Ethnogenesis of an indigenous group located in central Brazil

Abstract

This text analyses the process of ethnic emergence of an indigenous group called tapuios that inhabits the Indigenous Area Carretão, located between the districts of Nova América and Rubiataba, in the state of Goiás, Brazil. This group is the outcome of a settlement policy promoted in Brazil since the beginning of the colonization in the 16th century, until early 19th century. Approximately 20 indigenous settlements were built in the state of Goiás between the years 1741 and 1872. The tapuios are descendents of four indigenous groups who were moved to the Carretão indian settlement, constructed by the royal Portuguese authorities in 1788 and deactivated at the end of the nineteenth century. Hidden in the Brazilian national scene, since the settlement was extinct, the tapuios, since the 1980s, have regained visibility by the birth of a new native group of individuals, sustained by their fight to regain their territory and to recuperate their ethnic identity, two pillars that consolidate the group.