Mércio Pereira Gomes
Encyclopedia
Mércio Pereira Gomes is a Brazil
ian anthropologist who presently (April 2010) teaches at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Fluminense Federal University
), in Niterói
, near Rio de Janeiro
. He received his Ph.D.
in Anthropology
from the University of Florida
, in 1977, under the supervision of Charles Wagley
, who at that time was considered the foremost Brazilianist
in the United States
and had done extensive fieldwork in Brazil. His dissertation was about the Tenetehara Indians of northern Brazil and in it Gomes expounded how this Indigenous
people had managed to survive almost 400 hundred years of relations with Western society
. Years later, Gomes published his first book called Os índios e o Brasil (Petrópolis, Vozes, 1988), where he hailed the survival of Brazilian Indians as the most important news in the recent history of inter-ethnic relations in that country. This book was later translated into English
by the University of Florida Presses (2000) with the title The Indians and Brazil, and received excellent reviews. Another important publication by Gomes was his book on the Tenetehara Indians called O Índio na História (Petrópolis, Vozes, 2002).
with a band of Guajá Indians, who numbered some 30 people at that time. Today they number some 120 people.
In 1991 he was invited together with three other scholars from different parts of the world by several Dutch
NGOs to carry out a research on how the Dutch people relate to the environment. The result was a report which was published under the title A Vision for the South: How Wealth Degrades the Environment (Leiden, Van Arkel, 1992). This book is considered the first to be done by non-Europeans on the views of an Europe
an society in relation to their environment.
Besides teaching in several universities in Brazil and abroad, such as Unicamp, in Campinas
, Sao Paulo
, UERJ, in Rio de Janeiro
, and Macalester College
, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Gomes has also been undersecretary of culture and education in the State of Rio de Janeiro (1991–1995) and president of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI
- National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples). As head of FUNAI between September 2003 and March 2007, Gomes left a record of organizing and promoting the demarcation of 50 new Indigenous lands, including the Trombetas-Mapuera Indigenous Land, with about 40.000 square km, besides concluding the process of demarcation and registration of some 67 new Indigenous Lands, including the much controversial Raposa Serra do Sol
Indigenous Land. Though considered a very difficult job, with critics coming from all sides, such as farmers, agribusiness
, politicians, wildcat miners, loggers, and, last but not least, anthropologists and NGOs.
One of the most important controversies was in April 2004 when the Cinta-Larga Indians attacked and killed some 29 wildcat miners.Gomes was subjected to criticism by the Brazilian media for defending the Indians on the basis that they were defending their territory. He averted the imminent possibility of a counter-attack by the more than 3,000 wildcat miners who were removed from the Cinta-Larga territory, and convinced the Brazilian government to refrain from any police action. Gomes was the head of FUNAI for the longest time ever for a civilian and particularly for an anthropologist. At the conclusion of his term he received the highest praise from the part of the Minister of Justice and from all Indians present.
The Indians response to Gomes´misinterpreted statements that they "have too much land" can be read on the Survival International
page.
Sydney Possuelo
, famous Brazilian indigenist and Director of the Department of Unknown Tribes (Departamento de Indios Isolados) at FUNAI since the early 1990s was dismissed from his position on January 24, 2006, only days after publicly criticizing the alleged statements made by Mercio Gomes that there is "too much land for very few Indians".
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian anthropologist who presently (April 2010) teaches at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (Fluminense Federal University
Fluminense Federal University
- Introduction :The Fluminense Federal University is one of the four federally funded public universities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil....
), in Niterói
Niterói
Niterói is a municipality in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeast region of Brazil. It has an estimated population of 487,327 inhabitants and an area of ², being the sixth most populous city in the state and the highest Human Development Index. Integrates the Metropolitan Region of Rio de...
, near Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. He received his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, in 1977, under the supervision of Charles Wagley
Charles Wagley
Charles Wagley was an American anthropologist and leading pioneer in the development of Brazilian anthropology. Wagley began graduate work in the 1930s at Columbia University, where he fell under the spell of Franz Boas and what later became known as the "historical particularist” mode of...
, who at that time was considered the foremost Brazilianist
Brazilianist
Brazilianist typically is a non-Brazilian scholar, usually but not exclusively from North America, who specializes in studying, researching, teaching and publishing about Brazilian history, geography, culture, politics and/or language.There is great diversity of interests amongst Brazilianists...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and had done extensive fieldwork in Brazil. His dissertation was about the Tenetehara Indians of northern Brazil and in it Gomes expounded how this Indigenous
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...
people had managed to survive almost 400 hundred years of relations with Western society
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
. Years later, Gomes published his first book called Os índios e o Brasil (Petrópolis, Vozes, 1988), where he hailed the survival of Brazilian Indians as the most important news in the recent history of inter-ethnic relations in that country. This book was later translated into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
by the University of Florida Presses (2000) with the title The Indians and Brazil, and received excellent reviews. Another important publication by Gomes was his book on the Tenetehara Indians called O Índio na História (Petrópolis, Vozes, 2002).
Career
Since 1975, Gomes has done extensive fieldwork with several Brazilian Indigenous peoples, foremost the Tenetehara, the Guajá, and the Avá-Canoeiro. During his first fieldwork research he helped defend the Tenetehara Indians in a struggle they were having with farmers who claimed to be owners of their land. Beginning in 1980 he did research with the Guajá Indians who had been contacted just 7 years previously. During that year he was responsible for making the first contactFirst contact (anthropology)
First contact is a term describing the first meeting of two cultures previously unaware of one another. One notable example of first contact is that between the Spanish and the Arawak in 1492....
with a band of Guajá Indians, who numbered some 30 people at that time. Today they number some 120 people.
In 1991 he was invited together with three other scholars from different parts of the world by several Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
NGOs to carry out a research on how the Dutch people relate to the environment. The result was a report which was published under the title A Vision for the South: How Wealth Degrades the Environment (Leiden, Van Arkel, 1992). This book is considered the first to be done by non-Europeans on the views of an Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an society in relation to their environment.
Besides teaching in several universities in Brazil and abroad, such as Unicamp, in Campinas
Campinas
Campinas is a city and municipality located in the coastal interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. is the administrative center of the meso-region of the same name, with 3,783,597 inhabitants as of the 2010 Census, consisting of 49 cities....
, Sao Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, UERJ, in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, and Macalester College
Macalester College
Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. The college is located on a campus in a historic residential neighborhood...
, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Gomes has also been undersecretary of culture and education in the State of Rio de Janeiro (1991–1995) and president of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI
Funai
Funai Electric is a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. The company was founded in 1961. It owns the subsidiary Funai Corporation, Inc., established in the United States since 1991, to market and maintain Funai-licensed brands such as Sylvania, Emerson Radio,...
- National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples). As head of FUNAI between September 2003 and March 2007, Gomes left a record of organizing and promoting the demarcation of 50 new Indigenous lands, including the Trombetas-Mapuera Indigenous Land, with about 40.000 square km, besides concluding the process of demarcation and registration of some 67 new Indigenous Lands, including the much controversial Raposa Serra do Sol
Raposa Serra Do Sol
Reserva Indígena Raposa/Serra do Sol is an Indian reservation in Brazil, intended to be home to the Macuxi people...
Indigenous Land. Though considered a very difficult job, with critics coming from all sides, such as farmers, agribusiness
Agribusiness
In agriculture, agribusiness is a generic term for the various businesses involved in food production, including farming and contract farming, seed supply, agrichemicals, farm machinery, wholesale and distribution, processing, marketing, and retail sales....
, politicians, wildcat miners, loggers, and, last but not least, anthropologists and NGOs.
One of the most important controversies was in April 2004 when the Cinta-Larga Indians attacked and killed some 29 wildcat miners.Gomes was subjected to criticism by the Brazilian media for defending the Indians on the basis that they were defending their territory. He averted the imminent possibility of a counter-attack by the more than 3,000 wildcat miners who were removed from the Cinta-Larga territory, and convinced the Brazilian government to refrain from any police action. Gomes was the head of FUNAI for the longest time ever for a civilian and particularly for an anthropologist. At the conclusion of his term he received the highest praise from the part of the Minister of Justice and from all Indians present.
Criticism
Mércio Pereira Gomes' time as head of FUNAI also had some controversial points. Critics wanted him to press on demarcating new Indian lands at a faster rate than had been done up until then. Based on an interview that Gomes gave to a Reuters report, in English, whose translation was published in the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo, in Portuguese, on January 12, 2006, where Gomes had said that the Indians had obtained extensive lands, for a total of 12.5% of the Brazilian territory, his critics misinterpreted it as the Indians had "too much land", and that caused a big stir among Indian supporters in Brazil and other parts of the world.The Indians response to Gomes´misinterpreted statements that they "have too much land" can be read on the Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
page.
Sydney Possuelo
Sydney Possuelo
Sydney Ferreira Possuelo is a Brazilian explorer, social activist and ethnographer who is considered the leading authority on Brazil's remaining isolated Indigenous Peoples....
, famous Brazilian indigenist and Director of the Department of Unknown Tribes (Departamento de Indios Isolados) at FUNAI since the early 1990s was dismissed from his position on January 24, 2006, only days after publicly criticizing the alleged statements made by Mercio Gomes that there is "too much land for very few Indians".