Akuntsu People
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The Akuntsu (also known as Akunt'su or Akunsu) are an
indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
of
Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...
,
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
. Their land is part of the
Rio Omerê Indigenous Territory The Rio Omerê Indigenous Territory is an indigenous territory for isolated indigenous peoples in Rondônia, Brazil. The territory consists of 26,000 hectares of forest on the Omerê River and is home to the Kanoê The Kanoê (also as the Can ...
, a small indigenous territory which is also inhabited by a group of
Kanoê The Kanoê (also as the Canoe, Kapixaná and Kapixanã) are an indigenous people of southern Rondônia, Brazil, near the Bolivian border. There are two major groups of Kanoê: one residing in the region of the Guaporé River and another in the R ...
. The Akuntsu were victims of a
massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
perpetrated by Brazilian cattle ranchers in the 1980s and currently number just three individuals. It is unlikely that the Akuntsu language or culture will survive after their deaths, leading several observers to describe them as victims of
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
.


Culture

The Akuntsu are primarily
hunter-gatherers A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially w ...
, but supplement their diet with some
swidden agriculture Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The ...
. Game is particularly abundant in their reserve because it acts as a refuge for animals whose habitats have been destroyed by deforestation in the surrounding area. The Akuntsu have a typical
material culture Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The fie ...
for the region and practice various
shamanic Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spiri ...
rituals. The Akuntsu language is spoken only by members of the tribe and not fully understood by any outsider. It belongs to the Tuparí language family."Akuntsu: Introduction."
''Povos Indígenas no Brasil.'' Retrieved 16 Feb 2012.


Pre-contact history

The Akuntsu are considered an " isolated tribe" by the Brazilian government, having only recently come into contact with global state societies. They were not officially contacted by the '' Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas'' (FUNAI) until 1995. The word Akuntsu is an
exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...
applied to the tribe by the
Kanoê The Kanoê (also as the Canoe, Kapixaná and Kapixanã) are an indigenous people of southern Rondônia, Brazil, near the Bolivian border. There are two major groups of Kanoê: one residing in the region of the Guaporé River and another in the R ...
, who were contacted shortly before the Akuntsu, meaning roughly "other Indians". The nearby Tupari are also recorded as knowing of a group called the 'Akontsu' or 'Wakontsón' whom they had never visited. In both cases, the Akuntsu had a reputation for being "dangerous" and seemingly had little contact with neighbouring indigenous peoples. In an incident that took place some time before 1996, a Kanoê family, the sole survivors of a massacre, attempted to contact the Akuntsu to find marriage partners. The Akuntsu resisted these overtures and in the conflict that followed a Kanoê woman was killed by the Akuntsu. Although one of the Kanoê did become pregnant by an Akuntsu man, tensions continued and the Kanoê eventually moved away from the Akuntsu at the suggestion of FUNAI workers. Before official contact, the Akuntsu had violent confrontations with
colonists A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...
, loggers and cattle ranchers who began entering their land in the 1970s, after the construction of a highway. The seven survivors encountered in 1995 reported an attack by armed cattle ranchers some time around 1990, in which the majority of the tribe was killed. Several of the survivors possessed scars and bullets lodged in their body. FUNAI had previously discovered the site of the massacre: an Akuntsu village, home to around 30 people, which had been bulldozed in an attempt to cover up the evidence. At least fifteen were killed in this attack, which is thought to have been motivated by the knowledge that if the Akuntsu were officially contacted the forest would be declared an indigenous reserve and closed off to logging and cattle ranching.


Post-contact history

A FUNAI team had been attempting to make contact with isolated indigenous groups in
Corumbiara Corumbiara is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the wes ...
since 1985, following reports made the previous year. Farmers in the area, however, consistently denied the presence of any indigenous people in the area and FUNAI issued the opinion that if uncontacted tribes had been there, they had since moved on. In December 1986, a state interdiction on the area that had been put in place for FUNAI to conduct its search was lifted and farmers, cattle ranchers and loggers were able to resume legal expansion into the forest. The leader of the FUNAI team, however, continued searching and in 1995 encountered the Kanoê who in turn informed them of the Akuntsu. When an expedition finally made official contact with the Akuntsu in October of that year the tribe numbered seven: two men, three adult women and two young girls. The 26,000 hectare
Igarapé Omerê Indigenous Territory Igarapé is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte. In 2020 the estimated population was 43,817. See also * Li ...
was created for the Akuntsu and Kanoê, but the area of protected forest is still threatened by loggers and cattle ranchers which FUNAI have been unable to eject. In January 2000, the youngest girl died when a tree fell on her father's house during a storm. In October 2009, the oldest member of the group, Ururú, died. In 2016, the shaman and chieftain of the Akunstu, Konibu, died in his sleep, bringing the remaining population down to three. It is considered unlikely that the Akuntsu language or culture will survive following the deaths of the tribe's remaining members. For this reason several observers have described the tribe as the victims of
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
. The neighbouring Kanoê have been similarly reduced in number through contact with settlers, as were the people of the so-called
Man of the Hole The Man of the Hole ( – ), or the Tanaru Indian, was an Indigenous person who lived alone in the Amazon rainforest in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. He was the sole inhabitant of the Tanaru Indigenous Territory, a protected Indigenous t ...
, an individual living alone in the Igarapé Omerê reserve who was believed the sole survivor of his tribe.


See also

* Awá (Brazil) * Genocide of indigenous peoples in Brazil * Indigenous rights *
Survival International Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969, a London based charity that campaigns for the collective rights of Indigenous, tribal and uncontacted peoples. The organisation's campaigns generally focus on tribal people ...


References


External links


Akuntsu - Survival International
{{authority control Indigenous peoples in Brazil Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Genocide of Indigenous peoples of South America Uncontacted peoples in the Amazon