The Kalapalo Indians :: essays research papers

The Kalapalo IndiansThe Kalapalo Indians of Central Brazil are one of a few surviving indigenous conclusions that is uniquely protected by a national reserve in lowland SouthAmerica. Through no effort of there own, they have been isolated artificiallyfrom Brazilian cordial and economic influences that reach almost every otherIndian sept in Brazil. This unusual situation has made it possible for theKalapalos culture to be undisturbed by the outside world and the surroundingtribes. oft of Kalapalo life is run through a central concept or an ideal ofbehavior, called ifutisu. This is an infinite ideological concept that isrepresented in galore(postnominal) an(prenominal) ways in kind life and ideal organization among theKalapalo.The firmament in which the Kalapalo live is in the northeastern Mato Grosso statecalled Upper Xingu divide. on that point are four unintelligible languages by conventions inthis region. This makes the Upper Xingu Basin linguistically diverse, but with many of the groups still sharing the same social and ideological features. It isvery difficult to trace back the origins of Kalapalo life because of the consolidation of the many different and culturally diverse groups in the UpperXingu Basin. So, many of systems of kinship classification, marriage practices,ceremonial organizations, status allocation, and religious beliefs are concordant with cultural rules and social practices and not with the originalsystem. Many of the modern topical anesthetic groups can only reconstruct their own historywhich is in expressage detail, these systems cant be isolated completely from theexisting society.The devil most important social units in Upper Xingu society are the village andthe firm groups. Both the village and household can be considered corporatein that both control rights to territorial resources, acts as a unit whenperforming certain economic and ceremonial activities. Members of a householdgroup are obligated to pass out food which they draw amongst themselves. Evenwhen one cannot supply food a Kalapalo is assured of a share because everyone istreated with the same kind of respect. Despite this corporate organization, rank and file in villages and households is constantly changing, and there is muchmovement of people in the midst of group to group.The Kalapalo society is a system wherein social units, such as the villagegroups and households exist only because of the individual who decides to livein these systems and subscribe to to cooperate with one another. This is verydifferent from other non-western societies whereas the individual obtain theresponsibility to join in social units, by birth or other means of relationshipto and with each other regardless of the individuation of the individual themselves.The Kalapalo social organization is characterized by a flexible group membership