The Indian peoples of Brazil

What has amounted to a genocidal process of attrition dates back to the arrival of the first white men, and the abuse and killing of native Brazilians has gained fresh impetus in recent decades as Brazil has opened up its frontiers in an effort to tap the vast resources of the Amazon basin (Page 85).

The elite of Brazil et the priorities for the nation, and they have always put their own comfort and enrichment ahead of that of the native Brazilian. The Indians have had to yield in every confrontation with the forces of "progress," and the exploitation of the Brazilian rain forests in recent decades has had a devastating effect on the Indians who depend on those forests for sustenance (Page 86).

Anthropologists differentiate two main types of native Brazilians, the tropical-forest Indians who live in the rain forests of the Amazon and coastal plains and who live off agriculture and fishing, and the so-called marginal-culture Indians, nomads living in the plains and plateaus who hunted, gathered, and fished. These peoples spoke four main languages and a number of unrelated tongues when the first Portuguese settlers arrived. The natives were rather warlike and fought back as the newcomers pursued their imperial designs:

Tribal groups fought among themselves and with oth

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n people in Brazil, making this the world's sixth most populous nation. The figure compares with 93 million in 1970 and 71 million in 1960, and it also represents about one-third of the total population of Latin America. The average annual growth rate during the 1970s was 2.4 percent, reduced from 2.8 percent in the 1960s and 3.1 percent in the 1950s. The effect of a sharp decline in the birth rate has been offset by a significant rise in life expectancy and by an expanding number of women of childbearing age. It is projected that the population will pass 200 million people by the turn of the century, and growth will continue at a gradually slowing rate, eventually stabilizing by some accounts at about 300 million people. According to the census data, the population in 1980 was characterized by its youth, though a decline was noted from the 1970 census in the percentage of Brazilians under the age of 20 in the total population. There has been a particularly significant increase in female life expectancy which has been credited to the substantial reduction in deaths related to childbirth. While the population density overall stands at a relatively sparse 13 persons per square mile, the population is actually highly concentra
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Northeast South, Brazilian Indians, Country Profile, Latin America, Europe United, , Sao Paulo, Amerindians African, Portuguese Nyrop, Roman Catholic, indian population, amazon basin, brazilian society, indigenous peoples, native brazilians, portuguese settlers, eiu country profile, recent decades, 24 percent, nation world, eiu country,
Approximate Word count = 1541
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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