The Kalapalo Indians :: essays research papers

The Kalapalo IndiansThe Kalapalo Indians of Central Brazil are one of a few surviving indigenouscultures that is uniquely protected by a national reserve in lowland SouthAmerica. Through no effort of thither own, they have been isolated artificiallyfrom Brazilian social and sparing influences that reach almost every new(prenominal)Indian tribe in Brazil. This unusual posture has made it possible for theKalapalos culture to be undisturbed by the outside world and the surroundingtribes. Much of Kalapalo life is run through a central concept or an nonesuch ofbehavior, called ifutisu. This is an infinite ideological concept that isrepresented in many ways in social life and ideal organization among theKalapalo.The area in which the Kalapalo live is in the northeastern Mato Grosso statecalled amphetamine Xingu Basin. There are four unintelligible languages by groups inthis region. This makes the Upper Xingu Basin linguistically diverse, but withmany of the groups still sharing the sa me social and ideological features. It isvery difficult to trace back the origins of Kalapalo life because of the integrating of the many different and heathenly diverse groups in the UpperXingu Basin. So, many of systems of kinship classification, marriage practices,ceremonial organizations, status allocation, and religious beliefs areconsistent with cultural rules and social practices and not with the originalsystem. Many of the modern local groups can only reconstruct their own historywhich is in limited detail, these systems cant be isolated completely from theexisting society.The two most important social units in Upper Xingu society are the village andthe household groups. two 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 collect amongst themselves. Evenwhen one cannot supp ly food a Kalapalo is assured of a share because everyone istreated with the same kind of respect. Despite this corporate organization,membership in villages and households is constantly changing, and there is muchmovement of good deal between 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 cull to cooperate with one another. This is verydifferent from other non-western societies whereas the individual acquire theresponsibility to join in social units, by birth or other means of relationshipto and with each other regardless of the identity of the individual themselves.The Kalapalo social organization is characterized by a flexible group membership