DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232018247.23442017
Homicídios indígenas no Brasil: mapeamento e análise de dados
secundários (2010 a 2014)
Clóvis Wanzinack (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1859-763X) 1
Marcos Claudio Signorelli (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0677-0121) 2
Silvia Shimakura (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5468-2516) 3
Pedro Paulo Gomes Pereira (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0298-2138) 4
Mauricio Polidoro (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7278-0718) 5
Lilian Blanck de Oliveira (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3755-6630) 6
Clóvis Reis (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8131-9229) 6
1
Curso de Administração
Pública, Universidade
Federal do Paraná. R.
Jaguariaíva 512/06,
Balneário Caiobá. 83260000 Matinhos PR Brasil.
cloviswa@gmail.com
2
Câmara de Saúde Coletiva,
Universidade Federal do
Paraná. Matinhos PR
Brasil.
3
Setor de Ciências Exatas,
Universidade Federal do
Paraná. Curitiba PR Brasil.
4
Escola Paulista de
Medicina, Universidade
Federal de São Paulo. São
Paulo SP Brasil.
5
Instituto Federal de
Educação, Ciência e
Tecnologia do Rio Grande
do Sul. Porto Alegre RS
Brasil.
6
Centro de Ciências da
Educação, Universidade
Regional de Blumenau.
Blumenau SC Brasil.
Abstract This study aimed to describe a panorama of Indigenous homicide in Brazil, analysing
the main characteristics and territorial distribution between 2010 and 2014. Demographic study
of Indigenous population data obtained from the
Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
and Indigenous homicide data (2010-2014) from
the Ministry of Health. Data were analysed using
descriptive statistics, victims’ characteristics, type
of homicides and geographical distribution, which
were then plotted on maps using ArcGIS. Findings revealed: 1) a national estimated average of
Indigenous homicide rate of 22.5 per 100,000 Indigenous inhabitants per year; 2) a map showing
where homicides were registered and the mean
homicide rates for Brazilian regions and states,
with highest rates in Roraima and Mato Grosso
do Sul; 3) the main homicide method were sharp
or penetrating objects; 4) Indigenous male homicide rate was 2.4 times higher than female, but
Indigenous female rate was more than double
that of non-Indigenous; 5) high homicide rates of
Indigenous children (under 1-year-old) in areas
of the states of Roraima and Amazonas. We advise careful consideration of Indigenous cultural
beliefs to avoid errors of judgement, reflecting how
Indigenous populations are at risk of homicide in
some areas.
Key words Indigenous population, Homicide,
Health of Indigenous peoples, Brazil, violence
Resumo Objetivou-se descrever um panorama
dos homicídios indígenas no Brasil, analisando
suas características e distribuição territorial entre
2010 e 2014. Estudo demográfico com dados da
população indígena (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) e homicídios indígenas (Ministério da Saúde). Os dados foram analisados
utilizando estatística descritiva, estabelecendo características das vítimas, tipos de homicídio e distribuição geográfica, que foram então plotados em
mapas usando ArcGIS. Os resultados revelaram:
1) uma média nacional de homicídios indígenas
de 22,5 por 100.000 habitantes indígenas por ano;
2) um mapa de ocorrência dos homicídios e as taxas médias para regiões e estados brasileiros, com
as maiores taxas em Roraima e Mato Grosso do
Sul; 3) o principal método de homicídio foi objeto cortante ou penetrante; 4) a taxa de homicídio
de homens indígenas foi 2,4 vezes mais alta que
de mulheres, mas a taxa relativa às indígenas foi
mais que o dobro das não indígenas; 5) elevadas
taxas de homicídios de crianças indígenas (menores de 1 ano) em áreas dos estados de Roraima e
Amazonas. Recomenda-se cuidadosa consideração dos aspectos culturais indígenas para evitar
julgamentos, argumentando-se sobre como essa
população enfrenta risco de homicídios em algumas áreas.
Palavras-chave População indígena, Homicídio,
Saúde de povos indígenas, Brasil, Violência
TEMAS LIVRES FREE THEMES
Indigenous homicide in Brazil: geospatial mapping
and secondary data analysis (2010 to 2014)
2637
Wanzinack C et al.
2638
Introduction
WHO estimated that there were 475,000 deaths
in 2012 as result of homicide worldwide. Sixty
percent of these were males aged 15-44 years,
making homicide the third leading cause of
death for males in this age group. Brazil reported
47,136 homicides in 2012, representing almost
10% of all homicides on the planet1.
The highest estimated rates of homicide in
the world are in the Americas, with an annual
rate of 28.5 deaths per 100,000 people. The problem is more severe particularly in Latin America,
with countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago and Mexico, together with Brazil, being the most violent
for homicides in the world. The 2012 Brazilian
homicide rate for the general population was
24.3 per 100,000 inhabitants1. Most of these Latin
American countries have a traditional American
Indigenous population in common, with a wide
diversity of Indigenous nations, cultural backgrounds and languages. However national homicide data specific to these population groups in
each of these countries are scarce.
Indigenous genocide is extensively reported among histories of colonization around the
world2 and in Brazil3. All the colonization processes were characterized by dispossession and
exploitation of traditional populations and this
issue is still ongoing in many places in Brazil, as
denounced in recent local studies4. It leads Indigenous populations to many social disadvantages,
suffering violence of many kinds. However few
studies currently focus on homicides among Indigenous people5. In Brazil, few recent publications6 make this problem visible, but no national
study has been conducted to reveal its extent, spatial distribution and main victim characteristics.
Homicides are the most outrageous act of
violence, as they deprive the victims of their life
and is an indicator of society’s inability to develop and maintain non-lethal mechanisms for
conflict resolution7. Homicide is just the “tip of
the (violence) iceberg”, but it is one of the most
rigorous measures of violence in Brazil, considering it is mandatory to report all cases. The cases
are reported to the Mortality Information System
(Sistema de Informação de Mortalidade - SIM).
These data are recorded and available for free access through the Health Informatics Department
of the Brazilian Public Health System (Departamento de Informática do Sistema Único de Saúde
- DATASUS), a broad database platform from the
Brazilian Ministry of Health. Despite there being
many limitations related to SIM data, particularly related to Indigenous people, as some groups
live in isolated areas, it is still the most recognized
national database for mortality records.
Considering this challenging scenario, a
country with vast territorial area and many Indigenous nations, this study aimed to describe a
panorama of Indigenous homicides in Brazil, as
an indicator of the many forms of violence faced
by this population group and bringing visibility to this issue. Our objective was to provide a
snapshot of this problem, revealing the extent of
reported Indigenous homicides between 2010
and 2014, its territorial distribution around the
country, as well as victim characteristics and the
types of homicides, comparing these data with
non-Indigenous population.
Methodology
We conducted a demographic study, using official National Indigenous homicide data for the
period between 2010 and 2014. We collected data
from two Brazilian open databases: 1) Brazilian
Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto
Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística - IBGE)8; and
2) Mortality Information System (SIM) from
DATASUS9. Mortality data were collected according to place of occurrence and 2014 was the
last year with consolidated data about homicide
when data were collected.
Data from IBGE consisted of the Indigenous
population identified in the 2010 population
census (self-declaration as Indigenous in the category ‘colour or race’), conducted in all 5565 Brazilian municipalities, as well as the estimates of
population for the years between 2011 and 2014.
This study did not include data about those who
live in Indigenous territories but self-declared as
other ‘colours or races’ for IBGE. It is also important to mention that the IBGE estimates of
Indigenous population do not show an yearly
increase between 2010-2014, but rather the estimates show two drops, one between 2010 and
2011, and another between 2011 and 2012. Based
on these data, we calculated the mean population for the period (2010-2014) for Indigenous
(per state, Brazilian region and Brazil) and for
non-Indigenous (Brazil) population. IBGE official criteria to consider as Indigenous is based
on self-identification. It is worth to mention that
data about Indigenous population can be controversial, depending on the consulted database,
even in official databases, such as IBGE.
2639
data, analysing mapped information and managing geographic information in databases. The
cartographic bases used in this study were provided by the National Spatial Data Infrastructure
(INDE), responsible for gathering metadata produced by the direct and indirect public administration of the federal government. All cartographic databases had their projections adjusted
to SIRGAS2000. In the GeoCatalog environment
of the ArcGIS software, a database was created
that gathered the tabular information of Indigenous homicides containing a column of type
“double” compatible with the column of connection in cartographic of Brazilian municipalities.
After the bases were established, the digital processing of the information was carried out. The
cartographic representation of maps is based on
proportional circles since these better represent
the quantitative phenomena and they are one of
the most used methods in the construction of
maps with point implantation10.
Finally, a selection was established with the
20 municipalities with the highest number of
Indigenous homicides (absolute numbers) reported for given period. Absolute numbers were
eligible for this analysis instead of rates, because
some municipalities with very small number of
Indigenous population reported Indigenous homicides, what could lead to an inconsistent data
analysis. Data from these 20 municipalities were
analysed according to sex and age group. These
data combined with the map revealed a cartography of the most dangerous municipalities for
Indigenous people in Brazil.
This study is based on analyses of secondary
data from public access databases, so was exempt
from approval by an Ethics committee.
Results
The average Indigenous homicide rate between
2010 and 2014 in Brazil was 22.5 homicides per
100,000 Indigenous inhabitants per year (Table
1). This appears to be lower than the homicide
rates of non-Indigenous population in Brazil for
the same period (which is 28.3 per 100,000 inhabitants per year). However, Table 1 summarizes some notable characteristics of all the Brazilian Indigenous homicides, compared with all the
Brazilian non-Indigenous homicides, between
2010 and 2014. Therefore, this table includes data
from homicides reported during this five-year
period, including means and rates expressing annual average.
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 24(7):2637-2648, 2019
Data on Indigenous and non-Indigenous
mortality (2010-2014) were obtained from SIM/
DATASUS, considering as homicides all deaths
included on the Tenth International Classification
of Diseases (ICD-10) as arising from “assault”
(X85 to Y09) and “legal intervention” (Y35 to
Y36), as adopted in other studies7. These included
assaults using firearms (X93-X95), assaults with
edged weapons (X99) and other acts of violence
resulting in death inflicted by another person, by
any means. It also included legal interventions
(Y35), for example, trauma inflicted by the police
or other representatives of the law, military, and
those which happen during arrest or imprisonment, or attempts to do so, and other legal actions.
Data were also collected from all 5565 Brazilian
municipalities. All data collection was between
August and September/2016 and reviewed on
February/2017, looking for any update of data.
Not every Brazilian municipality has an Indigenous population. From all 5565 Brazilian
municipalities, 4027 have an Indigenous population8. Between 2010 and 2014, from these
4027 municipalities, only 272 reported Indigenous homicides, which corresponds to 6.75%
of municipalities with Indigenous population. It
suggests that the problem may be currently under-reported and geographically circumscribed.
This should be borne in mind when interpreting
our results.
Data on Indigenous and non-Indigenous
population and homicide were tabulated in Microsoft Excel and analysed using descriptive statistics methods. Initially, we calculated the annual
mean of homicides for Indigenous and non-Indigenous population (2010-2014) per 100,000
inhabitants. Results included reported data on
homicides and the Brazilian Indigenous population and were compared to those on the non-Indigenous Brazilian population, considering victims’ characteristics and types of homicides. For
the second analysis, we focused on the 272 municipalities that registered Indigenous homicides
between 2010 and 2014. We calculated the mean
homicide rate for 100,000 Indigenous inhabitants per year for municipalities, states, Brazilian
regions and for the country, expressing the annual average for this five-year period. We also analysed the geographical distribution of homicides
(by Brazilian regions, states and municipalities)
and by victims’ characteristics.
Absolute numbers of Indigenous homicides
were plotted on a map, using the program ArcGIS, a Geographic Information System (GIS)
used for creating maps, compiling geographic
Wanzinack C et al.
2640
Table 1. Characteristics of all reported Indigenous and non-Indigenous homicides in Brazil between 2010 and
2014.
Mean Brazilian Population (IBGE, 2010-2014)
Total Homicides between 2010 and 2014
Mean homicide rate 2010-2014 (per 100,000 inhabitants per year)
Mean female homicide rate 2010-2014 (per 100,000 females per year)
Sex of Victims (%)
Male
Female
Ignored
Age of victims (%)
< 1 year old
1 to 14 years old
15 to 19 years old
20 to 29 years old
30 to 59 years old
> 60 years old
Ignored
Marital status of victims
Single
(%)
Married
Widowed
Divorced
Other
Ignored
Years of school of victims None
(%)
1-3 years
4-7 years
8-11 years
>12 years
Ignored
Types of homicide (%)
Firearms
Sharp or penetrating object
Blunt object
Hanging, strangulation and suffocation
Use of body force
Other maltreatment syndromes
Other specified means
Drowning and submersion
Neglect and abandonment
Non-specified means
Indigenous
743,593
838
22.5
9.3
77.7
21.2
1.1
18.2
3.7
11.4
23.3
35.3
5.4
2.6
43.4
12.3
1.3
0.6
8.6
33.8
14.7
13.2
20.6
7.7
1.2
42.5
28.8
31.0
6.7
4.2
3.5
1.8
1.4
0.8
0.6
19.9
Non-Indigenous
197,841,967
279,900
28.3
3.8
91.6
8.3
0.1
0.1
1.6
16.2
37.4
38.9
3.8
2.0
70.5
11.0
1.0
2.5
4.0
11.0
3.4
17.3
33.4
16.1
2.2
27.6
70.2
15.6
5.3
1.4
1.1
0.3
0.3
0.1
0.0
3.4
Source: IBGE8 and SIM/DATASUS9, compiled by the authors.
Table 1 highlights some significant aspects
about Indigenous homicides in Brazil. Indigenous women reported a higher rate of homicide
than non-Indigenous women. The female rate
was 9.3/100,000 for Indigenous and 3.8/100,000
for non-Indigenous women. It estimates that Indigenous female homicide rate was more than
the double compared to non-Indigenous.
Table 1 also provides evidence of high levels of
homicide of Indigenous children under one year
old compared to the non-Indigenous children.
Data on marital status and years of schooling of
Indigenous victims were commonly missing. The
proportion of missing data is much greater than
in the non-Indigenous population, demonstrating gaps in collecting these data. Nevertheless, it
seems that Indigenous victims have fewer years of
study when compared to the rest of the Brazilian
population. The Indigenous group also seems to
have a smaller percentage of single victims compared to non-Indigenous, suggesting different
patterns of homicides. We observed another dif-
2641
tween 2010 and 2014 are plotted on Figure 1. It
shows the distribution of Indigenous homicides
among Brazilian municipalities, particularly bringing into evidence the states of Roraima
(RR) in North and Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) in
Midwest. The map suggests that 20 municipalities reported more than half of all the estimated
Indigenous homicides of the country between
2010 and 2014. These were: Alto Alegre/RR, Amajari/RR, Amambaí/MS, Barcelos/AM, Boa Vista/
RR, Caarapó/MS, Caracaí/RR, Coronel Sapucaia/
MS, Dourados/MS, Eirunepé/AM, Iracema/RR,
Mucajaí/RR, Paranhos/MS, Santa Isabel do Rio
Negro/AM, São Gabriel da Cachoeira/AM, São
João das Missões/MG, Tabatinga/AM, Tacuru/
MS, Porto Seguro/BA and Salvador/BA. Detailed
data about the Indigenous homicides in these
municipalities will be discussed ahead.
Figure 1. Map of reported Indigenous homicides in Brazil (2010-2014)
Source: SIM/DATASUS9, compiled by the authors. (RN=Rio Grande do Norte)
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 24(7):2637-2648, 2019
ference in the causes of homicides; while non-Indigenous population are more often victims of
gunfire, Indigenous people face more deaths by
sharp or penetrating objects, with gun fire in a
slightly smaller proportion. Lack of data about
the cause of Indigenous homicides also limits our
analysis, since almost 1 in 5 Indigenous homicides does not specify the means in the Brazilian
official database. This is much higher compared
to data obtained from non-Indigenous population, which is around 3%.
When plotted onto a map, Indigenous homicides appear with high incidence in two specific Brazilian regions: North and Midwest. North
has the largest Indigenous population in the
country, but Midwest is not the second largest,
which is Northeast. Maps detailing the number
of Indigenous reported homicide incidence be-
Wanzinack C et al.
2642
Table 2 summarizes the reported Indigenous
homicide rates (annual average between 2010
and 2014) per region and state. Midwest presents
the most concerning scenario with a reported Indigenous homicide rate of 67.8 per 100,000 Indigenous inhabitants per year. This is higher than
non-Indigenous Brazilian rates (national average) for the period, which was 28.3 per 100,000
inhabitants per year, indicating that Indigenous
from this region face more homicides than the
non-Indigenous Brazilian population. The North
of Brazil, with the highest Indigenous population
concentration of the country, also has a high homicide rate (30.0 per 100,000 Indigenous inhabitants per year). Northeast, with the second largest
Indigenous population among the five Brazilian
regions, has the lowest homicide rate (11.5 per
100,000 per year).
Reported Indigenous homicides per year in
absolute numbers per Brazilian region are also
available in Table 2. The results suggest that the
North of the country faced an increase of 543%
of Indigenous homicides between 2010 and 2013,
with a small drop of 28% in 2014, compared to
2013. Even considering this small drop, as a result North reported an increase of approximately
4 times between 2010 and 2014. South of Brazil
also reported an increase of Indigenous homicides of approximately 2.5 times between 2010
and 2014. Despite other Brazilian regions facing
a relatively constant pattern of Indigenous homicide incidence for the same period, these data re-
Table 2. Indigenous homicides rates per Brazilian region and state (annual average, between 2010 and 2014)
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Indigenous
indigenous homicide
indigenous homicide
homicides
State
rate
rate
population
population
Region
(2010(2010(2010(2010(20102010 2011 2012 2013 2014
2014)
2014)
014)
2014)
2014)
Midwest
49
48
40
41
44
65,499
67.8
DF
0
8,426
0.0
GO
12
10,507
22.8
MS
198
31,259
126.7
MT
12
15,108
15.9
Southeast 10
9
23
6
12
143,992
8.3
MG
28
53,222
10.5
RJ
13
17,379
15.0
ES
4
10,232
7.8
SP
15
63,159
4.7
South
7
12
11
7
18
68,389
16.1
SC
9
13,208
13.6
RS
22
35,598
12.4
PR
24
19,783
24.3
Northeast 25
26
25
22
23
210,538
11.5
AL
7
8,702
16.1
BA
36
60,876
11.8
CE
6
15,267
7.9
PE
22
51,857
8.5
PB
6
30,230
4.0
MA
36
33,254
21.6
PI
1
2,989
6.7
RN
3
2,919
20.5
Indigenous homicides/year
North
21
43
101
124
91
254,975
30.0
Brazil
112
138
200
200
188
743,593
22.5
Source: IBGE8 and SIM/DATASUS9, compiled by the authors.
SE
AM
AC
AP
RR
TO
RO
PA
4
135
5
2
182
6
13
37
838
4,644
130,536
24,584
3,482
26,527
4,826
5,403
59,616
17.2
20.7
4.1
11.5
137.2
24.9
48.1
12.4
2643
Discussion
This study found that the highest rates of Indigenous homicide are in the Midwest and North
Brazil, particularly in the states of Roraima and
Mato Grosso do Sul, and that Indigenous male
homicide rates were up to 2.4 times higher than
female homicide rates. However, Indigenous female homicide rate was more than the double
compared to non-Indigenous. The victims were
mainly adults aged 30 to 59 years old for both In-
digenous males and females, followed by adults
between 20 and 29 years old also for both sexes.
The first aspect to be considered for the analysis of these results is that there is a huge diversity of Indigenous people in Brazil. According to
data from the census from the Brazilian Institute
for Geography and Statistics8, there are around
305 ethnic groups within the country, speaking
274 different languages and 57.5% of them live
in officially demarcated Indigenous lands. This is
a challenging issue for this study, because based
on these specificities, we highlight that although
this article reports Indigenous homicide data
grouped in a set, we do not consider Brazilian
Indigenous people as a homogeneous group. Additionally, despite comparing data on homicide
with the non-Indigenous population, we do not
aim to extrapolate issues from Western culture to
Indigenous communities, which are much more
complex. Our goal with this demographic study
is to bring visibility to this problem so that it can
raise questions for further future studies.
The overall reported Indigenous homicide
rate was lower than that of non-Indigenous people, but some aspects need to be considered. A
critical issue raised by this study is the underreporting, as many data from the Indigenous population were missing in this official database. Considering this underreporting during the report of
Indigenous homicides, it is similarly possible that
many Indigenous homicides could be documented as non-Indigenous homicides. This represents
a potential under-estimation of the scale of this
issue. The indigeneity is also a complex issue,
because not all Indigenous people self-identify
as part of this ethnic group in the census. This
also could be evidenced in the Brazilian census,
comparing the escalating number of Indigenous
population between 1990, 2000 and 2010. The
number of Indigenous people significantly increased, but not due to an increase in Indigenous
birth rates, but due to an increase in Indigenous
identification. This raises other questions for
future studies: why does Indigenous data about
homicide contain this high percentage of missing information? Does this reflect a general lack
of attention to this population group, which has
been historically decimated and that this is expressed even in ignoring their indigeneity in their
death registration?
The data about homicide against Indigenous
women are challenging, because it is almost twice
of non-Indigenous. Brazil is already the fifth
highest rate of female homicide in the world11. It
means Brazilian Indigenous women are probably
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 24(7):2637-2648, 2019
veal the extension and escalation of the problem
across different areas of the country.
When we focus at the state level, the highest reported rates were respectively: Roraima
(137.2 homicides per 100,000 Indigenous per
year), Mato Grosso do Sul (126.7 per 100,000/
year) and Rondônia (48.1 per 100,000/year). The
lowest reported rates were in the Federal District,
where no Indigenous homicides were registered,
followed by Paraíba (4.0 per 100,000/year) and
Acre (4.1 per 100,000/year). Three states (Mato
Grosso do Sul, Roraima and Amazonas) concentrated 61% of Indigenous homicides, while they
comprise only 25% of the Indigenous population
of the country.
Male homicides were 2.4 times more frequent than female homicides amongst Indigenous people. Most of the 272 municipalities that
reported Indigenous homicides registered more
men´s homicides than women’s. However, 10 cities demonstrated a 1:1 proportion between male
and female homicides, while 23 cities reported
more women´s homicides rather than men’s. In
these cities, the rate of female versus male homicides was registered at a ratio of 1:0, 2:1 or maximum 2:0.
After establishing the maps with the highest
reported areas for Indigenous homicide, we analysed detailed data of the 20 municipalities with
the highest homicide numbers among the group
of municipalities. Table 3 summarizes the main
characteristics of Indigenous victims from these
20 cities with highest Indigenous homicide numbers in Brazil.
The results also suggest high levels of reported
homicide of Indigenous children (under 1-yearold) in areas of the states of Roraima and Amazonas. This was particularly notable in places
such as (respectively): Caracaí/RR (62 child homicides), Alto Alegre/RR (31), Barcelos/AM (30),
Amajari/RR (7), Santa Isabel do Rio Negro/AM
(5), Mucajaí/RR (4) and Iracema/RR (4).
Table 3. Selection of 20 municipalities with highest number of reported Indigenous homicides between 2010 and 2014.
Top 20 municipalities
Order
1º
2º
3º
4º
5º
6º
7º
8º
9º
10º
11º
12º
13º
Municipality
Dourados
Caracaraí
Alto Alegre
Barcelos
Amambai
Boa Vista
São Gabriel da Cachoeira
Caarapó
Tabatinga
Iracema
Tacuru
Eirunepé
Amajari
State
MS
RR
RR
AM
MS
RR
AM
MS
AM
RR
MS
AM
RR
14º
15º
16º
17º
18º
19º
20º
Mucajaí
Santa Isabel do Rio Negro
Coronel Sapucaia
Porto Seguro
Paranhos
Salvador
São João das Missões
RR
AM
MS
BA
MS
BA
MG
Indgenous population
Homicides
Homicide
(2010)
Male Female Total (2010-2014) Rate (100,000)
3412
3418
6830
79
231,3
230
260
490
64
2612,2
3915
3629
7544
48
127,2
4454
3913
8367
33
78,9
3600
3625
7225
29
80,3
4081
4469
8550
27
63,2
14676
14341
29017
19
13,1
2159
2211
4370
16
73,2
7660
7195
14855
15
20,2
828
738
1566
13
166,0
1864
1773
3637
12
66,0
605
552
1157
11
190,1
2597
2417
5014
11
43,9
254
5512
1327
2764
2242
3478
4107
282
5237
1261
2565
2162
4085
3829
536
10749
2588
5329
4404
7563
7936
9
9
8
8
7
7
7
335,8
16,7
61,8
30,0
31,8
18,5
17,6
% Homicide*
% Age of victims (years old)
Male
75,9
51,6
70,8
51,5
69,0
88,9
78,9
75,0
80,0
61,5
75,0
72,7
90,9
Female
24,1
43,8
29,2
48,5
31,0
11,1
21,1
25,0
20,0
38,5
25,0
27,3
9,1
<1
0,0
96,9
64,6
90,9
0,0
7,4
5,3
0,0
6,7
30,8
0,0
9,1
63,6
1 to 14 15 to 19 20 to 29
8,7
22,8
19,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
2,1
2,1
12,5
0,0
0,0
0,0
10,3
10,3
31,0
0,0
14,8
25,9
10,5
21,0
10,5
6,2
18,7
18,7
6,7
13,3
26,7
23,1
15,4
7,7
0,0
16,7
16,7
0,0
18,2
18,2
0,0
9,1
9,1
88,9
77,8
50,0
75,0
85,7
57,1
85,7
11,1
22,2
50,0
25,0
14,3
42,9
14,3
44,4
55,6
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
12,5
12,5
0,0
0,0
0,0
11,1
11,1
12,5
12,5
14,3
0,0
0,0
11,1
11,1
25,0
37,5
0,0
42,9
28,6
30 to 59
41,8
1,6
14,6
3,0
41,4
37,0
52,6
50,0
33,3
23,1
58,3
45,4
9,1
22,2
11,1
37,5
37,5
71,4
42,9
71,4
> 60
7,6
1,6
4,2
6,1
6,9
7,4
0,0
6,2
13,3
0,0
8,3
9,1
9,1
Ignored
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
7,4
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
11,1
12,5
0,0
14,3
14,3
0,0
11,1
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
Source: IBGE8 and SIM/DATASUS9, compiled by the authors. For this table, we adopted only population data from the IBGE census of 2010, since the IBGE does not provide estimation of population for municipalities.
* Caracaraí/RR reported ignored data related to sex.
2644
Wanzinack C et al.
2645
complex correlation between suicide and homicide in traditional ethnological systems, that cannot be transposed from Western culture20.
Indigenous populations in these areas of
Mato Grosso do Sul face problems of land disputes, issues related to the demarcation of Indigenous lands. The courts find it difficult to make
decisions regarding land tenure due to the time
of their occupation by non-Indigenous, often in
properties with certification of more than two
generations of the same family. At the same time,
vestiges of Indigenous lands in archaeological
and anthropological findings indicate that, in the
same space, there were Indigenous groups living
there for centuries24.
The massacre against Indigenous people
in this region has been denounced for years.
Landowners have threatened to kill Indigenous
leaders, sent gunmen to kill parents in front of
children and young people belonging to these
peoples4. The appeal of the natives can be summarized in the following letter:
“We ask the Government and the Federal Justice not to decree the eviction/expulsion order,
but to decree our collective death and to bury us
all here. We ask, once and for all, to decree our extinction/total decimation, in addition to sending
several tractors to dig a large hole to throw and
bury our bodies.” (Letter from the Guarani-Kaiowá community of Pyelito Kue/Mbarakay, from
Iguatemi/MS for the Government and Justice of
Brazil, 2012, p.977)4.
The letter was related to conflicts with landowners of vast farms and the neglect of Federal Government for demarcation of Indigenous
lands. Agrarian conflicts are not exclusive of this
region and appear in other areas of the country,
also victimizing Indigenous populations. In the
state of Maranhão, in the Northeast of the country, it was noticeable during the professionalization of violence of the 1990s, with an organized
market of gun shooters. Large properties landowners contributed to tables of escalating price
bands for homicides, respectively, of small farmers, trade unionists, priests, farmers and politicians25.
Authors26 explain that the European model of sovereignty, confronted with Indigenous
resistance, has led to the social exclusion of traditional Indigenous peoples. Brazilian State and
society have limited Indigenous sovereignty by
imposing a colonial legal order over many Indigenous groups, weakening traditional leaderships
and denying the very existence of the colonised
as a political body. The Guarani and Kaiowa peo-
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 24(7):2637-2648, 2019
amongst the most vulnerable groups of women
in the world for female homicide. When adult
non-Indigenous women are killed, their partner
is often who is responsible12,13. In 2013, WHO and
others estimated that globally as many as 38% of
female homicides were committed by male partners while the corresponding figure for men was
6%12,13. Of the statistics on these female homicide victims, 20% were lacking data on perpetrator-victim relationship13. Unfortunately, the database used in our study did not contain data on the
perpetrator. Considering international studies
which have been documenting Intimate Partner
Violence (IPV) among Indigenous women14,15, we
raise this question for future studies: were these
Brazilian Indigenous women also victims of IPV?
Violence against Indigenous women from
the American continent15,16 and worldwide17 has
been documented. However, the hegemonic gender rules that non-Indigenous women face in
general society are not the same for Indigenous
women. Brazilian Indigenous women belong
to heterogeneous communities, with particular
roles and traditions. From anthropological studies18 on gender issues in Indigenous populations,
gender is presented as a concept that no longer
fits the Western dichotomies, revealing social relations built on “other” modes of thought and
conceptualizations. They may even involve fluid
and mutable conformations of gender that make
up certain groups. That is, the concept of gender
in Western society cannot simply be translated
into Indigenous people without further reflection on their own social constructions19.
Analysing the maps of Indigenous homicide,
we highlight its potentially high incidence in the
state of Mato Grosso do Sul, more specifically the
south of the state, with a possible epicentre in the
municipality of Dourados. This area was also the
focus of recent studies revealing high rates of Indigenous suicides20,21. Among ‘Guarani Kaiowá’
and ‘Nhandeva’ groups from Mato Grosso do Sul
that live in this area, between 2000 and 2007, the
mortality rate due to suicide was 118.4/100,000.
This value is about six times higher than that observed in the state, and more than 12 times the
national rate22. This article does not focus on
Indigenous suicide, however the coincidence of
high rates of both homicides and suicides in the
same areas flags attention for public health and
public policies agendas. Since 1996, some cases
reported as suicide among Indigenous from this
state are thought in fact to be homicides23. It is
also important to consider the different Indigenous conceptions of death and dying, and the
Wanzinack C et al.
2646
ple in Mato Grosso do Sul configure an extreme
case of poverty, exploitation and human rights
violations, leading to a humanitarian crisis. Severe land dispossession is followed by high levels
of child mortality and malnutrition, alcoholism,
insufficient access to water or sanitation, low life
expectancy, high suicide rates, and the normalized assassination of Indigenous leaders by hired
killers26.
While in some specific areas the dispute for
land allied to social inequities can be a significant
cause of Indigenous homicides, in other areas,
a high number of homicide of children was observed. This was reported particularly in some
areas from the North of the country, particularly
in the states of Roraima and Amazonas.
However, our study highlights the majority of
homicides were against young Indigenous males.
The high mortality rates from homicide among
young Indigenous males found in this study was
also noticed in other studies with non-Indigenous men in Brazil. Some studies27,28 relate the
high mortality rates among males to the higher
probability of exposure to violence7. However, data from general population, again, cannot
be simply transposed to Indigenous. Instead of
the individualistic ideology of Western society,
Indigenous societies operate with a notion of
relational person, inasmuch as kinship groups
formed by bonds of substance – like blood, semen, milk, etc. – that are responsible for constituting it as a member of their own body29.
It is important to mention that the results of
this study only highlight the tip of the iceberg,
as we previously mentioned. Besides the physical
injuries and homicides, it is also persistent other
forms of violence against traditional Indigenous
people, including the cultural damages caused
by colonization. We also highlight the blatant
absence of careful recording of Indigenous homicide in official databases. This means that the
real scale of this problem and its causes are hidden from view. Authors have been adopting the
term Indigenous cultural genocide to describe
this other form of contemporary violence30. All
these other expressions of violence imposed by
Western society towards traditional populations
are difficult to measure, but can be as dangerous
as homicides, because they contribute to break
the affective, cultural and community bonds.
This study had many limitations. One of
these was the limits of data from SIM and underreporting of homicides, which tends to be
more common in remote areas of the country,
like some Indigenous areas. Other limitation can
be the criteria of IBGE to determine a person as
Indigenous, which is self-identification. For centuries, the Indigenous population was stigmatized in Brazil. So for many people to recognize
themselves as Indigenous implies shame due to
prejudice imposed by colonisers over traditional
people. This produces an underestimation of Indigenous population numbers, and consequently
of homicides against them. Underestimation of
Indigenous ethnicity may also be present at the
moment of death registration. In other words,
the problem highlighted in this research with official data could be even more severe.
Overcoming the issue of homicide and violence against Indigenous people is a complex
task and requires the formulation of long-term
policies in the areas of health, safety, education,
environment and economics, including those
aimed at raising income levels and reducing inequalities31. But first it requires that the scale and
detail of the problem be visible to government
and to the body politic. Another issue is the resolution of agrarian conflicts associated with lack
of demarcation of Indigenous lands. And beyond
demarcation, these lands also need surveillance
from public security, preventing invasions by
farmers, forest extractors and miners, since preservation of natural resources are traditionally essential for these people.
Final considerations
This study revealed the reported Brazilian Indigenous homicide between 2010 and 2014 and
its geographical distribution. The national average of Indigenous homicide rate appeared to be
smaller when compared to non-Indigenous population, but was probably under-estimated. Even
so, the rates raise some concerning trends even
now.
Official homicide data suggested concern in
the Midwest and North of Brazil, particularly in
the states of Roraima (North) and Mato Grosso
do Sul (Midwest). The pattern of homicides between these two areas is not the same, even because ethnicities and cultural aspects are different.
Some of these areas coincide with areas with high
reports of suicides revealed by other studies that
could be related to land conflicts and oppression
from non-Indigenous people. Data should also be
cautiously analysed, because some of the municipalities that reported high numbers of homicide
also have the biggest Indigenous population, thus
the importance to examine the rates.
2647
the double of non-Indigenous, demonstrating
the vulnerability of these women.
Data of this study should be carefully analysed, considering all the limitations, but they
reflect how high rates of Indigenous homicides
were reported in some parts of Brazil, as well as
some groups inside the Indigenous nations that
reported more homicides. Western assumptions
are not valid for traditional populations and
these people cannot be considered as a homogeneous group. Some of their particularities and
cultural aspects should be sensibly better understood with support of future studies that contribute to understanding, avoiding judgemental
positions and perpetuation of violence.
Collaborations
C Wanzinack conceived the study. C Wanzinack,
S Shimakura and MC Signorelli designed the
methodology. CW collected, tabulated and analyzed the data, assisted by S Shimakura and MC
Signorelli. PPG Pereira and LB Oliveira contributed with theoretical background and discussion.
M Polidoro contributed with geospatial mapping. C Reis supervised the study and revised the
methodology. All authors contributed to writing,
reviewed and approved the final version of the
text.
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 24(7):2637-2648, 2019
This study also exposed differences between
homicide patterns in Indigenous when compared to non-Indigenous population. The most
challenging was the generalized lack of detailed
information regarding Indigenous homicide,
like marital status, years of study of the victims
and methods of homicides. The lack of information was not observed in the same proportion in
non-Indigenous people. This lack could reflect
an ongoing underestimation of such deaths,
which were historically perpetrated by colonizers. Some convergences with non-Indigenous
Brazilian population were observed, as male homicide rates were higher than female. However,
Indigenous female homicide rate was more than
Wanzinack C et al.
2648
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Artigo apresentado em 22/05/2017
Aprovado em 29/09/2017
Versão final apresentada em 01/10/2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License