Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
DOI 10.1007/s10745-013-9637-1
Xavante Ritual Hunting: Anthropogenic Fire, Reciprocity,
and Collective Landscape Management
in the Brazilian Cerrado
James R. Welch
Published online: 12 January 2014
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Abstract Conservation attention to indigenous hunting with
fire in the cerrado largely focuses on sustainability as con-
strued in scientific terms rather than according to indigenous
points of view. Towards the goal of reframing the debate in
terms more congruent with indigenous perspectives, I address
how the Xavante (A’uwẽ) view ritualized and collective hunt-
ing, including hunting with fire, as indispensable means of
acquiring gifts by which to celebrate important events, express
feelings of respect and gratitude towards others, promote
positive social values among male youth, and maintain the
group’s ethnic identity. In particular, ritualized exchanges of
game meat are necessary and culturally appropriate means of
expressing esteem for others at some of life’s most important
moments. For the Xavante, the social imperative to give and
receive gifts of meat during weddings and initiation ceremo-
nies motivates efforts to maintain the collective hunting with
fire tradition in a manner that ensures its long term environ-
mental viability.
Keywords Indigenous peoples . Fire ecology . Place based
conservation . Ethnoecology . Ceremonial life . Subsistence
economies
Introduction
Significant advances have been made in the interdisciplinary
effort to evaluate the ecological effects and conservation value
of traditional anthropogenic fire regimes. Recent research in
diverse ecoregions shows that indigenous burning is not nec-
essarily incompatible with conservation goals and may have
J. R. Welch (*)
Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rua
Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21041-210, Brazil
e-mail: welch@ensp.fiocruz.br
beneficial ecological effects in terms of biodiversity, suscep-
tibility to catastrophic fires, and productivity of culturally
desirable species (Anderson 2005; Bilbao et al. 2010; Bird
et al. 2005; Cochrane 2009; Fairhead and Leach 1996;
Falleiro 2011; Laris 2002; Ray et al. 2012; Russell-Smith
et al. 2009).
Although it has yet to be effectively integrated into conser-
vation and public policy discourse, a growing base of ecolog-
ical and ethnographic evidence similarly attests to the non-
destructiveness of burning by indigenous peoples in the
Brazilian cerrado, a highly threatened (Klink and Moreira
2002; Phalan et al. 2013) and fire adapted (Pivello 2011;
Simon et al. 2009) tropical savanna landscape. Such indige-
nous groups as the Apinayé, Kayapó, Krahô, and Xavante,
who use fire to hunt in the cerrado, are shown to have exten-
sive cultural knowledge about the effects of fire and to some-
times employ fire to bring about desirable ecological transfor-
mations (Anderson and Posey 1989; Hecht 2009; Melo and
Saito 2011; Mistry et al. 2005; Nimuendaju 1939; Welch et al.
2013b). Several local studies also suggest that indigenous
burning in the cerrado can have neutral or positive effects on
certain narrowly defined ecological measures such as biodi-
versity, species abundance, and vegetation cover, reproduc-
tion, and regeneration (Briani and Palma 2004; Leite 2007;
Prada and Marinho-Filho 2004; Villalobos 2002; Welch et al.
2013a).
Despite making important contributions with the potential
to inform conservation policy, much of the literature about
indigenous hunting with fire in the cerrado has focused on
sustainability and conservation as construed in scientific terms
rather than according to indigenous points of view, which may
not map neatly onto external ecological measures. Place based
conservation argues that local meaning and values should be
incorporated into scientific discourse in order to transform
conservation science and practice into more inclusive and
human-centered undertakings (Williams et al. 2013).
48
Towards the goal of reframing the debate about hunt-
ing with fire in the cerrado in terms more congruent
with indigenous perspectives, in this paper I address
how contemporary Xavante (A’uwẽ) perspectives of the
hunting endeavor involves sociocultural in addition to
ecological considerations. In order to do this, I approach
the subject in terms of the more inclusive and, from the
Xavante perspective, more pertinent issue of ritual and
collective hunting, the latter of which usually involves
burning cerrado vegetation to flush out game. For the
Xavante, burning is not just a subsistence or landscape
management technique. As they understand the practice,
it is also among the principal means of acquiring cul-
turally appropriate gifts by which to celebrate important
events, express feelings of respect and gratitude towards
others, promote positive social values among male
youth, and maintain the group’s ethnic identity.
Consequently, men enthusiastically participate in collec-
tive ritual hunts and use fire with attention to Xavante
principles of cultural and environmental conservation so
that the tradition will remain viable in future genera-
tions despite changing economic and ecological
conditions.
Fieldwork for this study was conducted with resi-
dents of Pimentel Barbosa and Etênhiritipá villages,
Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Reserve, Mato Grosso,
Brazil, during numerous visits between 2004 and 2013.
Members of the same population have been the focus of
anthropological studies in the past (see Coimbra et al.
2002; Flowers 1983; Graham 1995; Maybury-Lewis
1967). Today these communities are involved in heated
political struggles to regain legal access to traditional
territories outside of the current narrowly defined re-
serve limits, which has directed acute attention to the
sustainability of Xavante hunting practices, including
the use of fire (Welch et al. 2013a, b). As I argue
below, the criteria used in such evaluations should in-
clude the contributions of these practices to the repro-
duction of Xavante cultural values and social relations
in addition to their strict ecological sustainability.
I begin by briefly exploring historical evidence that
Xavante collective hunting excursions employed fire and
followed a ritualized format since before the population
migrated to its current territory west of the Rio
Araguaia, Mato Grosso State, more than two centuries
ago. Next, I explore how the Xavante use ritual hunting
as a vehicle for expressing positive social values and
sentiments among individuals and social groups. I then
describe ritual hunting practices and the use of anthro-
pogenic fire, highlighting the value men place on hunt-
ing as a forum for transmitting cultural values to youn-
ger generations. Finally, I discuss ecological knowledge
and management practices associated with collective
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
hunting with fire, which are based in contemporary
Xavante notions of cultural and resource conservation.
Early Evidence of Hunting as a Collective Ritual
Undertaking
Some of the earliest eyewitness accounts of the Xavante
people in Central Brazil describe them burning cerrado vege-
tation in conjunction with collective hunting activities. For
example, reporting on his observations during travels in 1819
along the Rio Maranhão, Goiás State, Austrian naturalist
Johannes Emanuel Pohl wrote (1951:121):
We could see grasslands on fire from afar, burned by
the Indians, who frequently abandon their villages in
the dry season and live along the river, in groups of
40 to 50 men, with women and children, and practice
a type of circular hunt. They set fire to the fields and
form a large circle in opposite direction at a conve-
nient distance. They wait for the frightened animals,
which flee the flames, and kill them with their port-
folios of arrows.
This account captures with succinct specificity the Xavante
practice of hunting with fire during trekking excursions, a
practice that was also observed by twentieth century explorers
who encountered the Xavante in their current territory in Mato
Grosso State. In the 1860s colonists living along the Rio
Araguaia reported to General Couto de Magalhães that a
column of smoke seen to the west indicated the presence of
Xavante along the Rio das Mortes, whereas columns to the
north and south indicated Avá-Canoeiro and Kayapó, respec-
tively (Magalhães 1934). Later, in July 1909, a missionary
explorer from Liverpool, England, reported observing “im-
pressive and awesome” forest fires inside Xavante territory on
the west bank of the Rio Araguaia near Ilha do Bananal (Glass
1911:31).
Providing even greater detail, Francisco Brasileiro re-
ported encountering in September 1937, during a punitive
expedition into Serra do Roncador, numerous Xavante
hunting camps amidst recently burned vegetation and un-
der skies thick with smoke near São Domingos Mountain,
along the Rio das Mortes, and at the base of the Morros
Azuis (Blue Hills), near the Rio Cristalino. The pervasive-
ness of seasonal anthropogenic burning by the Xavante is
evident in Brasileiro’s explanation (1938:104) that the
Blue Hills were so called due to:
“[…] the color caused by the dense haze that hangs over
this huge valley at this time of the year, not only reduc-
ing visibility but also distorting with its smoky color the
green of the mountain vegetation, appearing from a
distance as delicate bluish mounds”.
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
Later the same year, Willi Aureli observed, “Huge fires at
night. The Xavante illuminate the region” (1962:196). Aureli
found an explanation for their characteristic burning of the
cerrado vegetation in a comment by guide Severiano das
Neves, who explained, “Now they are travelling and, natural-
ly, very hungry… they go burning the grasslands and cerrado
to accumulate game and even eat armadillos!” (Aureli
1952:70).
Almost a decade later, on their famous expedition to the
upper Xingu River in July 1945, the Villas Boas brothers
crossed Xavante territory near the Rio das Mortes and ob-
served (Villas Boas and Villas Boas 1994:69–70):
The heat and smoke surrounded and suffocated us. […]
It was an Indian thing. […] There is no doubt that the
Xavante are numerous and occupy this whole region
[…]. The truth is that in whatever direction one looks,
and even to the horizon, there are plumes of smoke
rising to the sky for a hundred kilometers or more.
Even the briefest of these historical reports, with their
descriptions of enormous fires and thick smoke, point to
the group nature of Xavante dry-season hunting excur-
sions or treks decades before the earliest ethnographic
descriptions clarified the correspondence of Xavante
hunting and seasonal cerrado burning. However, the
earliest account by Pohl (1951), mentioned above, is
perhaps the most telling. His account of Xavante hunt-
ing with fire in circular format is unmistakable evidence
that some of the symbolic and organizational principles
distinguishing contemporary Xavante ritual hunting were
also evident in the early nineteenth century. For exam-
ple, as I report in this paper, interpersonal relations and
reciprocity are ritualized in Xavante hunting through,
among other aspects, a footrace whereby runners set
fire to the dry-season vegetation in a large circle. The
circular format of Xavante hunting fires is thus used to
express competitiveness and collaboration between kin
groups in addition to facilitate hunting by flushing game
animals into the open.
Rites, Reciprocity, and Gifts of Meat
The circulation of food between people and households is as
much a fact of daily life as a social imperative in Xavante
society. In the routine dietary economy, relatives, friends, and
neighbors visit one another, sometimes using the opportunity
to bring gifts of food or to request them from others. Whether
offered or requested, gifts are highly appreciated by their
recipients and in the future are often cited as evidence of the
giver’s generosity. Although gifts of food do not require
immediate repayment, they do create clear expectation of
49
return gestures in the future. The result of this social dynamic
of reciprocity is a constant flow of foods and other goods
between households.1
Gifts of food are also given and received in ceremonial and
ritual contexts. For example, maize loaves and wild tubers and
rhizomes are often preferred gifts at specific moments during
ceremonial parenthood rites (danhorebzu’wa), spiritual rituals
(wai’a), and rites of initiation into adulthood (danhono) (cf.
Maybury-Lewis 1967). As I discuss below, gifts of game meat
are similarly given during weddings (dabasa) and initiation
ceremonies. Whereas Xavante cultural values associate the
procurement and consumption of all wild foods and traditional
cultivars with healthfulness and cultural integrity (Welch et al.
2009), the particular foods given as ritual gifts are considered
especially beneficial. They are iconically “strengthening”
(danhiptedezé) because eating them is considered to promote
general wellbeing and procuring or producing them encour-
ages physical resistance, stimulates the transmission of knowl-
edge about the local landscape, and encourages participation
in valued social relations and ritual undertakings. The game
animals preferred as ceremonial gifts include tapir (Tapirus
terrestris L.), white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari Link),
collared peccary (Pecari tajacu L.), marsh deer (Blastocerus
dichotomus Illiger), pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus L.),
gray brocket deer (Mazama gouazoubira Fischer), red brocket
deer (Mazama americana Erxleben), and giant anteater
(Myrmecophaga tridactyla L.).
The exchange of food gifts in ritual contexts is highly
formalized and often occurs in rapid succession between
members of different social groups (Welch 2009, 2010). At
each step, the receiver of a gift passes it along to someone else
to whom he or she owes respect or a debt of gratitude. Thus,
most ceremonial gift foods are encumbered even before being
received and their possession by individuals or groups is
extremely fleeting. They are intended as and understood to
be expressions of respect, gratitude, or sentiment rather than
transfers of wealth. In these ceremonial exchanges, the
Xavante formulation of return is delayed and indirect because
gift receivers do not expect immediate return from a particular
gift receiver. Reciprocal gestures are often understood to come
from different members of the receiver’s social group some-
time in the past or future.
Weddings and ceremonies marking boys’ and girls’ pas-
sage into adulthood require the mobilization of large groups of
hunters, often most of a village’s men and sometimes partic-
ipants from other villages, because ample gifts of game meat
are considered indispensable to their realization. In the re-
mainder of this section I discuss how individuals and social
groups demonstrate mutual respect and reinforce shared social
1
Although the Xavante morality of gift giving often involves nonspecific
anticipation of return, some specialized goods and services call for
specific or immediate repayment (balanced reciprocity).
50
bonds through the ritualized giving and receiving of game
meat on ceremonial occasions. I pay particular attention to
Xavante principles of reciprocity expressed through these
presents. With purchased food now assuming greater impor-
tance in the dietary economy, these social principles are
viewed by the Xavante as among the most important reasons
to maintain the collective hunting tradition into the future.
Weddings are the most frequent ceremonial occasions for
collective hunting. Contemporary wedding hunts may last a
single day or, less frequently, occur during excursions or treks
lasting up to several weeks. Hunters from both the groom’s
and bride’s families participate, such that the initial investment
in acquiring wedding meat is a community affair rather than
the exclusive responsibility of the groom or his family.
Hunters’ motivations for joining this collective effort are
numerous, but frequently include the pleasure of participating
in a festive occasion, affectionate interest in the groom’s and
bride’s wellbeing, and the satisfaction of contributing to what
in its final instance is a distribution of game meat to the entire
community, including their own families. As I explain below,
although hunters express pride in their individual successes,
Xavante wedding hunts are more overtly expressions of
Xavante principles of collectivity and reciprocity whereby
individuals as members of social groups use gifts to express
respectful generosity to others with the expectation that they
will similarly be honored with presents.
The Xavante distinguish two types of weddings, “meat-
basket weddings” (dabasa ĩsemere) and “quick weddings”
(dabasa ĩsere). Meat-basket weddings usually entail about 1
to 3 weeks of hunting and other preparations. Whether
pertaining to the groom’s or bride’s families, each hunter
contributes to a common pool all of the large game animals
he dispatched, only retaining for his own household smaller
game animals considered inappropriate as ceremonial gifts.
After a satisfactory quantity of meat has been accumulated,
the hunting party heads back towards the village, stopping
several kilometers away to make final preparations, which
involve the groom’s father painting him with urucu (Bixa
orellana L.) and charcoal pigments and an elder man weaving
an enormous basket from fresh buriti palm fronds (Mauritia
flexuosa L.f.) for carrying the meat to the bride’s doorstep.
With the basket full of wedding meat (adabasa), the hunting
party returns to the village. There, assisted by his real and
classificatory brothers, the groom runs from the village center
towards his bride’s house while carrying the heavy basket of
meat on his back by tumpline. Arriving at the front door he
drops the heavy basket in a heap and casually walks away. At
that stage, the groom’s involvement in the wedding is
complete.
Quick weddings differ from meat-basket weddings in that
the final decision to hold them usually is made only at the
conclusion of a successful community hunt (Fig. 1). After the
bride’s and groom’s elder relatives decide that the quantity of
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
Fig. 1 Discussion at the conclusion of a successful wedding hunt re-
garding which young couples would marry that evening. Photograph by
James R. Welch, 2005
meat obtained will be well received by the bride’s parents, the
carcasses, usually whole and uncooked, are taken back to the
village.2 There, the animals are bound by their legs and slung
over the groom’s forehead to the maximum weight he can
support without the assistance of a wedding basket. He then
carries it to his bride’s doorstep in the manner described
above.
Delivery of meat by a groom and his brothers is the second
stage of wedding meat distribution, following the contribu-
tions of individual hunters to the collective pool in the field.
The groom presents this gift in his own name and as a
representative of his family in the spirit of demonstrating
respect and commitment to his parents-in-law and in the
expectation that his own kin will subsequently receive por-
tions of it back at the end of the wedding. Participants view his
gift as one among several links in a cycle of mutually respect-
ful gestures by different segments of the community for the
sake of a festive wedding event to be enjoyed by all. As
receivers of wedding meat, the bride’s family similarly never
comes to own or even possess it for more than the few
moments it takes to transfer it to the next recipient.
Accordingly, although the gift of wedding meat may signal
the groom’s willingness to contribute to the physical suste-
nance of his bride’s household, its full social significance
derives from the entire sequence of reciprocal exchanges
involving the entire community.
After delivery of the meat to the bride’s home, meat-basket
weddings and quick weddings are substantially similar. Just as
2
Through the deliberations of elder hunters at the conclusion of quick
wedding hunts it may be decided that no wedding will be held due to
insufficient quantities of meat. In this case, game meat is retrieved by
individual hunters and treated according to individual or small hunt
protocols, as described below. Alternatively, if the amount of game
exceeded expectations multiple weddings might be held on the same day.
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
the groom and his family only possess the meat momentarily,
as soon as it is deposited on their doorstep, members of the
bride’s household transport it in its entirety to the house of the
bride’s ceremonial parents (danhorebzu’wa), who are her real
or classificatory maternal uncle and his wife. This transfer to
the bride’s ceremonial parents occurs as a show of respect and
gratitude for their contributions to her upbringing, including
his present of a ceremonial necklace and her gift of maize
loaves during ceremonial events when she was a child.
At the ceremonial parents’ household, the meat is roasted,
if not done in the field, and reapportioned for distribution
throughout the community. Usually the next morning, repre-
sentatives from all households come to collect a piece. Thus,
ultimately the entire community receives gifts of wedding
meat, including members of the households of all hunters
who participated in the collective hunt. Considering the large
size of Xavante villages,3 this final disposition obviates the
need for large quantities of meat. Although some elders de-
scribe brides’ mothers’ demands for large quantities of wed-
ding meat as ever increasing in recent decades, the relay of
meat between multiple gift givers and receivers from diverse
segments of society leads to the entire community investing in
and enjoying the satisfaction of a well-apportioned distribu-
tion. In this sense, collective hunts undertaken to obtain wed-
ding meat are not only executed cooperatively but are also
strongly motivated by shared community interest in the ensu-
ing gift exchanges.
Other ceremonial occasions for collective hunting with fire
occur in conjunction with age-set initiation rites, which occur
approximately every 5 years (cf. Maybury-Lewis 1967; Welch
2009). Following different formats of gift giving than wed-
dings, they nevertheless share similar principles of reciprocity
between social groups. The first of these (uiwedezada’ra),
held about 1 year before the ceremonies begin, entails a
hunting expedition with the participation of virtually all of a
village’s men and pre-initiate boys. This hunt is sponsored by
the male mentors (danhohui’wa) of the age set that will
undergo initiation the following year, and is often cited as
the first opportunity boys have to participate in collective
hunting. It is thus considered an important educational oppor-
tunity and a chance for young men to fulfill their masculine
duty of providing game meat to their extended families. A
special form of meat sharing is practiced during this type of
expedition, whereby game yields are initially divided between
four competitive hunting teams, each comprised of men of
diverse age sets, from youth to elders. Subsequently, at the end
of the hunt, the total yield is distributed equitably between
teams so that participating youth from each team may deliver a
sizable portion to their respective households.
3 4
The Pimentel Barbosa population increased from under 300 individuals
residing in a single village in 1973 to over 1,500 in eleven villages in
2012 (Welch et al. 2013b).
51
Whereas wedding ceremonies involve gifts of meat be-
tween kin groups, this first initiation hunt is understood by
the Xavante to involve reciprocal sharing between age sets
(cohorts) and age-set moieties. These moieties are formed by
the division of society into complementary halves based on
the initiation of age sets in alternate fashion, such that adjacent
age sets belong to opposite groups (Welch 2010). Each moiety
is comprised of a continual chain of non-adjacent age sets,
each of which mentors the next youngest same-moiety cohort.
This social configuration leads to an important concept in
Xavante social life, which is alliance between alternate age
sets and rivalry between adjacent sets. During this first col-
lective initiation hunt, mentors, with the assistance of their
elder age-set moiety members, sponsor the hunt in order to
provide meat to their protégés (hö’wa nõri) as part of their
preparation to become mentors in their own right in the future.
Opposite age-set hunters also contribute in the expectation
that their own age-set moiety’s youth will receive a portion of
the meat for their own families.
Another form of ceremonial hunting occurs about
16 months later during the final stages of age-set initiation
rites. These hunts (ĩmãnãdö) are sponsored by the elder males
in charge of two ceremonial prerogatives (pahöri’wa and
tebe), which are heritable positions associated with opposite
exogamous moiety membership (poreza’õno or öwawe).4 All
of the game is acquired on behalf of these men’s young
ceremonial designates, most often their children or patrilineal
grandchildren. Four hunting teams are assembled, each of
which hunts on behalf of one of the two pahöri’wa or tebe
designates. Initially, their meat is pooled separately. At the
conclusion of the hunt, which can last weeks, each team’s
yields are assembled separately in the village plaza before
being delivered to the houses of the two ceremonial desig-
nates. At a specific moment near the conclusion of the initia-
tion ceremonies, long lines of women and men, relatives of the
ceremonial designates, carry the initiation meat and other food
gifts to a central place in the plaza, where it is distributed
equitably to representatives of all households in the village,
including each of the hunters who participated in the hunt. In
this final example, the collective hunting effort begins a series
of gifts of meat, each of which is motivated by the desire to
honor the two ceremonial delegates and carries the expecta-
tion of reciprocal gifts from the designates’ relatives during
the village-wide distribution.
Each of the ceremonial contexts discussed above involve
numerous gifts of game meat and other goods or services
between members of multiple social groups. Although these
exchanges follow highly formalized formats involving the
transfer of specific goods between determined groups or
Differently from age-set moieties, Xavante exogamous moieties are
complementary patrilineal descent groups that establish the basic distinc-
tion between consanguineal relatives and nonrelatives.
52
categories of people at precise ceremonial moments, partici-
pants view them as opportunities to express positive social
values and sentiments towards one another. For example,
hunters from throughout the community contribute game to
a groom’s wedding gift with feelings of goodwill for the
marriage party and the union of their families. Grooms deliver
meat to their brides’ households as expressions of respect for
their parents-in-law. Similarly, the bride’s family delivers the
meat to her ceremonial parents in gratitude for support and
generosity during her childhood. Finally, these ceremonial
parents distribute the meat to representatives from all house-
holds in recognition of the entire community’s contributions
to the wedding and in the hope that everyone will partake in
the event’s celebratory mood. From the Xavante point of view,
the desire to participate in such mutual expressions of kind-
ness and respect is what motivates people to undertake col-
lective hunting expeditions. Furthermore, the perspective that
expressing these sentiments through gifts of meat is necessary
for remaining an ethnically distinct society is an important
factor in the community’s desire that future generations learn
to hunt collectively in a sustainable fashion within the limited
territory now available to them.
Individual and small group hunts undertaken to acquire
meat for their own households are also esteemed by the
Xavante as venues for participating in ritualized gift ex-
changes with other community members. Just as meat from
ceremonial hunts is passed along to others in a series of
delayed and indirect gift exchanges, a large portion of the
game meat obtained during individual and small group hunts
is given to others according to highly formalized protocols. In
the next section I discuss how Xavante hunters go about both
individual or small group hunts and collective hunts, includ-
ing those that employ fire, in order to further illustrate their
ritual and social motivations. Not least among these is the
value men place on sharing meat between kin groups and
transmitting male cultural values to youth.
Ritual Hunting in Practice
Hunting (aba) occurs in a variety of formats among the
Xavante. Men may hunt alone or in small groups, often with
their sons, real and categorical brothers, or formal friends
(ĩ’amo). Individual or small group hunting is usually done
on foot or by motorcycle, and may occur in just about any
type of vegetation, from grasslands and scrubby cerrados to
gallery and dry upland forests. Whereas tracking is usually
preferred for giant anteater and tapir, deer are often sought by
stalking or waiting and peccaries by chasing and cornering.
Individual hunting also often occurs opportunistically while
walking between the village and one’s garden or travelling by
truck within the reservation.
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
Game meat from individual or small group hunts, as well as
from collective hunts without specific ceremonial purposes, is
retained for the benefit of hunters’ own households, extended
families, and neighbors. However, independently of each
man’s success during such hunts, he rarely returns home
without meat because kinship-based conventions permit him
to claim portions of other hunters’ kills. The rules for such
generalized exchanges are based on exogamous moiety mem-
bership and type of game, following the principle that the
hunter retains the best cuts of meat for himself and members
of his own moiety but must share other parts with men from
the other moiety, if requested. For example, the first men to
encounter a member of the opposite moiety after he has killed
a tapir or deer may claim the less desirable front legs, head,
ribs, and rumen. The hunter should share with his same-
moiety members the more desirable back legs, abdominal
muscles, and certain internal organs. This configuration is
somewhat different for peccaries and anteaters (Table 1).
Generally speaking, successful hunters do not volunteer to
give these gifts, even to their own moiety members, but rather
only relinquish them when a valid claim is made before the
animal has been bundled for transport. For this reason, young
hunters unfamiliar with these protocols may fail to claim meat
that is rightly theirs or relinquish meat not owed, errors usually
met with good-natured ridicule after the hunt. Additionally,
successful hunters take care to send meat to their in-laws,
including small game such as armadillos (Dasypodidae), river
turtles (Podocnemis expansa Schweigger and Podocnemis
unifilis Troschel), red-footed tortoises (Chelonoidis carbonaria
Spix), seriema (Cariama cristata L.), and coati (Nasua nasua
L.). Upon returning to the village, hunters usually deliver the
meat they killed or acquired to their mothers-in-law or wives,
who then have discretion over sharing it with members of their
own household and other relatives and neighbors.
In contrast to individual and small group hunts, collective
hunts are organized at the community level, usually for the
ceremonial purposes discussed above. When men hunt in
large groups, they may leave the village for that express
purpose or, as was more common in the past, do so while
trekking for up to several months at a time. Such excursions
are distinguished between those involving all-male hunting
parties (hömono) and those undertaken by family groups
including women and children (zömori). Today, treks lasting
a week or more are somewhat uncommon but continue to be
held for some weddings and in conjunction with age-set
initiation rites. Contemporary elders report that trekking in
the past often followed established routes between frequently
visited camping sites according to their respective seasonal
resources. Although they travelled through diverse land-
scapes, trekking parties preferred headwaters due to the great
diversity of foods and other valued resources found there.
Often, women would collect plant foods in and around these
headwaters while men would hunt in adjacent grasslands or
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59 53

Table 1 Distribution of large game meat portions during small group hunts, according to animal and exogamous moiety membership

Game animals Hunter and same-moiety members Opposite-moiety members

Tapir (Tapirus terrestris L.) and deer (Blastocerus
dichotomus Illiger, Ozotoceros bezoarticus L.,
Mazama gouazoubira Fischer, and Mazama
americana Erxleben)
Peccaries (Tayassu pecari Link, Pecari tajacu L.)
Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla L.)
• Both back legs, each with half pelvis (ĩza)
• Abdominal muscles (ĩsõwa)
• Liver (ĩpá), kidneys (ĩwatö), lungs
(ĩpawapu),
heart (ĩsire), and tripe (ĩdu)
• Both front legs with back hide (ĩpanoihö)
• Abdominal muscles (ĩsõwa)
• Liver (ĩpá), kidneys (ĩwatö), lungs
(ĩpawapu), heart (ĩsire), and tripe (ĩdu)
• One back leg with half pelvis (ĩza)
• Fetus (ĩwasã)
• Pelvis with lumbar spine (ĩ’u)
• Abdominal muscles (ĩsõwa)
• Lower third of tail (ĩbö)
• One back leg (ĩza)
• One front leg with shoulder blade (ĩpano)
• Both front legs with shoulder blades (ĩpano)
• Head with whole spine (ĩpru)
• Ribs (ĩwaihí)
• Rumen (ĩabare)
• Fetus (ĩwasã)
• Head with whole spine (ĩpru)
• Ribs with back muscle (ĩwaihí)
• One back leg with half pelvis (ĩza)
• Head with neck and thoracic spine (ĩ’rã)
• Ribs (ĩwaihí)
• One back leg (ĩza)
• One front leg with shoulder blade (ĩpano)
• Liver (ĩpá), kidneys (ĩwatö), lungs (ĩpawapu),
heart (ĩsire), and tripe (ĩdu)
• Fetus (ĩwasã)

scrublands. Seasonal family trekking permitted the exploita-
tion of varied resources throughout their territory at times
when garden production was unavailable and helped distrib-
ute human resources along the edges of the territory to combat
encroachment by non-indigenous settlers and agribusiness
(Flowers et al. 1998; Maybury-Lewis 1962).
Men reach collective hunting grounds by truck, motorcycle,
and motorboat, depending on the location, and then set out on
foot in small groups in different directions. What might easily
be mistaken for independent or fragmented behavior is in fact a
highly coordinated group effort to locate and follow signs and
position parties in strategic positions. Communication over
great distances is achieved with a complex set of vocal calls,
each with its own meaning corresponding with the type and
location of prey.
Coordination strategies during collective hunts that do not
involve burning also vary according to the physical landscape,
vegetation, and game animals sought. For example, collective
hunts targeting giant anteaters in areas of open grasslands
punctuated with small wooded murundu5 involve diligently
following tracks as they zigzag between mounds, often
looping around such that hunters walk many kilometers within
an area of just a few hectares. When a hunter gives the signal
that an animal is nearby, numerous other hunters rush to help
box it in or cut it off as it flees. In another example, hunting
tapir and other game in areas of mixed meadows and scrub
involves individual hunting parties flanking areas of dense
vegetation or riparian forest while others enter the middle to
flush animals towards them.
5 permit their transmission and reproduction between generations.
Murundu are small (1–2 meters in height) wooded mounds occurring in
annually inundated grasslands in the cerrado regions of Central Brazil
(Araujo Neto et al. 1986).
Although collective hunts may occur at any time of year,
hunting with fire (du) is limited to the drier months. In May,
when soil moisture is still quite high and tree foliage is lush,
hunting with fire is only effective in areas of open grassland.
Set in the late morning after the dew has evaporated, these
early season fires are low in temperature, spotty in coverage,
minimally damaging to foliage, and usually die out at night as
they reach obstacles such as waterways and moist vegetation
(Fig. 2). The speed of vegetation recovery after these fires is
impressive, with the lush regrowth of vegetation erasing most
visual evidence of the fire within just a few weeks.
In July through September, the cerrado landscape is extremely
dry, which permits the use of fire for hunting in thicker and taller
vegetation types, such as cerrados and dry upland forests. At that
time of year, hunting fires may not extinguish from one day to the
next. As reported by early explorers in the region (Aureli 1952;
Brasileiro 1938; Glass 1911; Villas Boas and Villas Boas 1994),
the late dry season in Xavante territory is notable for the thick pall
of smoke that hangs in the sky until the first rains and the many
fires that can be seen burning on the horizon at night. In fact, the
Xavante well understand the phenomenon of pyrocumulous
clouds, which are seeded by rising clouds of smoke and, in turn,
release what are often the first rains of the season. Most Xavante
do not consider smoldering cerrado fires resulting from well
executed collective hunts to be evidence of environmental de-
struction. From their perspective, the rapid regeneration of
burned vegetation and safety of animals not killed by hunters is
ensured through deference to elders’ knowledge of appropriate
burning techniques. Notably, such deference is understood to
occur through Xavante principles of proper social relations that
In the remainder of this section, I discuss social dimensions that
Xavante hunters consider essential to the collaborative
54
Fig. 2 Hunting party entering a patch of burning grassland in front of tall
vegetation serving as a natural fire barrier. Photograph by James R.
Welch, 2005
undertaking of hunting with fire. In the following section, I
address the traditional ecological knowledge and landscape
management measures hunters employ in order to simultaneous-
ly promote collective hunting productivity in the short term and
sustainability in the long term.
Hunting with fire follows a highly ritualized format in which
two runners from opposite exogamous moieties ignite dry
vegetation as they race in opposing semicircular paths towards
a preselected finishing place about 4 to 7 km distant (cf. Aytai
1980). With enthusiasm and an amiable spirit of competition,
participants in the race signal the complementary interdepen-
dence between their respective moieties. The winning moiety
receives no prize other than good-humored bragging rights
back in the village.
Several hunters follow along the perimeter behind their own
moiety’s runner while others enter the middle of the circle, where
they sporadically set fire to the vegetation (Fig. 3). In strong
Fig. 3 Hunter setting fire to patches of grassland during a collective hunt.
Photograph by James R. Welch, 2005
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
winds, the opposite moiety runners may instead set fire to the
vegetation following serpentine routes to produce effective burn
patterns. The result is a shifting ring of fire that burns from within
as it expands outward. From inside the fire perimeter, the land-
scape appears as a complex mosaic of patches in different stages
of combustion, from explosive fires and black scorched land to
completely unburned swaths of trees, shrubs, and fields. This
irregular and unstable burn pattern serves simultaneously to
expose game animals and direct them through clearings towards
new areas of cover.
The mechanics of coordination between spatially dispersed
hunters is much the same for collective hunting with and
without fire. With thick smoke, flames, and irregular vegeta-
tion impeding visual communication, individuals and small
groups use hunting calls to advise others of their location and
signal the presence of specific types of game animals. As in
collective hunts that do not involve burning, multiple hunters
strategically coordinate to box in and flush game towards
collaborating hunters. The important distinction when fire is
involved is that these efforts are facilitated through alterations
to the physical landscape (Fig. 4).
Xavante men consider all hunting, and especially hunting
with fire, a potentially dangerous and ineffective endeavor
when undertaken by unprepared youth. Lacking appropriate
experience and knowledge, young hunters might get burned,
injured or lost. They also might set fires where the vegetation
is too moist or has not yet recovered from previous burns,
which results in unproductive hunts and prolongs recovery
time. Similarly, youth might ignite vegetation when it is too
dry or where a lack of natural fire barriers will cause it to
escape control and wastefully burn unused hunting grounds.
For these reasons, male youth are introduced to hunting
gradually and with supervision. Pre-initiate boys and novitiate
men often remain at the base camp to collect firewood and
tend roasting fires (Fig. 5). They may also accompany their
fathers and other male elders during the hunt or venture into
the hunting grounds in small groups. However, younger boys
do so unarmed and older youth may only be permitted to carry
hunting clubs.6 More often than not, accompanying youth
pass the time fishing until they are called upon by their elders
to carry game animals back to camp. Young men also may
assume responsibility for butchering game at the end of each
day’s hunt, which is considered a complex and consequential
responsibility that should only be done with supervision or
after demonstrating mastery of Xavante standard cuts for each
type of animal.
6
The use of hunting clubs by young men derives from the traditionalist
view that hunting competence is demonstrated by outrunning game on
foot and dispatching it with blows to the head. As Willy Aureli reported,
“Extremely fast runners, overtaking a deer in the chase and striking it with
a club, the origin of their name comes precisely from this particular, since
Xavante means runner…” (1962: 128).
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
Fig. 4 Elder hunter approaching brocket deer (Mazama sp.) in burned
grassland during collective hunt with fire. Photograph by James R.
Welch, 2005
From the Xavante point of view, these constraints on youth
hunting activities do not limit their ability to acquire hunting
skills. Rather, they are considered necessary steps in the
proper education of young hunters. In this context, male youth
are expected to obediently accompany older hunters in sup-
portive roles such that they gradually acquire basic capacities,
such as knowledge of the terrain and self-sufficiency skills,
before attempting to hunt alone. This preliminary learning
stage also involves gaining respect for one’s elders and there-
by cultivating a sense of responsibility and discipline, which is
considered a prerequisite for manhood. Once young men have
learned deference for their seniors during hunts, and thereby
begun heeding their examples of behavior, the rest of the
learning process is thought to fall into place effortlessly. As
respectful young males, they are thought to faithfully emulate
experienced hunters and thereby gradually gain the expertise
necessary to safely and effectively carry weapons and pursue
game without supervision. Thus, Xavante fathers and other
Fig. 5 Novitiate men tending roasting fires during a men’s trekking
expedition. Photograph by James R. Welch, 2005
55
elder men consider collective hunts important opportunities
for sons and youth to learn the morals, behaviors, and skills
that will help them become responsible adults.
Despite elders’ desire that youth continue the hunting tradition
and participate in ritual game meat exchanges, many youth do
not exhibit interest in learning hunting skills or participating
regularly in hunts. The dilemmas young males face as they
evaluate their roles in the contemporary economy highlight the
cultural value elders place on collective hunts, specifically, as
preferred opportunities to gradually expose young males to the
social responsibilities of manhood. Collective hunting provides a
unique opportunity for elders to communicate traditional male
knowledge and social values to younger generations because,
unlike individual hunting and many other subsistence activities,
its association with weddings and initiation ceremonies uniquely
captures young men’s interest. The celebratory mood of wedding
and initiation hunts propels youth to enthusiastically join their
elders in the hunt and thereby inadvertently gain exposure to
Xavante hunting principles and etiquette.
Ecological Knowledge and Landscape Management
In the preceding sections I discussed social and ceremonial
considerations motivating why and how Xavante men participate
in ritual hunting and use fire during collective hunts. Both
individual or small group and collective hunts are esteemed ritual
events in their own right and considered indispensable means by
which individuals and groups acquire game meat to give to
others in expression of positive social values. Through this
association, hunting is also linked to Xavante notions of identity,
being considered essential to the groups’ continuation as a dis-
tinct ethnic group in the contemporary era. For these diverse
reasons, Xavante men have considerable interest in and concern
for the ongoing viability of traditional Xavante hunting practices.
Although contemporary Xavante perspectives regarding the
best criteria and practices for ensuring that ritual hunting con-
tinues into the future correspond inexactly with those recognized
by ecology and conservation science, they nevertheless explicitly
involve culturally situated conservation principles.7 Unlike the
biological sciences, Xavante notions of sustainable hunting do
not categorically distinguish between the cultural and the envi-
ronmental. In other words, they view cultural and environmental
conservation as interdependent. Just as the Xavante consider
traditional cultural values and knowledge necessary for main-
taining the integrity of local landscape resources, they also
7
One criteria for labeling indigenous subsistence practices as conserva-
tionist stipulates that they be designed to have conservation effects (Smith
and Wishnie 2000). As discussed in this section, Xavante perspectives
regarding appropriate hunting with fire explicitly prioritize the conserva-
tion of game populations and vegetation cover, goals considered inher-
ently congruent with such practical concerns as safe fires and hunting
success.
56
believe these resources are crucial for the reproduction of
Xavante cultural values and social practices. Consequently, to
understand Xavante views regarding conservation practice, it is
necessary to recall the social and ceremonial components of
hunting discussed above.
Contemporary Xavante thinking about environmental conser-
vation is intertwined with awareness of the historical need to
protect their territory and its resources from incursions by non-
indigenous agriculturalists for more than two centuries (Flowers
et al. 1998). Living elders recall that the pace of impacts by non-
indigenous settlers accelerated in the first half of the twentieth
century, finally culminating in their settlement on a greatly
reduced reserve circumscribed by ranches and farms (Coimbra
et al. 2002; Welch et al. 2013b). Mindfulness of these events
contributes to the prevalent Xavante viewpoint that their non-
indigenous neighbors present the greatest threat to local land-
scape resources and, consequently, the community’s ability to
continue such important traditions as collective hunting with fire
and ceremonies involving gifts of game meat.
Since at least the 1990s, local ranchers and journalists
(Kassu and Milanez 2010; Oliveira 2001; Ramos 2013) have
directed public attention to the presumed negative environ-
mental impacts of Xavante hunting with fire. This coupled
with exposure to national and international discourse about
concern for the environmental consequences of their hunting
activities within a small reservation raised awareness within
the Pimentel Barbosa community of the need to assess what
these impacts are, if any, and ascertain what measures might
be taken to mitigate them. As a result, they collaborated with
numerous researchers to study the ecological effects of hunt-
ing with fire and develop scientifically informed conservation
strategies (Briani and Palma 2004; Fragoso et al. 2000;
Graham 2000; Leeuwenberg and Robinson 2000; Leite
2007; Prada and Marinho-Filho 2004; Villalobos 2002;
Welch et al. 2013a). These studies found no measurable
negative environmental impacts from hunting since the early
1990s despite the community’s continually growing popula-
tion during the same period. These findings are corroborated
by Xavante elders who report that game populations have
increased substantially over the last half century, as indicated
by more abundant game signs and improved hunting success
in closer proximity to villages. Among the reasons they cite
for this trend is younger men practicing individual and small
group hunting much less frequently than in the past. Also,
they consider animal and plant populations not to be nega-
tively affected when traditional Xavante protocols for hunting
with fire are followed. As I explore below, central to their
reasoning is the belief that successful hunts—according to
Xavante criteria—are also sustainable in the long term.
Collective hunts are organized by elders during animated
conversations regarding the numerous factors that affect both
short and long-term hunting productivity. These conversations
occur in public during men’s daily council meetings (warã) on
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
multiple occasions over the course of days before each hunt,
such that important organizational decisions involve a large
number of hunters and take into account changing circum-
stances as they unfold. All mature men may contribute to
discussions about where, when, and how to hold a collective
hunt, but the opinions of some individuals are given particular
consideration by virtue of their “ownership” of proprietary
knowledge related to important factors, such as the weather
and preferred game animals (Lopes da Silva 1986; Müller
1976; Welch 2009). For example, an elder “white-lipped
peccary owner” (uhö’tede’wa) is believed to have secret means
of acquiring reliable knowledge about the locations and be-
havior of this animal and even the capacity to control its
behavior.
In contrast, young male adults rarely speak publicly during
these meetings, but their passive participation is thought to
expose them to discussions about the proper use of fire for
hunting. From the Xavante point of view, the responsible and
respectful participation by both elders and youth in planning
and executing collective hunts with fire is a prerequisite for
their success. This point should not be overlooked because it
is through their mutual participation, as well as the proper
sharing of game meat, that men believe traditional hunting
protocols will be followed and passed down to younger
generations.
Integral to hunters’ planning discussions is their cultural
knowledge of ecological effects of fire in the cerrado. Even
young hunters recognize through personal experience that
post-fire vegetative regeneration in the cerrado is rapid and
verdant. According to young Xavante hunters, the only
change often visible 1 to 2 months after a fire is an intensely
green flush of foliage in locations that had previously ap-
peared dry and spent. Elders have even more nuanced read-
ings of the landscape effects of burning, recognizing that
various plants only sprout after fires and fauna is little impacted
by well-timed fires due to their mobility and the tendency for
these fires to burn in irregular patterns with abundant escape
routes. For example, they reported that the giant anteater, the
only large mammal potentially vulnerable to being trapped and
burned during a hunting fire in the cerrado due to its slow
movement, is the first to smell smoke and relocate to safety.
Hunters also take into account the spatial distribution and
periodicity of fires (cf. Fragoso et al. 2000). As they explain, if
insufficient time has passed since a previous fire, the vegeta-
tion will not burn effectively and may be unduly stressed.
Conversely, they express that if too much time has passed,
fires burn too fast and hot, which is dangerous for hunters,
diminishes the effectiveness of the hunt, and prolongs
regeneration.
Other factors discussed in the men’s council during the
planning of collective hunts with fire include time of year,
vegetation type, ground moisture, foliage dryness, weather,
natural fire barriers, as well as the location of neighboring
Hum Ecol (2014) 42:47–59
private properties and the ritual calendar (cf. Melo 2013;
Melo and Saito 2011). As elders report, meticulously taking
into account all of these factors ensures that hunting with fire
does not result in destructively hot fires, unintentional killing
of game animals, or wasting future hunting grounds on un-
productive hunts. Thus, from the contemporary Xavante point
of view, the proper location, timing, and periodicity of burning
simultaneously promote hunting success in the short term and
landscape resource conservation in the long term.
Conclusion
In the preceding sections, I sought to identify Xavante cultural
values and perspectives regarding hunting with fire and other
ritual hunting activities, which they have practiced since ar-
riving in their current territory over two centuries ago. Central
to their viewpoint is the idea that collective hunting with fire is
done to obtain meat for social purposes as well as physical
sustenance. Ritualized exchanges of game meat between peo-
ple and groups are necessary and culturally appropriate means
of expressing esteem for others at some of life’s most impor-
tant events. Accordingly, what is typically labeled traditional
ecological knowledge is just a narrow slice of the set of
information, practices, and values the Xavante understand to
bear upon the subject of hunting with fire. Cynthia Fowler
tells us that for the Eastern Indonesian Kodi, “Marriage is
inseparable from the natural resources that are affected by
anthropogenic fires” (Fowler 2013:93). For the Xavante, the
same is also true for rites of initiation into adulthood.
The Xavante practice of collective hunting faces an enormous
hurdle of public opinion with external scrutiny calling into
question the ecological appropriateness of burning without
supporting evidence or consideration of social and cultural di-
mensions. In an article that inspired the title of the present paper,
William Balée points out the difficulty of using conservation
models to explain ritually motivated hunting practices among
the Ka’apor of Maranhão, Brazil (Balée 1985). Ascertaining and
explaining the ecological effects of ritual hunting practices,
whether Ka’apor or Xavante, can be elusive. Not least among
the difficulties is that the question of the sustainability of indig-
enous hunting practices is often framed in binary terms despite
numerous complexities arising from the modes of thinking that
motivate them and the measures used to analyze them (Lu 2005;
Shepard et al. 2012). Cognizant of these challenges, a recent
effort to develop new modeling procedures for Amazonia
showed that indigenous hunting, even with modern firearms
and under conditions of rapid population increase, is not neces-
sarily unsustainable (Shepard et al. 2012). Xavante hunting with
fire under contemporary circumstances at Pimentel Barbosa
Indigenous Reserve, including increased population density
and use of firearms, has been shown to cause negligible ecolog-
ical effects in the cerrado (Briani and Palma 2004; Leeuwenberg
57
and Robinson 2000; 2007; Prada and Marinho-Filho 2004;
Villalobos 2002; Welch et al. 2013a). These studies are an
important first step in dispelling the myth that the Xavante cause
cerrado deforestation by burning excessively.
For the Xavante, however, environmental sustainability is
not the only conservation issue involved in the recent dilemma
of hunting with fire. Considered in isolation from other fac-
tors, it misses the central issue from the Xavante point of view,
which is the importance of collective hunting, including hunt-
ing with fire, for the social, cultural, and ethnic wellbeing of
individuals as members of social groups. From their point of
view, the relevant question is how rather than whether to hunt
with fire sustainably. They see the social imperative to give
and receive gifts of meat during weddings and initiation
ceremonies as reason to maintain the collective hunting with
fire tradition in a manner that ensures its ongoing success and
environmental viability in the long term. Although Xavante
conservation principles differ from those deriving from ecol-
ogy, particularly in their attention to sociocultural factors in
addition to environmental ones, hunters have demonstrated
their interest in maintaining a dialog with conservation science
through nearly a quarter century of collaboration with re-
searchers (Briani and Palma 2004; Fragoso et al. 2000;
Graham 2000; Leeuwenberg and Robinson 2000; 2007;
Prada and Marinho-Filho 2004; Villalobos 2002; Welch et al.
2013a).
The evidence I present in this paper does not address the
question of whether Xavante hunting with fire is in fact
sustainable (but see Welch et al. 2013a). Rather, it speaks to
the positive value in Xavante society of responsible hunting
with fire and respectful giving and receiving of gifts of game
meat. It is only through attention to these indigenous perspec-
tives regarding the sociality of collective and ritual hunting
that the full importance of anthropogenic fire is evident.
Integral to Xavante cultural understanding is the opinion that
proper social values and responsible environmental practices
are complementary ideas. This is not to say that the Xavante
conservation principles I describe are “naturally” Xavante or
necessarily existed in the distant past, such as in the nineteenth
century when explorers first reported Xavante collective hunt-
ing with fire (Aureli 1952:70; Brasileiro 1938:104; Glass
1911:31; Magalhães 1934; Pohl 1951:121; Villas Boas and
Villas Boas 1994:69–70). As I discussed above, cultural and
environmental conservation thinking among the Xavante in-
volves acute awareness of contemporary non-indigenous
threats to their culture and landscape resources. This scenario
is consistent with the set of factors Flora Lu postulates en-
courage conservation awareness among indigenous peoples,
such as territorial circumscription, population increase, and
market participation (Lu 2005). As Lu argues, such transfor-
mations in indigenous societies should not be assumed to
cause incompatibility with conservation (cf. Stearman 2000),
in part because they create ripe circumstances for exchange of
58
ideas between indigenous peoples and conservation science.
Such intercultural dialog with ecologists is exactly what the
Xavante have sought in recent decades.
The contribution to cerrado conservation science and pol-
icy I suggest might result from directing additional attention to
the sociocultural aspects of Xavante ritual hunting is not
limited to potential insights into the ecology of landscape
management with fire. With over 35 % of the cerrado region
having been converted agricultural use since human use since
1960 (Klink and Moreira 2002), indigenous reserves are
among the most important mechanisms for controlling defor-
estation and conserving biodiversity (Soares-Filho et al. 2010;
Welch et al. 2013b). The indigenous peoples who live on these
lands are therefore important conservation partners whose
effective inclusion in conservation discourse and practice
depends on their place based practices, perspectives, and
values receiving honest attention by scientists and policy
makers (Bosius 1997).
Acknowledgments I am indebted to the residents of Pimentel Barbosa
and Etênhiritipá villages for what they taught me about Xavante hunting
practices. Foremost among those who guided me was the late Antônio
Ru’w ’warazu’ata, as well as Barbosa Tsidowi Wai’adzatse’, Valdo
Pari’õwá, Tsuptó Buprewem Wa’iri, Roberto Huatá Wameru Otomopá,
and Paulo Francisco Supretaprã. I also owe an enormous debt of gratitude
to all members of my age set (ẽtẽpá) and our mentoring age set (hötörã),
especially Marco Aurélio Serenho Ihi, Denoque Sadaps’o’ow , Goiano
Tserema’a, Vinícius Sidiwê Supretaprã, Ronaldo Wa’atö, Manoel
Sere’upi, and Josimar Ruru’we. This paper also benefitted from insightful
conversations with Nancy M. Flowers about her observations of Xavante
hunting in the 1970s and comments by Carlos E. A. Coimbra, Jr. Over the
years, funding was provided by the Fulbright Commission (Fulbright-
Hays DDRAF no. P022A040016), the Brazilian Research Council
(Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico –
CNPq, grants 400944/2005-7, 483483/2007-9, 403569/2008-7, 475674/
2008-1, and 500288/2009-7), the Brazilian National School of Public
Health (INOVA-ENSP program), the Ford Foundation, and the Tulane
Anthropology Graduate Fund. Approval to conduct research with human
subjects for these different projects was granted by the Brazilian National
Research Ethics Commission (CONEP), the National School of Public
Health Research Ethics Committee, and the Tulane University Institu-
tional Review Board.
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