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Effects of Modernization on the Xavante

The Xavante live on six reserves in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Colonial records place them farther east; as missionaries, settlers, slave hunters, and mineral prospectors intruded the territories the Xavante roamed in their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the Xavante moved westward. They settled along the Rio das Mortes and its tributaries.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, Xavante experienced renewed conflicts with peoples of European descent, as settlers and colonists began to move into the Rio das Mortes region.

The Wara Project

David and Pia Maybury-Lewis have researched the Xavante of Central Brazil for the last 40 years. It was, in fact, their experience, as witnesses of the struggle to protect their lands and their ways of life in which the Xavante and other peoples like them are engaged, that led David and Pia to found Cultural Survival in 1972.

Now 30 years later, the Xavante have developed a number of projects to assist them in their cultural survival. The founder and organizer of one of these projects has asked for modest funding from Cultural Survival.

Bush Asks Supreme Court to Limit Liability for Interior's Breach of Indian Trust Responsibilities

Two Native American tribes have brought forth claims to the Supreme Court seeking to force the federal government to honor its trust obligations to them. On December 2, the Supreme Court heard preliminary arguments relating to one of the largest tribal trust mismanagement cases in legal history, with questions raised about the responsibilities of the U.S. government in acting as trustee for Native lands. The Court has agreed to hear two important cases, U.S. v. Navajo Nation, 01-1375, and U.S. v.

Interview with Hiparidi Top'tiro, coordinator of the Wara Collection Project

The Warã Association works to conserve the 'ró (savannah), which is the source of Xavante power. Dañimite and Simihöpãr¢, spirits that give us power, inhabit the 'ró. Without the Dañimite and Simihöpãr¢we young Xavante will not have the same strength that our fathers' posessed. Our beliefs, our ceremonies depend on the savannah, so it is important for us to let others know [what is happening to the 'ró] and try to conserve it. Many young people who no longer hunt, who don't seek contact with the Dañimite and Simihöpãr¢ are loosing their way.

Hard times affect vital aspects of Maasai culture

In the far-flung, sun-scorched plains of Mosiro in the Narok district of Kenya, 25-year-old Lemirisho Ole Parmuat had just gone through the rigors of warriorhood and was getting ready to finally settle down in marriage. Lemirisho's father, 60-year-old Simel Ole Parmuat-a member of the Iseuri age-group, the current-day "grandfather" generation-had, as tradition dictates, already identified a suitable bride for his last son, Lemirisho.

Narco-trafficking in the Sierra Tarahumara

Recent American anti-drug television commercials hope to prey on the morals of young people by showing how their purchases of illicit drugs may be helping terrorists or lead to the street shooting of another young person. If I had contacts in Hollywood I would suggest that they produce and air a commercial shows how several indigenous people were gunned down in a small mission chapel near Cerro Colorado in northern Mexico while holding a community meeting to discuss the increasing traffic of marijuana and opium in their canyon region.

TPLF Repression Against Oromos and Consequences

Ethiopia has a long history of conflict among the ethnic groups it comprises. Today, the major groups are Oromo, Amhara, Tigrayans, Gurage, Afar, Somali, Sidama, Hadiya, and Walayita. Oromo is the largest both in terms of population size (40 percent to 50 percent of the Ethiopian population) and land area, but it is the Tigrayans, who only make up 5 percent to 7 percent of the population, who rule.

Intern Articles

My name is Zivile Maciukaite. I was born and raised in Lithuania, went to a school there, and attended college in the United States. I've been working for Cultural Survival for over a year now and I could not find a better place that helps me grow as a human being and as a student. I was familiar with the work of Cultural Survival long before I started working here. However, I never thought that I would actually be working here.

Continuity and Change in San Pedro Atitlan, Guatemala 1941-1998

Here contemporary and historical black-and-white photographs from the town of San Pedro La Laguna in Highland Guatemala are combined to look at changes in the lives of Tzutujil Mayan women. These six photographs are part of a larger collection, investigating changes in lives of women of San Pedro, with special attention to educational and economic change.

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