Josh Ethnographic post

Josh Nelson

The culture my group chose to investigate and research is the Kayapo, the Kayapo is located alongside the Xingu river in the eastern part of the amazon rainforest in brazil. The term “Kayapo” means those who look like monkeys which comes from their rituals where the men dress up in regalia and wear monkey masks. the Kayapo is a dying culture the government put a dam along the Xingu river displacing 20,000 people from their homes.  Threats to the forest home of the Kayapo has been a  huge issue with the people beginning with mining and logging enterprises which threatened to destroy the rainforest, and thus the Kayapos' way of life.

Body paint exchanged for sports wear, bear feet instead of hi tech sports shoes. in the amazon they have not been exposed to many of the sports in brazil such as soccer and baseball. Instead the children create their own games. They play a sport called Xikunahity which is similar to football/soccer, but with players crawling on the ground, only permitted to use their heads to move the ball. some groups have created their own forms of fighting. the Kayapo have their own unique style of fighting which they teach their kids from a young age. they also consider hunting to be a sport and technique to help survive and prosper as a culture and create a source of food.

with the geographical location of the Kayapo soccer is a sport most of them have heard of or played. In my research I saw a picture of a young kid with a soccer ball made out of what looked like twigs and mud standing in front of a soccer net made out of sticks with no net. soccer seems to be a sport they play and enjoy as a pass time. although it is easy for these sports to be incorporated into the culture the Kayapo are extremely concerned with conserving their culture and their way of life.

Even though the Kayapo do not have many sports that have been incorporated into their culture it stills helps with the development of the kids and helps them to have a hobby and stay active.