The Xikrin: Indigenous Life in a Changing Amazon

Deep within the verdant tangles of the Brazilian Amazon near the mighty Xingu River live the Xikrin, a river-faring indigenous people who depend largely on the jungle and river system for their livelihood. Experts of their terrain, the Xikrin have adapted to the harsh realities of life in the Amazon, creating an oasis of human comfort in circular villages on the banks of the Bacajá River. Just a few miles away, however, rises the megalithic Belo Monte Dam, the third-largest dam in the world and Brazil's largest-ever infrastructure project. As the dam threatens to displace more than 20,000 people and to severely impact the river and surrounding forest, what will this mean for local people like the Xikrin, whose lives depend on the environment? The Vanishing Cultures Project went to the Amazon to document the Xikrin's lifestyle, deeply embedded in traditional hunting-and-gathering practices. Recording the legends and lore of how the Xikrin's ancestors came to live in harmony with the land around them, and capturing the first-hand accounts of Xikrin villagers, this book reflects the scenes, traditions, and stories of the Xikrin before the Belo Monte Dam alters the natural and cultural environment forever.