When the
Portuguese arrived in South America in the 16th century,
Brazil was inhabited by an estimated 2.4 million
Amerindians, of more than 2,000 nations and tribes. Massacres, slavery and diseases brought by the Europeans have drastically reduced their number, so that today of the 200 million Brazilians, only about 817.000 classified themselves as indigenous (0.4%). Among these are the
Xingu peoples, who live near the river with the same name, a tributary of the
Amazon River. The Upper Xingu was heavily populated prior to European contact, but in 1950s only about 500 Xingu peoples were alive. The
Villas-Bôas brothers visited the area beginning in 1946 and pushed for creating the
Xingu National Park, which was established in 1961. The number of Xingu living here in 32 settlements has risen again to today over 3000 inhabitants, half of them younger than 15 years.
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