BOX 1 Kayapo and the Belo Monte Dam Project · BOX 12.1 Kayapo and the Belo Monte Dam Project...
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BOX 12.1 Kayapo and the Belo Monte Dam Project Tribal peoples often unite their villages for a common cause. Sodalities, or pan-tribal associ- ations, help bring people with similar interests and goals together across a region. Since 1988, the Kayapo (Mebengokre) people of the Amazonian rainforest have been uniting to protest the building of a hydroelectric dam in the Pará territory. The dam, proposed by the Brazilian government, will create an enormous lake that has the potential to flood the Kayapo’s native lands around the Xingú River. Flooding will force 20,000 people, including thousands of Indigenous peoples, to relocate and leave every- thing they know behind. When the Kayapo first protested the dam construction, high-status chiefs encour- aged their fellow chiefs of Kayapo and other Amazonian peoples to show support. Thousands of Indigenous people made the days-long trip out of the forest by boat to show strength at a meeting with Brazil’s electric company. During the meeting, Indigenous men and women whose land was under threat gave hours of speeches underscoring their claims to the land as the orig- inal inhabitants. The international media covered the highly publicized event. Even Western celeb- rities who advocate for environmental causes, such as the musician Sting, lent their support to the Kayapo. The show of force against the dam effectively postponed its construction. In 2006, protests began again with the new Belo Monte Dam project proposal. Kayapo chiefs extended their political reach to bring in new allies, even meeting with representatives from the World Bank. Brazilian construction meth- ods have come under fire from the UN Human Rights Council, and international human rights groups around the world have criticized the way in which some of the Indigenous communities have been overlooked or coerced. Unfortunately, these political and humanitarian efforts to stop the dam had little effect. As of 2018, the Belo Monte Dam project is nearly complete. The first turbine is operational and the power plant is expected to come online in 2019, making it the fourth largest dam in the world. The tribal peoples of the area will be relo- cated, effectively losing their land, the resting places of their ancestors, and potentially their way of life. Repercussions for the 7,000 Kayapo and other Indigenous people of Pará, whose identities and survival are intimately connected to the forest, have yet to be seen. Figure 12.3 KAYAPO CHIEF RAONI AT PROTEST Protests against the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil have gone on for decades. Kayapo Chief Raoni Metuktire has been a leader in this struggle and spokesperson for Indigenous peoples of the area that will be affected. Credit: © Susan Cunnigham/Alamy © University of Toronto Press 2019
Transcript of BOX 1 Kayapo and the Belo Monte Dam Project · BOX 12.1 Kayapo and the Belo Monte Dam Project...
THROUGH THE LENS OF ANTHROPOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURE292
BOX 12.1 Kayapo and the Belo Monte Dam Project
Tribal peoples often unite their villages for a common cause. Sodalities, or pan-tribal associ-ations, help bring people with similar interests and goals together across a region. Since 1988, the Kayapo (Mebengokre) people of the Amazonian rainforest have been uniting to protest the building of a hydroelectric dam in the Pará territory. The dam, proposed by the Brazilian government, will create an enormous lake that has the potential to flood the Kayapo’s native lands around the Xingú River. Flooding will force 20,000 people, including thousands of Indigenous peoples, to relocate and leave every-thing they know behind.
When the Kayapo first protested the dam construction, high-status chiefs encour-aged their fellow chiefs of Kayapo and other Amazonian peoples to show support. Thousands of Indigenous people made the days-long trip out of the forest by boat to show strength at a meeting with Brazil’s electric company. During the meeting, Indigenous men and women whose land was under threat gave hours of speeches underscoring their claims to the land as the orig-inal inhabitants. The international media covered the highly publicized event. Even Western celeb-rities who advocate for environmental causes, such as the musician Sting, lent their support to the Kayapo. The show of force against the dam effectively postponed its construction.
In 2006, protests began again with the new Belo Monte Dam project proposal. Kayapo chiefs extended their political reach to bring in new allies, even meeting with representatives from the World Bank. Brazilian construction meth-ods have come under fire from the UN Human Rights Council, and international human rights
groups around the world have criticized the way in which some of the Indigenous communities have been overlooked or coerced. Unfortunately, these political and humanitarian efforts to stop the dam had little effect.
As of 2018, the Belo Monte Dam project is nearly complete. The first turbine is operational and the power plant is expected to come online in 2019, making it the fourth largest dam in the world. The tribal peoples of the area will be relo-cated, effectively losing their land, the resting places of their ancestors, and potentially their way of life. Repercussions for the 7,000 Kayapo and other Indigenous people of Pará, whose identities and survival are intimately connected to the forest, have yet to be seen.
Figure 12.3 KAYAPO CHIEF RAONI AT PROTEST Protests against the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Dam in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil have gone on for decades. Kayapo Chief Raoni Metuktire has been a leader in this struggle and spokesperson for Indigenous peoples of the area that will be affected. Credit: © Susan Cunnigham/Alamy
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© University of Toronto Press 2019
