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The present Rikbaktsa population is a little
more than 900 individuals. An estimate based on the
size and the number of villages counted by the Jesuit
missions sent to “pacify” them indicated a
population of some 1,300 in the end of the 1950s. Diseases
brought by the initial contacts reduced that number
significantly.
Between the time of the first contacts and 1969,
the number of Rikbaktsa was reduced by 75%. In the 1970s,
however, there was a slight recovery, attributed to
the protective intermediation of the Missão Anchieta
(MIA). This mission, while exerting strong pressure
towards the acculturation of the Rikbaktsa, at the same
time provided them with the minimum conditions for the
recovery of their population following the high post-contact
mortality.
In 1985, according to a survey by the Jesuit
Mission, the Rikbaktsa population had risen to 511 people,
of which 153 had been born before contact and 357 after
it. As soon as the epidemics were controlled and food
production went back to normal, the Rikbaktsa continued
to grow at a very fast pace, as the table below shows:
|
Year
|
Population
|
%
|
Source
|
|
1957
|
1,300
|
-----------
|
(personal est.)
|
|
1969
|
300
|
- 77 %
|
(MIA/SIL)
|
|
1979
|
380
|
+ 26 %
|
(MIA/HAHN)
|
|
1984
|
466
|
+ 22.6 %
|
(MIA)
|
|
1985
|
511
|
+ 9.65 %
|
(MIA)
|
|
1986
|
514
|
+ 0.58 %
|
(MIA)
|
|
1987
|
520
|
+ 1.16 %
|
(MIA)
|
|
1989
|
573
|
+ 10.19 %
|
(MIA)
|
|
1993
|
700
|
+ 22.16 %
|
(MIA)
|
|
1995
|
905
|
+ 29.29 %
|
(MIA/ASIRIK)
|
|
1997
|
950
|
+ 4.97 %
|
(MIA/ASIRIK)
|
|
1998
|
1,025
|
+ 7.89 %
|
(ASIRIK)
|
The drop in growth rates between 1985 and 1987
seems to be due to a combination of higher mortality
rates and low birth rates. This may be attributed, at
least in part, to the turbulent period of struggle for
the recognition of the Japuíra as an indigenous
area, when food production diminished and health services
became inadequate.
After 1987, when they already had the possession
over the Japuíra guaranteed, as well as access
to more resources and could hope for a more promising
future – and, last but not least, both the MIA
and the Funai (the official organ for the Indians in
Brazil) were concerned more concretely with the health
services in the area –, the Rikbaktsa population
resumed its trend towards high growth rates.
Tuberculosis and other respiratory diseases,
as well as deaths caused by malaria, continue to occur.
However, since these illnesses seem to be relatively
under control, it is possible to expect the maintenance
of those high population growth rates in the future.
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