Brazil

This survey was conducted in January and February of 2005 by Stan Anonby and Sandy Anonby for the purpose of obtaining linguistic and sociolinguistic information on languages in the Purus River region of Peru and Brazil. Demographic and sociolinguistic information is presented on various ethnolinguistic people groups who live along the Purus River in Peru or Brazil. These groups include:

• The Kaxinawá; and Kulina, who live along the Purus River in both Brazil and Peru.
• The Amahuaca, who live on the Purus River in Peru. In Acre State, Brazil, they live scattered among other tribes.
• The Jaminawa, who live in both Peru and Acre State, but most do not live on the Purus River.
• The Sharanahua, Mastanahua, Piro/Yine, and Pichis Asháninka, who live in Peru on the Purus River, but not in Brazil.

All of these languages have writing systems. Peru has been much more successful with the implementation of bilingual education schools than has Brazil, with the use of Indigenous heritage language and transition to the national language. Vernacular education was attempted with the Amahuaca, but failed, likely because of low language vitality.

In Brazil, there has been less effort to develop bilingual education schools among the Indigenous groups. In the communities that have schools, the medium of education is usually Portuguese. The exceptions are Kaxinawá;, Arara do Acre, Jaminawa, and Manchineri. The Arara do Acre effort is apparently an attempt to revive the language since there may only be a few speakers. The Manchineri effort is only a recent attempt to adapt materials from Piro/Yine. There are no reports as to the success of the efforts with the Kaxinawá; and Jaminawa.

The Indigenous people of the upper Purus River region have been interacting with Portuguese and Spanish speakers for many years. Much of this is related to the rubber and lumber industries. One of the most important factors affecting language vitality is the degree to which members of these Indigenous groups are intermarrying with outsiders. Contact with Spanish seems to have had a different effect than contact with Portuguese. In general, Brazilian Indigenous people are more bilingual than their Peruvian counterparts. It also appears the Indigenous peoples in Brazil are more prone to language shift. In Peru the tribal people have tended to keep their languages and many people are only marginally bilingual in Spanish. In both countries, those who are most likely to be bilingual tend to be the village leaders and people in civil service jobs, such as teachers and health workers.

The evidence suggests that the bilingual education programs in Peru may have had a positive impact on the vitality of the Indigenous language communities, or at least that they have not had a negative impact.

This survey report written some time ago deserves to be made available even at this late date. Conditions were such that it was not published when originally written. The reader is cautioned that more recent research may exist. Historical data such as this is quite valuable since it provides a basis for a longitudinal analysis and helps us understand both the trajectory and pace of change as compared with more recent studies—Editor.