Claudio and Orlando in a camp of the Roncador-Xingu Expedition.
Gallery of Claudio Villas-Bôas
1957
Brazil
Claudio Villas-Boas with an Indian child.
Gallery of Claudio Villas-Bôas
1960
Brazil
Orlando and Cláudio Villas-Bôas
Gallery of Claudio Villas-Bôas
1965
River Reixoto Azevedo, Brazil
Orlando and Claudio lead an expedition descending the unknown River Reixoto Azevedo attempting to save the Stone Age tribes of the Amazon, including the Kreen - Akrore, largely in the Xingú River area, which is where Colonel Fawcett disappeared in the 1930's.
Orlando and Claudio lead an expedition descending the unknown River Reixoto Azevedo attempting to save the Stone Age tribes of the Amazon, including the Kreen - Akrore, largely in the Xingú River area, which is where Colonel Fawcett disappeared in the 1930's.
(A comprehensive and detailed description of the anthropol...)
A comprehensive and detailed description of the anthropology of the Amazonian Indians, this record brings to life a culture that has resisted all forms of modern civilization. An investigation of the Xingu Indians - a tribe living in total isolation from the world that lives in ecological and social balance- this work discusses their myths and rituals, traditions and culture, and the efforts of the Villas-Boas brothers who helped protect the tribe and contributed to the founding of the Xingu National Park. A compendium of information on the flora and fauna and climate of the region is also included.
Claudio Villas-Bôas was a Brazilian anthropologist and activist. He was known for search for and protection of the country’s indigenous people as their lands were taken over and developed.
Background
Claudio Villas-Bôas was born on December 8, 1916, in the small town of Botucatu in Sao Paulo State, Brazil to the family of a lawyer Agnello and Arlinda Villas-Bôas. He was one of the 11 siblings including brothers with whom he worked Orlando, Leonardo, and Álvaro.
Education
There is no definite information on when and where Claudio Villas-Bôas was educated.
Career
Cláudio Villas-Bôas and his older brother Orlando gained fame for searching out isolated Amazon Indian tribes and for trying to save their indigenous cultures from destruction by advancing development.
In 1943, he and Orlando joined a Government expedition to open up Brazil's vast unexplored interior. They quickly saw the havoc that roads and landing strips were causing to native peoples. For the next 20 years, they spoke out against efforts to integrate Indians into Brazilian society and spent many hours in Government offices encouraging officials to protect Indians from ranchers, small farmers, and industrialists who coveted their lands. But Brazilian leaders were determined to open up one of the world's last unconquered frontiers for colonization.
In 1954, when a devastating measles epidemic struck the Upper Xingu tribes, the Villas Bôas brothers mobilized the support of the Medical School of São Paulo, which set up a model program of medical assistance for the Indians.
Together with his brothers, Claudio contacted some of the most feared tribes like the Kalapalos, Kayabi, Kamaiuros, Meinacos, and Txucarramoes. In 1973 they were able to contact for the first time in the north of the state of Mato Grosso the Kreen-Akarore Indians also known as Panaros or the giant Indians.
The Villas Boas brothers sought to cushion the shock by persuading the Government to create Brazil's only Indian reservation. As a result, 18 Indian nations were removed from their ancestral lands in 1961 to the new Xingu National Park, a 10,000-square-mile area in Mato Grosso. Six years later, the brothers helped create the National Indian Foundation to protect Indian rights. By 1973 the brothers gave up their frontiersmen way of life to write books.
By 1973, Cláudio Villas-Bôas had tired of living in the jungle and gave up their frontiersmen way of life to write books. At a news conference, he and Orlando even questioned their life's work.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"The Xingu is the only closed park in Brazil, which means that it is the only area in which Indians are safe from deliberate or accidental contact with undesirable representatives of Western civilization. This is due entirely to the Villas-Bôas brothers and the total dedication of their lives to this work over the last 25 years." - Robin Hanbury-Tenison, from Survival International.
"At the beginning of the expedition we were admitted as manual workers because Flaviano de Mattos Vanique, the expedition chief, didn't hire but illiterate people. One day he found out we could read and Claudio became chief of staff, Leonardo began to take care of the warehouse, and I became the secretary." - Orlando Villas-Bôas
Connections
There is no information on whether Claudio Villas-Bôas was married or had any children.
Father:
Agnello Villas-Bôas
Mother:
Arlinda Villas-Bôas
Brother:
Orlando Villas-Bôas
Brother:
Leonardo Villas-Bôas
Brother:
Álvaro Villas-Bôas
References
Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166
This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.