**7. Final considerations**

The role of both entities was initially one of guarding the physical integrity of the Xavante communities; however, that "protection" had its price of the cultural flexibilization. In order to protect themselves from armed conflicts with the expansion front landowners, those Xavante groups had to accept the confinement of the reserves, each one with its own set of rules and specific social constructions. On the one side, under the tutelage of the Salesian missionaries, the Indians were gradually deprived of their cosmology in favor of the Christian monotheism; on the other side, under the IPS guardianship, they were skilled under a nationalist manual

What the different processes of acculturation lived by the several Xavante groups had in common was the sign of work. The Indians were "stimulated" to definitely abandon the seminomadism in favor of getting skilled in any job that might contribute to building a nation or a divine work. In that way, hunting expeditions, pickups, and seasonal planting of food that served to initiate the young Xavante in the culture ceased, deeply changing not only their diet

The Indians became permanent growers, carpenters, tractor drivers, artisans, seamstresses, rendering services either to the IPS or the Salesians in exchange of a few industrialized products that little by little became daily "needs." On the other hand, they became low-skilled manpower. The end of that process would be, in a way, to convert the Xavante into lowincome citizens devoid of possession and property of lands; however, it is in that dimension

Even in the face of harsh and sudden cultural changes, the Xavante were able to maintain some practices that helped to perpetuate a feeling of belonging, creating a sensation of ethnical continuity. They maintained the communitarianism that molded and structured their lives and identities throughout generations, essentially keeping age structures, exogamous halves, performing rituals, and, mainly, dreaming of the ancestors so that the ancestral wisdom kept

On another plan, the Xavante sought to learn the Portuguese language as a means to understand not only what was being said but also to comprehend more deeply the sociocultural structures and the *waradzu's* way of thinking. Therefore, politically speaking their performance became more incisive and assertive when, through noncooperation, they were able to obtain concessions from the state as well as from the Church by playing one against the other

Thus, the Indians began to realize that their Indianness happened even if they made some concessions like tossing aside some cultural aspects, and by doing it, they were able to better understand the outside social structure and, with a gentle touch and skill mark their ethnical differences and impose (covertly) their intransigence (here understood as something that

The *A'uwe*, however, quickly grasped the symbolic value of the indigenous identity after the pacification of the *waradzu*, even though culturally altered, the ownership of that identity

would give them a concrete chance for political claims (territorial).

but also the symbolic landscape and oral tradition of knowledge transmission.

to become "brazilindians."

56 Indigenous People

on nourishing their spirits.

on ideological conflicts.

decidedly should not be changed).

that the Indian protagonism begins to appear.

Under the steamroller effect of the westernization, all seems to have been destroyed, leveled, and smashed, however, at the same time, the reefs are often submerged, sometimes resisting and ready to emerge to the surface [7]. Latouche's words are "surgical" when he lively qualifies the planet's westernization power, accomplished through the capitalist system and its economic expansion fronts. However, he is equally brilliant on his alert about the resistance inevitability.

The magmatic activity inside the inner lays of the earth is uninterrupted and silent; however, it is always in touch with the lithosphere, be it by influencing or devastating it, through quakes or volcanism. Equally unstable is the Xavante resistance because its essence is far from being outdone. Those people, like the magma, will certainly look for an escape if submitted to "rises in temperature and pressure."

These days, the reserves are either surrounded by pastures for cattle or soy plantations. Some are cut by federal or state highways, which means their ways are not for strolling anymore but for road transportation. Most of the time the houses are not placed in semi-circles, facing one another (traditional distribution of the Xavante houses); they are not made of straw either, which is not found in the reserve limits anymore.

The seeds for the subsistence plantation are not *criolas* (native seeds), that is to say they are primarily distributed by the Indian National Foundation (FUNAI, government agency that replaced the IPS) and almost no swap is made among villages. The meat that is consumed does not come from hunting activities, it is cattle actually (the same that destroyed the ancestral *cerrados*) and it is bought in the supermarkets along with the sodas, which have risen significantly the diabetes cases, and often the money comes from the elderlies' pension.

The young people still listens to stories, but the movies and soap operas that are broadcast through the TV sets of each house offer "new" perspectives. O *wai'a* (race between the clans carrying Buriti logs) still happens, but nothing calls more attention than the soccer games, be it on TV or in the field at the *warã* (center of the semicircle formed by the traditional villages where meetings of men and the elders happened to deliberate about important matters like wars or hunting). All of that however is surpassed by the attention and time devoted to Facebook).

Lastly, those same young people who have access to the youth of more consolidated capitalist centers are encouraged to marry before they are 15 years old, as a last resource to keep them in the villages and thus avoid a demographic emptying, in spite of a rise in that density. Let alone old issues like alcoholism and the use of other substances (illicit or not).

The presentation of the field collected information, mainly in the São Marcos Indigenous Land and at FUNAI may, at first, generate questioning about the nature and the success of the Xavante resistance related to cultural spoliation and territorial expropriation. However, the objective of this research still remains that of identifying changes that symbolize strategic adaptive factors which help to promote the Xavante culture, instead of stressing the pains suffered throughout the process.

Despite all those illnesses, part of those Indians have been able to graduate at public universities and have come back to teach in the villages, in their mother tongue and in Portuguese, discussing different cosmological and theological theories. There are still those who throughout the years have been elected for city, state, or federal posts, contributing to the greater autonomy of the Xavante people vis-à-vis external institutions.

Several nongovernment organizations (NGO's) have been created inside the villages to demand improvements ranging from infrastructure to water supply, garbage collection to communication, and culture devices. Many documentaries have been produced and ethnic group exchanges have happened in the Xavante lands. Some rituals still happen, and the women have conquered more space and conditions for their social and intellectual development.

Here, one intends to present the final considerations, not as a presentation of conclusions. Even so, that should not prevent the reader from reaching his own conclusions. Even because such conclusions may symbolize important reflexive instruments that are fundamental to the academic-scientific development and progress. The truth is that the Xavante pride does not lie on his being a hunter or his exhibition of warlike ferocity, but on his Xavante feeling and understanding, without being minimized.

More than that, any conclusion may contain a partiality that the author does not even perceive. In other words, any conclusion or judgment about the current Xavante modus vivendi, besides lacking a structural partiality and not embrace the whole sociocultural complexity of that people, may be irrelevant or of little contribution from the indigenous themselves point of view.

The capital, on its own need for accumulation, reduced the Xavante to a rarefied mosaic of reserves, eliminating their structure and restructuring almost all aspects of their lives, but did not annihilate them. Thus, it is possible to affirm that the capital, at a given time, had to expand its activities to areas with unexplored resources and, at the same time, had to maintain some elements of those areas, like the workforce that is, virtually, also a consuming market. As the capitalist system is dynamic and inevitably expandable, it is equally possible to say that the same reserves that were "necessary" in the past may have their importance revised in the future.

Soon, new expansion fronts will surely besiege the remnant of the Xavante land, but what is not possible to predict is what kind of resistance the Xavante will have to offer. Important is to perceive that the past changes, according to some points of view, even though they seem so negative, can in the future symbolize very important elements of dialogue between Indians and the situations presented. That being said, the so-called acculturation may truly be an element of adaptation that enabled or is enabling the Indians to deal with more complex issues that might show up in the future.

However, the wisdom of the native Americans is not in a static body of costumes but on their ability to learn and react to situations in accordance with a rationality built up throughout thousands of years mixed with a spiritual irrationality that was also created throughout thousands of years of balanced contact with the Earth and its resources.
