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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



English engineer, accompanied by his son and 

 another Englishman, set out from Cuiaba for the 

 area, in search of the lost city of fabulous wealth 

 reported by Moribeca in the eighteenth century. 

 They never returned. Numerous search parties 

 entered the region, some, like the American news- 

 paperman, Thomas Winton, also never to return. 

 Based on information given to Thomas Young by 

 the Indians, the story of Fawcett is as follows: 



Fawcett and his companions reached the Upper Xingii 

 and settled among the Cuiciiru. Fawcett and his son 

 married Indian women, each of the women giving birth 

 to a child. Colonel Fawcett's child, a daughter, died, but 

 his son's child, a boy, survived and grew up to be TulipS, 

 the so-called white Indian who for some years lived at 

 the Indian Post of Simao Lopes but in 1949 was living in 

 Cuiaba. The other Englishman died from an infection in 

 his knee. After a year Fawcett and his son persuaded a 

 number of Calapalo to-read them on in their search. The 

 Calapalo relate that when the food ran out and they were 

 far inside enemy territory to the northeast of the Xingii 

 they tried to induce Fawcett to return. But he persisted 

 in going on. The Indians thereupon killed the two white 

 men by shooting them with arrows, buried them, and 

 returned to their village. Although the Servigo de 

 Protecao aos Indios sent in a party to verify the story and 

 later had the story published, tales of this kind die hard. 

 There are still people who believe Fawcett and his com- 

 panions are alive somewhere in the jungles of central 

 Brazil. 



Today there are rumors of rich gold and diamond 

 deposits in the area, and the Brazilian authorities 

 are cautious about anyone entering the region. 

 At least part of this caution is motivated by a 

 genuine desire to protect the Indians against the 

 demoralizing effect of a large influx of miners. 

 Yet any kind of permanent contact in the area 

 will affect the Indians physically. In 1948 whole 

 villages were down with the common cold, which 

 in many cases turned to pneumonia, resulting in 

 death. As in other parts of Brazil, the common 

 cold, measles, and whooping cough have devastat- 

 ing effects upon the Indians, who appear to have 

 little resistance against pulmonary infections. 

 The introduction of such diseases as syphilis and 

 tuberculosis, of course, would quickly decimate 

 the population. 



To date the Indians of the Upper Xingii have 

 survived physically and culturally owing to their 

 isolation. As has been mentioned, the Xingii 

 Elver in its main course is broken by many rapids 

 which have so far effectively barred navigation 

 from the mouth of the river to its headwaters. 



Until 1946 entry into the upper watershed was 

 made overland from the south — a long and diffi- 

 cult journey by pack ox and mule or more re- 

 cently by truck and then by canoe down one or 

 other of the tributaries. With the establishment 

 of aii-fields along the Kuluene since 1946, the 

 region can be reached from Rio de Janeiro by plane 

 in a single day. So far the air service has been 

 provided by the Brazilian Army Air Force which 

 has been serving the Expedition with flights every 

 2 weeks during the dry season. During the wet 

 season the Fundacao Brasil Central has serviced 

 the area from Chavantina on the Rio das Mortes 

 sporadically by their own two-seater Piper Cubs 

 and Fairchild planes. As this plane service is 

 official, permission to enter the region is controlled 

 by the Brazilian Government. This prevents 

 indiscriminate entry and undoubtedly will assist 

 in protecting the Indians. Thus, so long as com- 

 mercial airlines are kept out of the area the In- 

 dians will continue to enjoy a certain degree of 

 isolation, the contacts with the whites being under 

 the control and supervision of those who appear to 

 have the interests of the Indians at heart. 



The physical barriers which define the Upper 

 Xingii as a drainage basin and have given its 

 native inhabitants a high degree of isolation, also 

 mark its boundaries as a social and cultural area. 

 On all sides live other Indian tribes who are 

 openly hostile to the Upper Xingii Tribes. To 

 the east are the Ge-speaking Cayap6, Shavante, 

 and Suya; to the south and west the Tupf-speaking 

 Juruna, Cayabi, Shukaramai, and other, as yet, 

 unidentified groups. Raid and counterraid are 

 still essential elements in the everyday life of the 

 people. In May and again in July 1948, hostile 

 Indians came at night within hearing distance 

 of Jacarei Camp. The apprehension of the 

 Indians, especially the fear shown in the faces 

 of the women and children, was unmistakable 

 evidence of the reality of war in their lives. 



The internal structure of the Basin with its 

 network of rivers, on the other hand, makes 

 intercourse between the tribes easy. Not only 

 do all the main tributaries meet at the apex of 

 the triangle but during the rainy season the 

 flooded lower portion can be crossed between the 

 rivers, the canoes picking their way between the 

 palms and undergrowth. In other words, there 

 are no natural boundaries within the Basin itself. 



