This video portrays the Kayapo who live in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. While the Kayapo are culturally distinct from the Guaraní who you are reading about in Forest Dwellers, Forest Protectors, they share a similar a daptive strategy--horticulture (also known as slash and burn or swidden horticulture) and face similar threats to their way of life as the Guaraní.
1. In this video, pay particular attention to the relationship between the Brazilian government and the Kayapo indigenous peoples. What are the assumptions and objectives of the government in its attempt to bring development ("progres s") to the Amazon? Do these assumptions remind you of any of the theories discussed in class?
2. We will address the dynamics of rainforest horticulture in class this week; how do the Kayapo's attitudes about development of the Amazon differ from those of the government and other outside interests? How can we account for those differences? When you finish Forest Dwellers next week, think about what kind of impact these different assumptions have for environmental sustainability and cultural survival of indigenous groups.
3. What strategies do the Kayapo use in resisting the building of the hydroelectric dam at Altamira? And how effectively were the Kayapo able to organize? Here it is worth noting that traditionally, the Kayapo lived in small villages and different tribes often expressed their animosities through tribal warfare. Imagine, then, the tremendous commitment it took to amass hundreds of different indigenous groups at Altamira--many who had never left their home villages before--to form a u nited protest against the building of a dam that would further destroy their way of life. You will see their "guerilla theater" supported by international figures, such as Sting.
4. Another point worth mentioning is the Kayapo's selective use of technology foreign to their culture (video cameras, airplanes, etc.) for the purposes of furthering their struggle.
5. In one scene in the video, you will see a traditional Kayapo dance associated with the corn tree. Pay close attention to the significance of the corn tree and how it fits in to Kayapo mythology.