Prostitution Comes to the Indigenous Amazon
Dimenstein, Gilberto
The Yanomami, intrigued by his green eyes, watched him. They were afraid, A thinking that he was an apparition After all, they had never seen a man Yan with green eyes. With time, they grew wom...
...I had the opportunity to interview old the former cacique Raiaou, who lives mami in the indigenous reserve of So iY ~Louren)o, in the municipality of Assis i asked Brazil...
...These people had met only men-soldiers and garimpeiros-who rep- resented invasion and illness...
...The tribe had even stopped growing crops and were in need of food...
...They carry rum with them to pay the women...
...Marcos is currently working with the tribes of the upper Purus region in Acre...
...The deal was struck...
...But after Marcos, with his green eyes, thousands of men arrived with their dredges, revolvers and mercury...
...For a number of months, Marcos lived any with this tribe, learning their customs which had not yet been tainted by "civi- wo lization...
...Raiaou, who spoke in the Jam- inaut language which a local guide uestion, translated for me, admitted to having been the victim of this rum intro- h was duced by the marreteiros...
...I must protect my soldiers because they cannot respond to all these longings...
...Sex, so natural in the bosom of the community, had become a product with an exchange value...
...An old woman asked him a question, which was strange at first glance: "Aren't there any white women...
...Hunting, fishing and agricultural production provided enough for all...
...Marcos noted the appearance of various illnesses, among them gonorrhea...
...One day, ft one of the men asked to sleep with at fit his daughter in exchange for 12 bott there tles...
...The health of the tribe had deteriorated...
...A number of them had other interests: women offered themselves to him in exchange for gifts...
...There, he has also noted the sexual abuse of indigenous women and children-especially by the marreteiros, hawkers who travel by boat selling their wares...
...The reporters were caught off-guard when the girls insistently offered their bodies in exchange for a little food or money...
...In the city, you hear people say that the Indian girls like it...
...The doctor and anthropolo- gist Antonio Maria de Souza, a researcher at the Emilio-Goeldi museum in BelCm, has gathered dozens of testimonies of the "general"-a sort of gang rape on indigenous girls that the soldiers engage in...
...It was a harmonious societywithout epidemics or hunger...
...A team of television reporters approached a family to ask for an interview...
...Green eyes and blonde hair no longer impressed the Yanomami...
...in 1991, Marcos, now a doctor at the National Health Foundation and the Indligenista Missionary Council (CIMI), returned to visit this tribe...
...Marcos Pellegrini, who, in 1986, was the first white man to him a come in contact with a tribe of Yanomami Indians from the Moxafe region in Whi Roraima...
...He said the phrase "son of a bitch" not in JaminauA, but in Portuguese...
...To get there, Marcos under- took a week-long journey, three days of Strang which were on foot in the heart of the "Are jungle...
...During my stay in Rio Branco, I discovered vari- ous Jaminau6 families wandering around the city...
...With time, they grew wom accustomed to Dr...
...The old cacique had no complaint until the Nhite men asked for his wife...
...Afterwards, he understood...
...Not only the marreteiros, but also the soldiers scattered among the different garrisons of the Amazon are responsible for the attacks against women and children...
...It is the Indian women who try to rape my soldiers when they are in heat," he says...
...It was the invasion of the garimpeiros in search of gold...
...These rapes occurred innumerable times despite the punishment of some aggressors...
...In this way, prostitution made its appearance in the tribe: sex was paid for with rum, medicine, clothes and food...
...They were not accompanied by their wives, and took advantage of the indigenous women...
...They would take her to a deserted place and force her to do 'the general.' In other words, they would gang-rape her...
...Then, I said: 'Respect me, you son en...
...of a bitch,"' Raiaou recounted, repeating the gesture he had made with his arm...
...The commander of the Fifth Special Borders Bat- talion of the Army of S5o Gabriel da Cachoeira, Colonel Francisco Abrio, does not appreciate the accusations against his soldiers...
...it was common practice until very recently for a group of men-in general off-duty recruits-to catch an Indian, often a young one," Ant6nio says...
Vol. 27 • May 1994 • No. 6
