Even before sunrise, along the beaches of the rivers and lakes of Xingu Indigenous Park in the Brazilian Amazon, a series of bonfires appear on the horizon to warm the naked bodies that have just emerged from the water. As the light brightens the day, a haze rises, diluting the movement of figures in a […]
When the chief dies, the endangered Indigenous people in Brazil's Xingu region gather for a unique ritual. A Reuters photographer was the only journalist invited to the funeral ceremony in September.
When a big chief dies on the Xingu indigenous reservation, its tribes gather for a unique funeral ritual called the Kuarup. Wearing body paint and bird feathers, they join in ceremonial dances, combat and feasts to celebrate life, death and rebirth.
By Ueslei Marcelino XINGU INDIGENOUS PARK, Brazil (Reuters) - When a big chief dies on the Xingu indigenous reservation, its tribes gather for a unique funeral ritual called the Kuarup. Wearing body paint and bird feathers, they join in ceremonial dances, combat and feasts to celebrate life, death and rebirth. The loss of Chief Aritana of the Yawalapiti people to COVID-19 in August has shaken the Xingu, leaving its tribes without a strong leader and able negotiator to unite them against mounting pressures on Brazil s agricultural frontier, which has advanced across the Cerrado savanna and into the Amazon rainforest. Besieged by illegal loggers, cattle ranchers, soy farmers and even gold miners, the Xingu communities face growing degradation of their natural habitat and the challenge of preserving its rich biodiversity for future generations, says Aritana s son and likely successor, Tapi Yawalapiti. We are not united today. The Xingu no longer has someone who can organize all the chiefs