The Yawalapiti tribe was one of the first to arrive in Brazil. The tribe resides in the Xingu reserve, a natural park inhabited 7,500 indigenous people from varying ethnic groups. This tribe is the sole speaker of an indigenous Brazilian language: the Yawalapiti language. Today, only 250 members of the tribe remain, and that number continues to dwindle. As COVID-19 takes away elder members of the tribe, the language is looming closer and closer to extinction with every passing day. Chief Aritana Yawalapiti recently passed away after catching the virus, which was a devastating loss for the community. Indigenous elders are more susceptible to the virus as a result to a lack of immunity towards foreign diseases. Their remote locations, while sacred, lack suitable healthcare. This tragedy is mirrored throughout tribes in Brazil, as is the loss of language. As they go, so do valuable traditions and thousands of years of oral history, lost forever.
I thought this article really highlighted not only what’s going on in Brazil, but also around the world. These indigenous groups live mostly separated from the rest of society, but when they contract the virus they suffer the most. Not only do these tribes contain many elders, but they’re more at risk than others due to lack of exposure to most diseases as result of their isolation. This is going on in the U.S. too, where Native Americans are contracting COVID-19 at disproportionate rates. The loss of language resulting from this also comes with a loss of culture, and these tribes’ numbers have already been steadily declining so the impact of the pandemic is even greater. Many tribes pass down history orally, and without this their stories could be lost forever. These coming months as well as the younger generations of these indigenous groups will determine if the Yawalapiti language survives.
This issue relates to what we’ve discussed in class with the constructivist theory. By looking at the actions of the Yawalapiti tribe from a constructivist perspectivist as actors, more focus is put on their values and traditions. Although they could retain better medical care through integrating into society, their identities are essential to them and it is important that they preserve them. This also ties into the preservation of the Yawalapiti language, as language is said to be tied to identity. If their language is lost, then so is their identity and many aspects of Yawalapiti culture, overall dictating their behavior. This also relates to how many indigenous groups in Brazil are isolated in the Xingu reserve, due to a separation from the rest of the country as a result of differing identities.