Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.10. Xavante log race with two opposing teams formed by alternating age sets,
whose backs are decorated differently with 2 black stripes or plain red-ochre dye. Runners
raced 12 kilometers from the São José missionary village to the Idzo'uhu Village in
Sangradouro, 2002.
as the
Anorowa,
my own age group, because I had to begin the listing somewhere.
Although the system repeats itself every 40 years, the individuals that compose
each of the recurrent (alternating) age-groups are separated by two generations of 5
years each (they are 10 years apart) and relate to each other dialectically, observing
instances of proximity and of avoidance, depending on specific social contexts.
Social relations function as place values, because the individual's position within
the system - and therefore his or her status or (social) value - can only be determined
in relation to the class he or she is a part of (the alternating age-group moiety, which,
in turn, relates dialectically to the other set of alternating age-groups).
Xavante numbers are, therefore, representations of social categories that stand
for a way of bringing together a group or collection of individuals, which, in turn,
embody the Xavante nation as a whole. I would therefore suggest a basic set of ideas
and propositions that could be central to the philosophy of Xavante mathematics:
• the basic unit is two;
• a unit is formed by the union of 2 fundamental parts;
• the Xavante concept of number is an expression of the society's dialectical
worldview; and
• place value is accordingly defined by social relationships.
