BOX 12.1 and the 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 Figure 12.3 KAYAPO CHIEF RAONI AT PROTEST construction, high-status chiefs encour- Protests against the construction of the Belo Monte aged their fellow chiefs of Kayapo and other Hydroelectric Dam in the of have gone on for decades. Kayapo Chief Raoni Metuktire Amazonian peoples to show support. Thousands has been a leader in this struggle and spokesperson for of Indigenous people made the days-long trip Indigenous peoples of the area that will be affected. out of the forest by boat to show strength at a Credit: © Susan Cunnigham/Alamy meeting with Brazil’s electric company. During the meeting, Indigenous men and women whose groups around the world have criticized the way land was under threat gave hours of speeches in which some of the Indigenous communities underscoring their claims to the land as the orig- have been overlooked or coerced. Unfortunately, inal inhabitants. The international media covered these political and humanitarian efforts to stop the highly publicized event. Even Western celeb- the dam had little effect. rities who advocate for environmental causes, As of 2018, the Belo Monte Dam project is such as the musician , lent their support to nearly complete. The first turbine is operational the Kayapo. The show of force against the dam and the power plant is expected to come online effectively postponed its construction. in 2019, making it the fourth largest dam in the In 2006, protests began again with the new Belo world. The tribal peoples of the area will be relo- Monte Dam project proposal. Kayapo chiefs cated, effectively losing their land, the resting extended their political reach to bring in new places of their ancestors, and potentially their allies, even meeting with representatives from way of life. Repercussions for the 7,000 Kayapo the World Bank. Brazilian construction meth- and other Indigenous people of Pará, whose ods have come under fire from the UN Human identities and survival are intimately connected Rights Council, and international human rights to the forest, have yet to be seen.

© University of Toronto Press 2019

292 THROUGH THE LENS OF ANTHROPOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN EVOLUTION AND CULTURE

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