International Journal of Bilingual Education and

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Maintaining two worlds: the relevance of mother

tongue in Brazil's Amerindian societies

Isabel I. Murphy & Elizabeth Vencio

To cite this article: Isabel I. Murphy & Elizabeth Vencio (2009) Maintaining two worlds: the
relevance of mother tongue in Brazil's Amerindian societies, International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism, 12:4, 387-400, DOI: 10.1080/13670050802588506

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International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Vol. 12, No. 4, July 2009, 387
400

Maintaining two worlds: the relevance of mother tongue in Brazil’s

Amerindian societies
Isabel I. Murphya* and Elizabeth Venciob
a
SIL, International, Brazil Branch, Brasilia, Brazil; bJOCUM, Education, Porto Velho, Brazil
(Received 20 May 2008; accepted 29 October 2008)

This article explores mother tongue awareness among several Brazilian Amer-
indian societies in contrast with the perception of the importance of the
vernacular according to policy makers and academics. The perception of the
vernacular as important is discussed in the light of continuing debate among
Brazil’s educators concerning appropriate educational intervention within tradi-
tional societies. Two case studies are presented. One illustrates the Jarawara
people’s appropriation and use of writing in their own language, even as
academics were debating the pros and cons of literacy for an oral society. The
Jarawara incorporated writing into their culture in an unique manner, commu-
nicating with each other in ways that oral communication inhibited for cultural
reasons. The second illustrates the Xerente’s perception of their written language
as a means of cultural affirmation and resistance in opposition to the majority
culture. These two cases represent opposite poles on a continuum in the ongoing
struggle of traditional societies to find acceptance and equality in Brazil’s
multicultural mosaic. The studies reveal cultural, sociolinguistic and human
factors which must be considered by policy makers if the practical educational
needs and aspirations of minority groups are to be respected. Clearly, there are
implications for mother-tongue language issues worldwide.
Keywords: mother tongue; mother-tongue education; minority languages;
indigenous languages; balanced bilingualism; minority education

Introduction
The 259 indigenous societies of Brazil, like so many minority groups around the world,
are constantly dealing with critical issues in relation to the majority society in which
they find themselves. Critical issues for Brazil’s Amerindians include territorial
integrity and language maintenance upon which their cultural identity depends. After
that come issues of health care, language development and education, economic
alternatives and a series of factors related to their survival as societies. These critical
issues often bring the indigenous communities into conflict with the majority society
thus creating dangerous intersections. Territorial issues are the most dangerous and
attract the most attention. But other areas, while not as dangerous, create significant
challenges to both minority and majority societies. Many of Brazil’s indigenous
communities are small demographically and continue to be relatively isolated
geographically. For these reasons, questions of degree of desirable integration with

*Corresponding author. Email: isabel_murphy@sil.org

ISSN 1367-0050 print/ISSN 1747-7522 online

# 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13670050802588506
http://www.informaworld.com
388 I.I. Murphy and E. Vencio

the majority society are in constant debate, highlighting issues of cultural rights, access
to economic resources, and language and educational rights.
In this paper we focus on language and educational rights, specifically in relation
to the surviving vernacular languages. The ‘perception of the vernacular as
important’ is one of the main social contexts conducive to the vernacularization of
literacy as identified by Carrington (1997). This issue takes us directly to the
intersection between minority and majority societies. The present paper offers brief
case studies of two contrasting indigenous communities, the Jarawara and the Akwe-
Xerente, to help illustrate the sociolinguistic context in which the notion of
vernacular literacy must be considered. One main question underlies this paper:
which issues are truly relevant to vernacular literacy for Brazilian Amerindian
societies, and to whom are they relevant? On the issue of school-based programs we
suggest that there is a discrepancy between the indigenous perceptions of the
importance of the vernacular, and that of academics and policy makers in general.

General background
The Amerindian Societies of Brazil can be categorized, for the purpose of this paper, as
‘indigenous dispossessed minority peoples encapsulated within (a) modern nation
state(s)’
what Rigsby describes as ‘Fourth World’ (Carrington 1997, 85). There are, in
Brazil, an estimated 258 distinct indigenous societies with a population totaling 378,679,
or 0.2% of the national population.1 Of this number, 46 groups have a population of less
than 100, with only one society exceeding 30,000 (Bottrel 2005, 265.) One-hundred and
eighty of these groups have maintained their mother tongue, seemingly against all odds.
Fasold, using Rigsby’s terminology, would classify these as ‘Fourth World Languages,’
(Carrington 1997, 85.) Thus we have a situation where so-called ‘literate cultures’ and
‘non-literate’ cultures, many of which once existed separately (due to geographical
isolation) are now more and more frequently occupying the same geographical space, are
co-existing within the same political units and, in many cases, are interacting within the
same economic networks
but they do not share the same language.
Fourth World languages are characterized as having ‘no realistic hope of
sovereignty and as conceding that their best path forward is the use of the written
language of those who already control the institutions of the society,’ (Carrington
1997, 85). But there are mitigating factors such as political constraints on language
use; the opinions of a social elite; disparity between policies and their implementation

to name a few. We will discuss some of these factors as they relate to a few typical
cases within the Brazilian language mosaic.
Carrington proposes three main social contexts which are conducive to the
vernacularization of literacy under certain conditions. These are:

(1) shared language (where literate and non-literate members of a community

share the same language, with little dialectical differences);
(2) perception of literacy in the vernacular as important (where literate and non-
literate do not share the same language, but where at least the community
must perceive literacy in the vernacular as important); and
(3) legal status as a national language (possibly contributing to the prestige of a
vernacular language).

Interestingly, Brazil has examples of all three, but it is the second point we wish to
discuss
perception of literacy in the vernacular as important.
 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 389

First, however, a brief review of the general socio-political status of Brazil’s

Amerindian population is necessary.

Socio-political status of Brazil’s Amerindian population

Brazil’s Amerindian societies, unlike any other segment of the general population, is
subject to legislation which labels them as ‘relatively incapacitated’ and therefore
considered as minors and wards of the State. Their tutor is an appropriate
government agency, presently the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), guided
by the 1973 law entitled Estatuto do Índio, Lei 6.000 (1973). This document is
ambiguous with regard to the vernacular languages spoken by indigenous commu-
nities. On one hand, Art. 47 recommends literacy in the indigenous languages, but on
the other hand, Art. 50, declares the goal of educational intervention to be the
assimilation and integration of the societies into the national society (which
presumably could threaten the survival of the indigenous languages).
The new Brazilian Constitution of 1988, Art. 231, promoting cultural plurality
and respect for the vernacular languages, rendered the 1973 Estatuto do Índio,
unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the Estatuto remains in effect to this day.
Notwithstanding this discrepancy, the Constitution provides a strong legal base
to promote mother-tongue literacy where appropriate, and to provide bilingual and
intercultural education for traditional societies and immigrant minorities. Beyond the
Federal constitution there are other important legal documents which support
education in the mother tongue such as the National Indigenous Reference
Curriculum.

The perception of literacy in the vernacular as important

The above discussion relates to Carrington’s second social context: ‘the perception of
literacy in the vernacular as important, where literate and non-literate do not share
the same language, but where at least the community must perceive literacy in the
vernacular as important’ This also implies that for vernacular literacy to succeed,
members of the dominant society as well as indigenous communities must see the
importance of a language (or languages) they do not share. The addition to the 1988
Brazilian Constitution of a law established by the Ministry of Justice and the
Ministry of Education (Portaria Inter-ministerial N8 559, 16/04/91) states that
education and schooling for indigenous populations will be based upon a recognition
of their social organizations, customs, languages, beliefs, and traditions and upon
their own knowledge transmission processes.
This means that the highest ruling body of the dominant society is guaranteeing
ethnic minorities the right to mother-tongue literacy and education. In addition, the
country’s academic elite are supportive and participative. These two factors could,
theoretically, help to guarantee the success of literacy in the vernaculars, other
variables being equal.
In the Brazilian complex then, to assess the overall perception of literacy in the
vernacular(s), we must at least observe the attitudes of government agencies, the
academic elite and the speakers of vernacular languages. The government agencies
are bound by the Constitution, so we will begin with the attitudes of the academic
community, as this invariably influences government policy. Secondly, we consider
390 I.I. Murphy and E. Vencio

some typical indigenous perceptions of the vernacular, as reflected in two brief case
studies.

Attitudes and actions of the academic community

Almost as soon as the new Constitution appeared, federal and municipal agencies,
universities, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), anthropologists and lin-
guists entered into a flurry of activity to promote training courses and consciousness-
raising events among the indigenous populations. The institution of school and
indigenous schooling became the stage upon which most actors converged, implying
implicitly either the banking model of knowledge transmission: teachers and learners,
with the emphasis on teachers, or constructivism, with the emphasis on indigenous
researchers of cultural knowledge and tradition.

The great debates

Nearly every educational effort among indigenous communities which had been in
effect prior to the new Constitution was re-evaluated, critiqued and generally judged
to be associated with ideologies of assimilation and integration of a colonialist past,
and therefore summarily dismissed, whether or not essentially effective. Mindlin’s
overview of educational policies for indigenous societies is a typical example,
revealing a plethora of ideological questions of the period of more concern to
academics than to the indigenous people (Mindlin 2004).
New power struggles emerged and new projects were initiated, often sponsored by
competing institutions, and old questions begged new scrutiny. For example, should
the indigenous populations even have schools, since schools were a tool of the State
and therefore oppressive to the indigenous population? Which language should be
used for educational purposes, the indigenous language or the national language? If
the former, though guaranteed by the Constitution, could it not, also, become an
instrument of domination, and if the latter, would it not be an imposition which
would put at risk the survival of the indigenous language? Should oral societies even
be exposed to writing? If so, will writing jeopardize their oral tradition, their culture,
their myths, their story telling? However, if the people want to learn how to write,
should they only learn in Portuguese in order not to compromise the oral tradition?
As Grupioni warns:
The writing of indigenous languages is a complex question, and must be well thought
through with careful discussion of the implications. (Grupioni 2006)

Ladeira, in an article, ‘The significance of orality for a multicultural society’

(2006) debated these issues (and the indigenous societies waited). All the questions
raised above became the subject matter (between 1978 and 2000) of 74 theses and
dissertations, (Grupioni 2003, 197) showing the increased importance of indigenous
educational topics. In total, 53 masters’ theses and 21 doctoral dissertations on the
topic of indigenous education were defended in 25 years. Innumerous books, in a
relatively short-time period, were also published on the subject, some documenting
struggles with the various theoretical issues and many telling the stories of the
difficulties, successes and failures of pilot projects in indigenous education.
 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 391

A published volume appeared in 1995, documenting and summarizing 20 years of

research around this debate. As the author states, the bulk of the research was
produced by anthropologists, linguists and teachers ‘ . . . but the participation of the
indigenous communities in this process appears, only indirectly, in the research’
(Capacla 1995, 14). While it is recognized that the voice and written contribution of
the indigenous people would be valuable, their voice is notably absent in the majority
of publications of this era.

Cultural plurality, cultural difference or colonialism?

Other questions arose, such as the dilemma of bilingual versus multicultural education.
How could bilingualism be promoted without falling into the dilemma of transitional
bilingualism, which had been the target of vehement denouncements? As Cohn states:
The bilingual model is meant to respect the constitutional precept of respect for
indigenous language and to guarantee its maintenance. But the question of literacy in
the indigenous languages becomes a dilemma: it gives the impression that the rupture
with former models of schooling is not complete. (2005, 486)

Cohn makes it clear that the new model of differential education (‘educação
diferenciada’) developed in order to break away from the former bilingual model,
interpreted as integrationist. Differential education tries to respect the specific
cultural differences of each group, working with them to develop materials which
utilize local indigenous knowledge; which allows for indigenous participation in the
educational product, often including a re-evaluation of orthographic decisions, so
that nothing is imposed upon the societies from the outside. Cohn recognizes,
however, that putting the new model into practice continues to be a challenge for
many reasons. Not only does the indigenous picture present a multitude of ethnic
groups and cultures and languages, but the basic concept of what constitutes
‘differential education’ is in constant debate (Cohn 2005, 486).
The indigenous people, themselves, are not convinced that differential education
is to their benefit (cf. Garcia 2004, 359):
Why differentiated? Why are we less than you? Why don’t you want us to progress
(grow)? We are just as able as you to be doctors, engineers, lawyers. We master our own
knowledge within our own system; we don’t need schools for that
Amilton Tupi-
Guarani. (Ladeira 2004, 144)
In addition, indigenous schooling is inevitably and irrevocably regulated by the
federal Ministry of Education, and must conform to certain over-riding legal
requirements of the majority society, such as hours of schooling (quantity), evaluation
procedures (quality), cf. (Silva 1997). As Carrington points out, ‘The expression of the
views of the masses’ (in this case, the promoters of vernacular literacy) ‘and those of the
controlling minority may be deceptive. The truth of attitudes to the vernacular may lie
behind a façade of agitation on the one part (academic elite) and apparently
responsible official action on the other (Government)’ (Silva 1997, 86).
Clearly, throwing off the shackles of colonialism and paternalism is not easy.
D’Angelis has noted that in these last years, there have been innumerous initiatives in
the creation and recreation of schools in indigenous communities
with a strong
392 I.I. Murphy and E. Vencio

dose of colonialism in the majority of these practices. He identifies the following

beliefs as indicators of colonial practices:

. that a school is an instrument of social change;

. that the Amerindians need to become equal to the ‘whites’ (national society)
and be able to use the same instruments as the rest of society to be heard and
respected, and that the school is able to effect this transformation; and
. that ‘differential education’ must by definition promote the ethno-knowledge of
the group and even be called ‘ethno-school’ (D’Angelis 2000).

This means that an ‘ethno-school’ is an adapted school which will always be

known by a different curriculum than other national schools
a type of folklore
school thus condemning the Amerindians to stereotypical differentiation. He points
out that in the majority of cases these schools did not arise as a result of clear
thinking and planning on the part of indigenous leadership, but in most cases, as a
result of naı̈ve thinking on the part of some indigenous leaders, and as a result of a
‘redemptive’ ideology on the part of many educators (D’Angelis 2000) There was
input from representatives of indigenous societies, but often these were leaders
already bilingual (thus facilitating communication with the academic community) yet
not considered legitimate representatives by their traditional communities.
The indigenous societies, for the most part, were not meaningfully consulted
during the academic debates. The academics unilaterally decided what the main
issues were, and proceeded to address them in academic forums and in their writings.
For example, D’Angelis and Veiga (1997) present a collection of essays addressing
issues deemed by them to be the most important. These were:

. indigenous peoples and writing;

. text and reading in Indigenous schools: writing versus oral tradition; and
. limitations and possibilities for autonomy in Indigenous schools.

Arguably, these topics reveal the ideological biases of the authors rather than
issues of overriding concern to the indigenous communities. Ladeira (2004) makes a
significant contribution to this debate, lifting it from the micro level to the macro
level, challenging the Brazilian government to rethink its relations with the
indigenous population and proposing, among other things, the creation of a
National System of Education for indigenous peoples, as an integral part of the
country’s education system.

The silent input of indigenous societies

Simultaneous with this period of academic debate, many indigenous groups were
experimenting with and appropriating in their own distinct way what they felt to be
relevant to them from ‘the white man’s knowledge.’ On one end of a continuum of
resistance, we see how the Jarawara, a small, peace-loving society, appropriated
literacy, especially writing, to enhance their cultural value of harmonious relation-
ships. On the other end is the Akwe-Xerente, a larger, bellicose group, whose literacy
acquisition was a conscious mechanism of resistance to culture loss by maintaining a
(cultural) dualism and equilibrium between ‘the law/customs of the Akwe, and the
law/customs of the ‘‘white man’’’ (Guimarães 2002).
 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 393

Jarawara case study

The Jarawara appropriated literacy in the mother tongue in a unique way. An
indigenous society of fewer than 200 people, the Jarawara are a river people who live
in six communities along the banks of both the Purus River in Amazon state and the
parallel Cainã River2 (Vencio 1996, 11). They speak their own language as well as an
interior dialect of Portuguese which they learned informally through their contact
with rubber tappers and other people subsisting along the rivers. The contact
situation for the Jarawara was traumatic originally, decimating their population, but
today they live in peaceful co-existence with regional Brazilians.3
We asked a couple of Jarawara families what they thought made them different
from their regional neighbors. Their answer was simple: ‘We are the same except for
our language. We do their dance (forró) but they don’t do ours.’ They experience no
sense of inferiority or superiority in relation to their non-indigenous neighbors.
My (EV) Masters’ thesis (Vencio 1996) on the Jarawaras’ acquisition of writing,
was born in the midst of the great debates among the Brazilian academics concerning
the oral versus written issue (as well as the contentious issue of the preferred language
for literacy acquisition, the mother tongue or the other tongue).
I was working in a Jarawara community at the time, so was able to observe how
they appropriated the written word according to their own cultural style and values,
by removing writing from the context of formal schooling and simply applying it to
their daily lives, by writing notes to their friends and relatives. Writing, then, became
something the Jarawara dominated, rather than an instrument of domination, cf.
Street (1993); Besnier (1993) and Kulick and Stroud (1990).
Prior to becoming literate themselves, the Jarawara were aware of literacy for
decades, through their contacts with rubber tappers and patrons and through visits to
the local city of Labrea. They saw schools in action, but it was all in Portuguese and
did not seem accessible to them. They too, wanted a school, so when my colleague
and I arrived, we were well received (Vencio 1996, 36). Schools, for many of Brazil’s
indigenous groups, are perceived as a form of self-defense, and a means of
understanding the dominant society and relating to it on their own terms.4
Mother-tongue literacy programs began in 1989, and within four years this oral
society appropriated reading and especially writing, almost as though it were a game.
Their greatest motivation for learning to read and write was to be able to write
letters to one another. They began writing letters in 1991, when some of the newly
literate Jarawara moved from one settlement to another and maintained contact
through letters. A little later, some of the young women learned to write, which
initiated a flurry of letter writing, so that one Jarawara commented, ‘nothing stops
our letter-writing now.’
By 1995, 79 out of 150 people had become literate (51.5%) with only 10 of them
being taught, originally by my colleagues and me. Of that number, 93% were between
13 and 40 years of age (Vencio 1996, 51).
What I illustrate is that the Jarawara took control of their own learning process
according to their own informal style. The letter-writing process became their main
method of teaching literacy, done in the informal context of their houses (not a
school) and often without using the primer. The letter became the medium of
teaching, reading, and writing. Booklets which we had encouraged them to produce,
though written by native authors about subjects known to them, were of little
interest. I conclude that this is due to the impersonal nature of books. Letters, on the
394 I.I. Murphy and E. Vencio

other hand, represent a dynamic communication, promoting relationships, which is

high on the Jarawara cultural value scale.
The letter became a Jarawara cultural artifact; an open-ended didactic and
pedagogical resource manipulated by the Jarawara themselves on their own terms.
Letters, no matter who wrote them and to whom, became public property, being read
aloud to all listeners. There are, of course, secret letters, usually of the amorous
nature, which no one but the recipient may see. These must be torn up and thrown
away, or chewed up and tossed. All others can be read by everyone and seen by
everyone. The Jarawara themselves, did not perceive of their acquisition of literacy as
specifically a resistance movement. But their desire to learn Portuguese is laced with
the perception that appropriation of the dominant language is essential to their well-
being, as we can observe from the following comments:
Haowa oko yibote ota famaha ota ati boti enofa ota amake ahi yama nimanaro
yotokaya. Taitiya otaka matehe ota ati watohaboneke. Otaka metehe yama hani rawina
boneke fara otaka isikoraya fara ota atika yama hani taitiya. Manakobisa ota atika
yama hani wato me hawatohi ya, me ota yosehaboneke eka isikora amaraya. Me ota
yose haboneke yara meka isikoraya. Manakobisa taboraya heoniao me hiriniya me ati
miti me watohaboneke bisa. Manakobisa yara meniya sitatiya heoniao ya ati famaha
miti me watohaboneke bisa. Atihiwawawi, Amerira
My wife and I think like this: our children need to speak our language fluently. After
they study our language we want to put them in a non-indigenous school. We want to
send them to a Brazilian school. (Later) when they are in a meeting in our village they
will understand the people who speak their language, and when they are in a meeting in
the city, they will understand both ways of speaking. (Vencio 2006, personal
communication from the married couple, Atihwawawi e Amerira)
Another couple said something similar:
Ota ati boti enofa ota amake ahi oko yibote ota famaha ota. Torarisi e atika yama hani
watoya hiyara rawini wato tabora oneka, yama hani tani wato niya. Torarisi ota yose
habone, ota atinofa amake, sitatiya Porto Velho ya, yama hani rawinabonehe. Yama
hani rawiniya, yama hani rawini nafi watoya aora fawa niya kamahaboneke ota
taboroya. Hinaka yama ahini boné wasihaboneke. Borofesora tohahabone ota ati.
Fehemeira tohahabone ota ati nofa amake ota taboroka Jarawara mera kasoma bonehe.
Jacinto, Nemeainari
My wife and I think: we want our daughter to study in our language. When she learns
to write, she will send letters to another community and she will know how to write
stories. Then when she finishes this we would like her to go to Porto Velho city. I want
her to study the Portuguese language, arithmetic and other things. When she finishes
college, then she will come back and help our people in our village. I would like her to be
a teacher or a nurse, etc. (Vencio 2006, personal communication from the married
couple, Jacinto and Nemeainari)
In an interesting contrast to the Jarawara, the Timbira put their acquisition of
writing to a different use: they use letter writing to communicate primarily with non-
indigenous friends and patrons (Ladeira 2005, 10). Even though they were greatly
encouraged (by teachers from the majority society) to produce their own books, this
never happened. Instead writing was used for a very specific purpose: that of
communicating with Brazilian nationals, to solicit help in fulfilling their ritual
obligations.
 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 395

Ladeira expected that they would appropriate letter writing much as the Jarawara
did, to maintain contact with relatives living at a distance. Instead, the Timbira wrote
notes to Brazilian nationals within touch and sight! While the letter, for the Jarawara,
transposed spatial distance, for the Timbira, it posited spatial distance, since good
Timbira etiquette required this in the case of asking favors. (If there were a physical
distance between the solicitor and the solicited, a voice contact by phone or radio
transmitter would be used.)
In a similar way, if asking for favors, the Jarawara also make requests by means of
a written note, so that both parties may be spared the possible embarrassment of
rejection. In both cases, literacy, in the form of letter writing, was appropriated in a
cultural way for specific cultural means of communication, an important value for
indigenous people.

The Akwe-Xerente case study

According to the latest research, the Xerente, who speak a dialect of a language
belonging to the Jê linguistic family, have maintained their dialect.5 Children up to
five speak only Xerente and adults use it in all contexts of daily life, although they
also speak Portuguese fluently.
The Akwe-Xerente think of letter writing as a way of resistance and language
maintenance. Some stated purposes, according to the Xerente, for literacy in the
vernacular were:

. to (be able to) write a letter that the white man won’t understand;
. so our language won’t disappear;
. so we won’t forget our traditions;
. to maintain our language; and
. to converse in our village (Guimarães 2002, 78).

Guimarães, with years of experience in schooling and teacher training among

many indigenous societies, produced a sociolinguistic study among the Xerente,
focusing on the practice of indigenous teachers. She discovered the ineffectiveness of
schooling in Portuguese for the majority of Xerente, yet noted that the Xerente elders
continued to consider schooling in Portuguese to be essential to their survival. As
they say:

. because Portuguese is spoken more;

. because we can study outside the village;
. because we learn from the whites; and
. because we progress more, so we can defend ourselves (Guimarães 2002, 78).

By the same token, they also feel that their language is their principal ethnic
marker
a symbol of their ethnic identity as Xerente:

. If we stop speaking our language, everything will stop/finish.

. It doesn’t work for the Indian to just speak the white man’s language.
. We can lose most of our culture, but not our language.
396 I.I. Murphy and E. Vencio

. The Indian can’t quit their traditions, or their future; we have to hang on to
what is ours (Guimarães 2002, 80).

Guimarães’ study reveals that the Xerente ideal of a balanced bilingualism, by

which people could both read and write in both languages, was just that: an ideal.
The fact is that the Xerente have had more exposure to reading and writing in
Portuguese, and tend to use it more. Nevertheless, their desire for balanced
bilingualism is very strong. Considering this, Guimarães recommends that school
education create more functions for the use of L1 (Xerente) besides just the
registration of ethno-knowledge.
In fact, the Xerente need to discover that their language has the same potential
for expression as does L2 (Portuguese). Guimarães concludes that Xerente
bilingualism is diglossic, where L1 is used for predominately oral communication
and L2 is used for writing. Here, we have a situation where the vernacular is
considered important by the community, and is supported by the dominant society
(at least on the part of Government and academics) but pressures on the language
from the dominant society are perhaps too great to withstand, in spite of the best
intentions of both parts, unless the vernacular can be used beyond school and the
village.

Brief commentary on the case studies

The Jarawara and Xerente cases have commonalities and differences. In both cases
the contact situation with the dominant society has been traumatic. In both cases
education in Portuguese is seen by the indigenous groups as necessary to survival and
progress. In each case a desire has been expressed by the communities to maintain the
MT at least as an identity marker. But the Jarawara case illustrates most clearly the
importance of context and context boundaries with regard to use of the vernacular.
The formality of school may be necessary for Portuguese learning activities, but
home is the place for MT, even MT literacy. Their outlook is totally pragmatic, not
fraught with ideology and the same could be said of most if not all the indigenous
societies.
Most indigenous groups in Brazil seem to intuitively feel this way about their
mother tongue, to the extent that confusing signals may be sent when schools
appropriate ethno-knowledge within literacy activities in the MT in a routine,
formalized manner. In Brazil, at least, schooling and school buildings and routines,
are bound up in the indigenous people’s minds, with ‘outsider’ knowledge, not their
own indigenous knowledge which they access naturally through their own socializa-
tion (educational) processes (Murphy 2004). The indigenous people want to learn
what every Brazilian learns and they believe school can help them acquire this
coveted knowledge. Is this not an area which requires further reflection and a better
understanding of indigenous categories and world view? It is not that the vernacular
and vernacular materials should not be used in school but they should not be forced
into or confined to this space. Literacy in the vernacular should be as natural as
orality in the vernacular. School is probably not the best or the most natural context
for vernacular literacy for many of Brazil’s linguistic minorities.
The main counter to vernacular language loss then would appear to be in
discovering other uses and spaces for vernacular reading and writing. Mindlin, in an
extensive overview of educational policies for Brazilian indigenous societies from
 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 397

1995
2000, clearly indicates that virtually all actions promoting the use of the
vernacular, take place exclusively in the arena of schooling. She states:
In Brazil there is no concept of the use of indigenous language in the broader society, the
Indians speaking their own languages. Some indigenous languages could be used in the
judicial system, the press, the TV
these ideas should be the subject of immediate
reflection. (Mindlin 2004)

Mindlin goes on to include a list of Rights which should be accorded indigenous

people for the use of their language in a wide variety of contexts (Mindlin 2004, 114).
Orality may not be enough to preserve vernaculars. Miller, too, suggests finding ways
to use vernacular languages in the mass media, education, government services,
industry, religion, cultural events, and politics (Miller 2000). Another emerging
option is digital inclusion.

Digital inclusion
In times past, when linguistics transformed oral languages into a written form,
symbols were often chosen with reference to what was possible to type on a
typewriter. Today, with computers, those limitations have been overcome. Virtually
any language can be written with any symbols. So it is that many Brazilian
indigenous people are lining up to use available computers which are set up with
satellite dishes in many of their communities. Not only do they communicate in
Portuguese, but many of them are communicating in the vernacular with linguists,
anthropologists, and their own peers.
In one formerly isolated community at least 20 people regularly vie for the use of
five available computers to chat on Microsoft Instant Messenger. One linguist stated
that the use of Instant Messenger serves to enhance linguistic awareness of the
vernacular, as users are forced to consider word break and spelling issues as they go
along. This causes them to consult and discuss with each other, and over time,
‘experts’ in the written form emerge and linguistic rules and devices become more
regulated.
The tendency for those who have recently begun writing in their language, is to
express a word as it sounds, orally, which often means the full form is not recognized.
Yet older members of the community are aware of the full form and as a result, the
younger computer-literate members of the community become aware, through
consultation with the ‘experts,’ that there are standard forms based on thorough
linguistic analysis. When they are using Instant Messenger they often receive instant
feedback. This tends to create an interest in their language, as they discover it too has
grammatical forms, standards, long forms, abbreviated forms, etc. i.e. it is a REAL
language. The Internet is also a place where indigenous communities can create their
own websites, thus propagating their language and culture through writing stories
(with translations in Portuguese), by making texts in their language available for
research, and many other creative endeavors.

Conclusion
Many more examples could be given to illustrate the silent input and reflections of
the indigenous peoples as they relate (or do not relate) to the concerns of the
academics and others about the critical (to them) issues of vernacular literacy in the
398 I.I. Murphy and E. Vencio

dangerous (to them) intersection between their world and the world of the ‘white
man.’ The most critical issue would now seem to be that well-meaning activists
should pause long enough in the mad rush to provide schooling in the indigenous
languages, and listen to what is really relevant to the speakers of these languages. At
the moment the disparity between the two ‘perceptions of the vernacular as
important’ (indigenous and academic) is very great. It should be possible, however,
to actually enter into a process of dialogue where the opinion of the indigenous
people is given the same weight (at least) as the opinion of outside experts.
The Jarawara have shown us that literacy in the vernacular is not an imposition
from the outside, but an extension of the vernacular into another medium, where it
can be used for communication in distinctly cultural ways. Literacy in the vernacular,
in the case of minority societies, must be balanced with literacy in the national
language, as the Xerente clearly shows. One need not displace the other. This reflects
an indigenous ideal and desire, and school is one part of the solution, but not the
whole solution. The interests of the Amerindians are generally pragmatic rather than
ideological. It may be that literacy in the vernacular will fulfill different functions
than previous norms. Vernacularization, according to Carrington, should not merely
be an adoption of literacy in whatever form literacy is normally understood. Rather
it ought to ‘transcend these limitations and empower the receiving culture to decide
its own agenda, assigning importance to functions that may be different from those
in the vector culture’ (Carrington 1997, 84).
May pragmatism prevail for the good of Brazil’s indigenous societies.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank two Jarawara couples, Atihwawawi and Amerira and Jacinto and
Nemeainari for their contributions to this paper.

Notes
1. A much higher figure is recorded by the national census (IBGE) of 730,000, or 4% of the
population (Programa de Governo Lula Presidente 2006 Unpublished preliminary
document of the (at that time) incoming government of President Lula (Luis Inácio da
Silva)). This figure possibly includes urban Amerindians.
2. The Jarawara ancestral land (about 383.757 hectares) was surveyed and demarcated in
1991. The Jarawara language is classified by Aryon Rodrigues as belonging to the Arawá
linguistic family which also includes the Yamamadi, Banawá-Jafi, Deni e Kulina
(Rodrigues 1986, 21). Dixon and Vogel classify it as a dialect of the Madi language
which they consider part of the Arawá family, including also Paumari and Suruwaha.
3. Contact was made as early as 1845, according to early explorers, when the Jarawara were
recruited for manual labor. Initially, they fled into the interior in order to escape the cruel
imposition. With the rubber boom came people from the northeast and violent conflicts
with the indigenous populations were frequent. Over time the relations settled into the
patron system of labor, which is basically in effect to this day. As Vencio notes the Jarawara
could have fled, or resisted to the death, but they chose to pursue a peaceful coexistence
with their neighbors because friendly relationships is one of their strong cultural values.
4. Along with other inhabitants of the region, the Jarawara entered into the system of debt
peonage as river boats, loaded with goods, came and went. Other changes also occurred
due to contact: house styles, shotguns instead of bows and arrows and other economic
changes such as the substitution of Jarawara clay utensils for aluminum pots and pans, etc.
but they also retained their own customs, especially the female puberty rites.
 International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 399

5. The Xerente communities are located in the brush lands of the State of Tocantins, to the
east of the Tocantins River, 70 kilometers to the north of the capitol city, Palmas. The
Xerente presently have a population of nearly 1800 people distributed in 33 villages
(Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

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