| Genocide and the
pressures for de-culturation, which have marked the Rikbaktsa
post-contact history and should tend to disintegrate them
as an autonomous culture, has caused, as a reaction, a
process of socio-cultural re-arrangement. They have been
trying to make the changes brought about by contact fit
in within their traditional forms of social life, of which
the Rikbaktsa maintain the principles of social organization,
much of the ritual practices, the knowledge of nature,
of the medicinal uses of plants – in short, their
cultural heritage.
On the one hand, the fragmentation of the internal
political power and of the organization of the production
and its distribution has been a guarantee for the autonomy
of the family groups and of the individuals within the
Rikbaktsa society. On the other, however, it has been
an obstacle to undertakings that require the continuous
cooperation of larger groups within society. Thus as
a result of the multiplicity of contacts with external
agencies of various kinds and of the new tasks and activities
brought about by the increase of the contact with the
surrounding society, the Rikbaktsa created in 1995 the
Associação Indígena Rikbaktsa –
Rikbaktsa Indigenous Association – (Asirik) to
mediate the organization of those new undertakings with
their internal socio-economic structure. The Asirik
is run by a collegiate composed of members of all internal
territorial sub-groups, thus being very representative
in its general form of deliberation.
The knowledge about the problems related to
the internal organization for production and commercialization,
the direct contact with the regional market, the solutions
that were searched for and tested, were an intense learning
experience. They prepared the Rikbaktsa to a new phase
of self-organization and economic management, making
them capable of adapting the traditional socio-political
structures to forms of organization that are more adequate
to their relations with the surrounding society.
The Rikbaktsa society invests very much in
the schooling of its members, especially its new generations’.
There are some 20 schools in the villages, headed by
indigenous teachers, many of them with courses they
took outside the Rikbaktsa areas, in projects of training
of teachers promoted by the Mato Grosso State government
in the past decade. The Indians have been trying to
get involved in health assistance; until recently they
had the support of the Anchieta Mission, which offered
annually courses for the training of indigenous nurses
and practical dentists, as well as of personnel in charge
of detecting and treating malaria, which is endemic
in the region.
Currently the Rikbaktsa are diversifying their
partners, striving to develop economic, education and
health projects, with the support of both government
organs (in the local, State and federal levels) and
NGOs.
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