ARTIGO ARTICLE 1071 Demographic dynamics of the Suyá, a Jê people of the Xingu Indigenous Park, Central Brazil, 1970-2004 Dinâmica demográfi ca dos Suyá, povo Jê do Parque Indígena do Xingu, Brasil Central, 1970-2004 Heloisa Pagliaro 1 Natália da Silva Carvalho 1 Douglas Rodrigues 1 Roberto G. Baruzzi 1 Abstract Introduction 1 Departamento de Medicina This paper analyses the demographic dynamics In two classic studies of Brazilian indigenous de- Preventiva, Universidade 1,2 Federal de São Paulo, of the Suyá, a Jê people, inhabitants of the Xin- mography from the 1950s, Darcy Ribeiro evalu- São Paulo, Brasil. gu Indigenous Park, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, ated the impacts of infectious diseases transmit- during the years 1970-2004. Data was gathered ted to indigenous peoples through the historical Correspondence H. Pagliaro from medical records of the São Paulo Federal circumstances of contact with the surround- Departamento de Medicina University Health Program at the Xingu Indig- ing society. He addressed the impacts of these Preventiva, Universidade enous Park. The demographic characteristics disease histories on their social structures and Federal de São Paulo. Rua Borges Lagoa 1341, addressed include composition by age and sex, demographics, anticipating the progressive re- São Paulo, SP crude birth rates, general mortality rates, mor- duction of these populations and their probable 04038-034, Brasil. tality rates by age and sex, proportional mor- extinction. The alarming prospect of the prob- [email protected] tality by sex, age, and basic causes of death. The able disappearance of the country’s indigenous results show a population recovery process, with populations prevailed for a very long time and, in growth rates of 3% per year between 1970 and the 1980s, indications of increases in some popu- 2004. In addition to moderate birth rates and lations signaled a reversal of this pattern 3,4,5,6. declining mortality rates, migration has also Estimates presented by studies of indigenous played an important role in the demographic peoples in the final decades of the twentieth cen- dynamics. Mortality indicators show a decline tury showed that their populations had increased, in general and infant mortality rates, higher on average, 3.5% per year 5, more than double the death rates among women, higher proportions average of 1.6% estimated for the total Brazilian of deaths among individuals < 1 and 50+ years population between 1996 and 2000. Recent case of age, and major causes of death to be infec- studies of the demographic dynamics of diverse tious diseases and cancer. indigenous populations in the Brazilian territory show elevated birth and fecundity rates far above South American Indians; Demography; Health the average for the total Brazilian population, as Status well as reduced mortality levels through time. These trends have resulted in a gradual process of demographic recuperation among these pop- ulations 7. The current challenge for demographic stud- ies of indigenous populations in Brazil is to un- Cad. Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 23(5):1071-1081, mai, 2007 1072 Pagliaro H et al. derstand the continuation of this process by ex- with the help of the Jurúna (Yudjá), the Villas tending case studies to other indigenous peoples Bôas brothers 9 made contact with the Suyá, who and incorporating in their analyses the particular soon thereafter moved to the area near the Diau- histories and ethnologies of these populations arum Indigenous Post. There they constructed a and their repercussions for demographic behav- village and came to live together with the Trumái, ior. It is in this context that this study is presented. Kayapó-Mentuktire, Jurúna, and Kayabí, also for- Its objectives are to analyze the demographic dy- mer enemies. namic of the Suyá from 1970 to 2004 and thereby contribute to the understanding of the process Material and methods of population recuperation that has been docu- mented for diverse indigenous peoples in Brazil. This is a transversal study, based on secondary information for the period 1970-2004. The source of data was the archives at the São Paulo Federal Population, material, and methods University Health Program (Universidade Fede- ral do Estado de São Paulo/Escola Paulista de Suyá Medicina – UNIFESP/EPM), in the Xingu Indig- enous Park, which include medical charts and The Suyá are currently the only Gê (northern records maintained regularly since their estab- branch) speaking population in the Xingu Indige- lishment in 1965 10. This material, together with nous Park, in the Central West region of Brazil, also registries of vital events, is of utmost importance inhabited by other indigenous peoples belonging for demographic and epidemiological studies. to the language families Arawak, Carib, and Tupi, The medical charts contain, in addition to as well as the isolated language Trumaí. health information: registry number in the health According to Seeger 8, the Suyá originally in- program; identification photographs from in- habited the region north of the Tocantins River, fancy, adolescence, adulthood, and advanced from which they were displaced towards the adulthood; ethnicity; date of chart creation; date Tapajós River and entered into struggles over of birth (estimated by the medical staff that did territory with the region’s indigenous groups, in- the first clinical exam for individuals born be- cluding the Munduruku and Kreen-Akarore. In a fore the creation of the program and month and second displacement towards the south the pop- year of birth for those born after 1966); alternate ulation split, with the Tapayúna (also called Beiço names that the individual received throughout de Pau, Suyá Novos or Suyá Ocidentais) installing the lifecycle; sex; date, location, and cause of themselves along the Sangue and Arinos Rivers death; names of parents and spouse(s); loca- (Mato Grosso State). Seeger estimates that the tion of village or residence and any changes in Tapayúna had a population of about 400 in the residence; and name and registry number of mid-twentieth century and that the majority died children. Causes of death were determined by from poisoning and disease after entering into medical staff based on: (i) information provided contact with the surrounding society as the colo- by family members and/or healthcare profes- nial fronts advanced towards the Central West re- sionals and (ii) medical records when the death gion of Brazil 8. The 41 survivors were transferred occurred with medical personnel in attendance to the Xingu Indigenous Park in 1970. or in hospital environments outside the Xingu The other part of the population, known as Indigenous Park. the Suyá (Eastern), were displaced towards the The vital event registries contain information Batovi River and entered into contact with the regarding births and deaths since the creation peoples of the Upper Xingu. The arrival of the of the system, including: registry number in the Suyá in the Xingu occurred during the first half health program, name, sex, month and year of of the nineteenth century, decades before con- birth, ethnicity, date of chart creation, numbers tact was established during the first expedition and names of parents when known, month and to the region by the anthropologist Karl von den year of death if applicable, and cause of death. Steinen, in 1884. According to Seeger 8, after The contents of this registry instrument permit- Steinen’s visit to the Upper Xingu, the Suyá sur- ted comparison of the information collected vived, integrating survivors and captives from the from the medical charts. region’s populations and incorporating traces of The continuous maintenance of this archive their cultures, such as the technique for prepar- and the quality of the information they contain ing manioc and the use of sleeping hammocks. permitted the identification of demographic Conflicts with the peoples of the Upper Xingu events that occurred among the Suyá from 1970 (Xinguanos) caused the Suyá to seek refuge along to 2004 and reconstruction of the population the tributaries of the Suiá-Missu River 8. In 1959, by sex and age for each year during this period. Cad. Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 23(5):1071-1081, mai, 2007 DEMOGRAPHIC DYNAMICS OF THE SUYÁ 1073 Population reconstruction was made possible by as in the case of the Tapayúna, who have lived a Lexis diagram, taking as the initial point the to the north of the Xingu Indigenous Park since population at 1970 (p0 or p1970), by age and sex. 1986. To this point were added, year-by-year through 2004, the births, deaths, exits from and entrances into the village, and when each of these events Results occurred. The Lexis diagram is a graph formed by plotting parallel and diagonal lines that rep- Population change resent, in two dimensions, three demographic variables: date, age, and the moment of birth, From 1970 to 2004, the inhabitant population of death, or any other demographic event, thereby the Suyá villages increased from 123 to 330, cor- representing the population dynamic 11. responding to a mean annual rate of increase of The annual number of population obstained 3%. During this period, the rate of increase oscil- by this procedure served as the basis for estimat- lated between -1.1 and 6.7% per year due to fluc- ing the demographic means for use in analyzing tuations in the intrinsic (natural) and extrinsic the population dynamic, namely: composition (migratory) components of the population dy- by age and sex, crude birth rates (CBR), crude namic (Tables 1 and 2). mortality rates (CMR), infant mortality rates In 1970, the Suyá, numbering 77 individuals, (IMR), and mortality by sex, age, and basic cause received in their villages 41 Tapayúna 13, 17 males of death. The last of these averages, mortality, was and 24 females, who were transferred from the estimated in accordance with the International Sangue and Arinos Rivers.