ORIGIN OF FIRE: A XAVANTE SENSE OF PLACE

According to legend, the original ancestor of the Xavante people, the first human being,¹ was known as Aiwamdzú. It is said that he “came out of the earth” in the east, “by the Ȩ Wawẽ ,”² the “big water,” perhaps a reference to the Atlantic ocean. It is possible that the territory roamed by the Xavante people may have at one time extended all the way to the coast. However, shortly after the arrival of Europeans in the Sixteenth Century it seems they began moving west, by the mid-nineteenth century coming to occupy areas between the Rio das Mortes on the east and the Batovi River (one of the tributaries of the Xingu) on the west.³ This region is part of a savanna-type biome found primarily in the large plateau area of central Brazil, the largest savanna in South America (1.8 million km² ) and biologically the richest savanna in the world.

This landscape, known as the Brazilian cerrado, is sacred to the Xavante. This is the space in which their mythic tales⁴ of creation and transformation are played out. “The Origin of Fire” (Hu'u Nhib'unhama Wasu'u) is one of the most commonly told. Set within the cultural context of a conflict between a man and his brother-in-law, the brother-in-law is eventually rescued by an old Xavante man who appears in the form of a jaguar. During this mythic time, Jaguar was the only being who had fire and used the fire to cook food. The young man spent a long period of time with Jaguar and learned about fire and its use. When he is finally sent back to his village, he is instructed by Jaguar not to say anything about the fire but rather to say that the meat he carries back with him was cooked on a hot flat rock. Although promising to do as he is told, he hides a piece of charcoal in the meat he is given to take back to his people. Upon arriving back in the village someone discovers the charcoal and he eventually divulges the mystery of fire. It is decided by the people that they too must have fire.

One after another, members of the community offer themselves to go and steal the fire from Jaguar. The first says that he will go as a tapir. The next says he that he will go as the large cervo deer, and the next as the smaller pampa deer. Another said he would go as the ostrich-like emu, and still another as a paca, a large rodent. Others volunteered, each offering to take the form of a specific animal. In each case the offer was, tongue in cheek, turned down. In typical Xavante style, humor was poked at some typical characteristic of each animal thus disqualifying them for the task. The tapir would be too noisy, the large deer was said to be awkward, and the small deer always runs with its head down. The emu runs with his wings stuck way out, and the paca never ventures far from the riverbank. In the end though, a sort of relay team is agreed to and together they succeed in stealing the fire from Jaguar. “This is how it was a long time ago, when the people carried off the fire,” the story concludes. And “they sent around the coals to all the people, so that now all of them could become possessors of fire too.” As a consequence however, it is explained that because the young man did not live up to his word to keep the secret of the fire, from that day forward Jaguar will always be very mean, a enemy to humans.⁵

Anyone who has lived for a time among the Xavante people will recognize multiple layers of Xavante culture reflected in this story. The humor, poking of fun, and a kind of light-hearted dishonesty/tricking that is woven throughout the narrative is typical of the Xavante style of relating. Culturally appropriate dynamics of interaction between family members, those related by marriage, and even the adoption of a relative are also clearly present in the story.

On the other hand, in this and other Xavante stories of creation, it is clear as well that the mythic/sacred landscape on which they play out is clearly the Brazilian cerrado. All the animals in the story of the Origin of Fire, for example are not only scientifically identified fauna of the cerrado but fully recognizable in the familiar and humorous descriptions given of their appearance and behavior. The contours of the land – rivers, rocky cliffs, reference to trees but not to forest, all of this – is characteristic of the cerrado landscape as well. This land, for the Xavante, is where they emerged as  A'uwẽ, the real human beings. It is this space that their ancestors trekked, the land that sustained them as a people for centuries and perhaps millennia.

Today this traditional land of the Xavante (and other indigenous groups) is over-run with huge cattle ranches, soy fields that extend as far as the eye can see, roads, highways, and towns. Federally recognized tribal territories are continuously under pressure from outside economic interests. And the land that is left is no longer sufficient to sustain the flora and fauna of their traditional way of life. The continued existence of the cerrado biome is itself in question!

Interviewed in 2009, Cipassé Xavante, contemporary leader of the Wederã community in the western part of Xavante terrirtory raised this warning and plea: “Few people understand the Cerrado the way we (the Xavante people) do; we have a special relationship to it and care deeply for it. Really the whole world has a responsibility to the Cerrado. Climate change is happening in Brazil, Africa, and Asia. It is all connected.

“The world has always existed. Human beings were created, but the world – the water, the sky, and the land – have always existed. It is humanity who will disappear if we don't take care. This is my message. This is why it is important to support the Cerrado peoples' fight.”⁶

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1  As I explain in an earlier post, the term Xavante (pronounced Shah-vahn-tee) is a name given by early European settlers/explorers. Their own name for themselves is a’uwẽ, “the people,” or a’uwẽ uptabi, “the real or authentic people.”

2  The most comprehensive anthropological study of the Xavante culture is David Maybury-Lewis' Akwe Shavante Society. See pp. 284-292 for a brief overview of Xavante cosmology.

3  For a short account of this history, see Laura R. Graham, Performing Dreams, Second Edition. (Tucson, Arizona: Fenestra Books, 2003), 25-37.

4  I use the term myth not to suggest that the story is somehow fantastic or unbelieveable. Rather, I understand myth as narratives whose importance and truth are discovered not in a literal reading but through a creative exploration of the images and symbolism used.

5  This story with all of its rich detail is available in the Xavante language with an English translation as a downloadable PDF document at http://www-01.sil.org/americas/brasil/publcns/anthro/EnglXVLg.pdf . Accessed 07/04/2013.

6  http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/brazil/saving-cerrado. Accessed 07/04/2013 Interview by Laura R. Graham, Professor of Anthropology, University of Iowa.