tribal displacement into the dry forest. It is noteworthy that the direction of the cult movement in 1963 was future-oriented rather than past-oriented. This was an attempt to bring about something new, rather than to restore old traditions and practices. The Canela had become disenchanted with the traditions of their ancestors and wanted, at some psychological level, to rise up and take the cultural place of the civilizado. However, with their disappointment in the movement and with their personal frustrations due to their relocation, demoralization on a near-tribal scale in Sardinha was understandable.

[II.B.2.g.(9)]

According to the records of the Indian service published in the Enciclopédia dos Municípios (IBGE, 1959:75-78), there were 585 Canela Indians in both tribes (Canela and Apanyekra): 185 men, 185 women, and 215 children. There were 229 Ramkokamekra-Canela Indians. In 1960 I counted 412 Ramkokamekra-Canela, 265 in Ponto and 147 (±2) in Baixão Prêto.

The Ramkokamekra-Canela population had been a little less than 300 in 1936 (a year after the smallpox epidemic), the time of the last visit of Nimuendajú (1946:33). Thus, they were growing in numbers slowly but steadily (300 to 412 in 24 years). During their stay in the dry forests of the Guajajara Indian reservation, they were reduced to about 397 (W. Crocker, 1972:239, Table 2), but the Indian service personnel thought their numbers were lower and that they were "dying off." The Canela themselves kept saying they were dying because of the living conditions in the forest, although a careful census showed that some 40 youths were away in the cities and about half that number had secretly returned to the cerrado. Their morale was very low, and many preferred to starve rather than work. Many of the youths appeared listless, unable to perform most activities or to solve problems.

[II.B.2.h] RETURN TO CERRADO HOME

During the Canela stay in the forest, the ranchers made threats and occupied parts of the Canela homelands. The national military revolution of 1964, however, strengthened the federal Indian service and put fear into the ranchers. Although some cut new farms out of the nearest Canela gallery forests in June of 1964 (the season for opening new lands), by June of 1966 they stopped taking over additional Canela lands for farming for fear of what the military might do. The federal government had stationed a battalion of engineers in Barra do Corda to build a bridge across the Mearim River and to improve the roads of the area. If the ranchers moved farther into the Canela lands, the Indian service could call on these local troops to force the ranchers back.

[II.B.2.h.(1)]

By August 1966, official word came from the Indian service in Brasília that small groups of Canela were allowed to inconspicuously go back to their lands. This was militarily feasible, because during early 1966 the engineering garrison in Barra do Corda had built a bridge (Figure 8) in Ourives and opened the road a few kilometers farther to the edge of the cerrado. From there, specially equipped army trucks could drive due south without a road, just going between the cerrado trees in the direction of the old Canela settlements, or they could fan out in the direction of any one of the Canela farming areas. Without the bridge in Ourives, vehicles would have had to go far to the east (Map 3) through the ranchers' region of Escondido and Leandro in order to get to the Canela lands (about 110 kilometers).

During 1967 more Canela families moved back. By November of 1968, all had returned to their homelands, including the younger Kaapêltùk and his farm-oriented group, who arrived last.

[II.B.2.h.(2)]

Returning to the cerrado offered the Canela a future with hope, but a problem in leadership still existed. The tribe was split into four new villages in the cerrado under aspiring leaders: Chief Kaarà?khre (Figure 18) in the Escalvado area, the older Kaapêltùk (Figure 50) in Baixão Prêto again, the younger Mïïkhrô (Plate 70c) in the Campestre (I?khè had died), and the older Krôôtô (Plate 77d) just north of the old Ponto area.

Chief Kaarà?khre, who controlled the largest number of people, resolved the problem by putting on a Khêêtúwayê boys' initiation festival [IV.A.3.c.(1)] in his new Escalvado village. Everybody had to attend for the benefit of their children, so the tribe assembled in one place for the duration of the 4-month festival. Finally, they all agreed to stay in the Escalvado village permanently. This meant that in 1968 the entire tribe was together for the first time since about one year after the death of Chief Hàktookot in 1951, except for short periods of time in 1954,1955, and during part of the messianic movement in 1963.

The reintegration greatly contributed to the rise in general morale as evidenced in part by the succeeding rise in population from about 400 to 600 in the following decade of 1969 to 1979.

[II.B.2.i] REASONS FOR NEW HIGH MORALE

Once the Canela were back in their beloved cerrado lands, the rise in their morale was obvious. I had observed this change in 1966 while traveling with a small group from Sardinha to the Apanyekra village of Porquinhos. As we came out of the forest, at a place called Boca do Mato (mouth of-the forest) (Map 3), one of my companions joyfully said i kaykuk-re (I light very: I feel very light). This was the subjective reaction to the considerably lower relative humidity in the cerrado during the summer months [II.C.1.b]. A male companion was so full of delight that he grabbed a young female and dragged her off into the bushes, much to her pleasure.

[II.B.2.i.(1)]

The first and most obvious reason for new high morale was that the Canela were back in their beloved homeland where they had been raised. Second, hunting and fishing were much better because game and fish had become plentiful during their 5-year absence. (For a study of the zoological species of the Canela region, see Vanzolini, 1956-19