Orlando Villas-Bôas

January 12, 1914 (age 88)

Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, Brazil

Orlando Villas-Bôas was a clerk, but he was not cut out for city life. In 1941, he and three of his brothers, Claudio, Leonardo, and Álvaro, joined a government expedition to open up and chart the little-known mountains and dense forest of central Brazil. At the time Rio de Janeiro was Brazil's capital, and most of the Brazilian population lived on or near the 4,000 km-long coastlines. There were no roads into central Brazil and the dense tropical forests of the Mato Grosso area. The Roncador-Xingu expedition lasted for 20 years, opening up 1,500 km of trails, exploring 1,000 km of rivers, including six previously unmapped ones, carving scores of airstrips out of the forest, and founding over three dozen towns. The 14 indigenous nations who lived along the banks of the Xingu river had no previous contact with outside society and it fell to the Villas-Bôas brothers, by now the leaders, to negotiate with the Indians to allow the expedition to pass. It was Orlando Villas-Bôas' first contact with a different world, a world that fascinated him for the rest of his life. He always remembered the faces of the Indians in the forest, firing arrows at them. From the start, the brothers adopted the code of behavior bequeathed by the general who laid the telegraph lines through the Amazon in the 1920s, Marshall Candido Rondon: "Die, if need be. Kill, never." The brothers were instrumental in establishing the first contact with the Xavantes in 1948, the Jurunas in 1949, the Kayabis in 1951, the Txucarramaes in 1953, and the Suyas in 1959. After contacting the Kalapalo, Orlando Villas-Bôas appeared to solve the riddle of the Amazon explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett, who disappeared while canoeing through the steaming forests of the Upper Xingu in 1925. He announced that chief Sarari had confessed that the Kalapalos had killed Fawcett after he had upset them by not sharing a duck he had shot - an outrage to the communally-minded Indians - and then slapping a child. "All the Kalapalos came to the top of the cliff by the lake and sat in a semi-circle," Villas-Bôas recalled. "They made me promise that no aeroplanes would come [to take revenge], and after that, they told me how the killing was done." Villas-Bôas brought back what was supposedly Fawcett's bones as evidence, but Fawcett's son Brian later insisted they belonged to a shorter man. Moreover, a duplicate set of dentures, kept by Fawcett's widow, did not fit the skull. Non-aggression was not the norm in those days: most who ventured into the forest regarded the Indians as savages to be shot like animals. Villas-Bôas himself said: "On our expedition, the peao (laborer) with the least number of crimes had eight murders under his belt. I lived for 40 years among the Indians and never saw one of them slap another in the face. But we were the ones who were going to civilize [them]." The Villas-Bôas brothers realized that the Indians had no protection against the society that would advance along the tracks opened up by the expedition, and from then on Orlando and Claudio, in particular, devoted themselves to creating an area where the indigenous nations of the Xingu area would be safe. They were joined by anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro and public health doctor Noel Nutels, and the result was the Xingu National Park, an area of 26,000 square km where 15 different previously warring tribes learned to live together. They belonged to the four main language groups of indigenous peoples in Brazil: Aruwak, Karib, Gê, and Tupi. The park was the first of its kind in the world. "The Roncador-Xingu expedition opened up space for our society to advance: luckily for the Indians, Orlando and his brothers were on it. If it hadn't been for their presence, maybe there wouldn't be any more Indians in the region," said Carmen Junqueira, an anthropologist who knows the Xingu well. Orlando Villas-Bôas became the first director of the park. To avoid the occasional devastating epidemics of influenza, he arranged with the São Paulo Medical School under Dr. Roberto Baruzzi for regular visits by health teams and programs of vaccination. Beginning in 1963, he also helped build airplane landing strips and set up hospitals to treat tribal members for illnesses such as influenza. Over the years the park took in more tribes threatened by the invasion of their lands, including the Kreen-Akarore or Panará, whom Orlando Villas-Bôas himself had contacted in 1973 when the military regime decided to build a road through their territory. He became disillusioned, saying "each time we contact a tribe, we are contributing to the destruction of what is most pure in it". The Xingu Park was an innovation for the time when there was no indigenism movement in Brazil. But Villas-Bôas did not escape criticism from later anthropologists, who accused him of being paternalist and turning the park into a showcase. In the 1970s, Orlando and Claudio Villas-Bôas finally left the Park, and in 1984 the first indigenous director, Megaron, was appointed to run it. Orlando Villas-Bôas was the author of several books about his work in the Amazon jungle, including two in English translation: Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths (1973), co-authored with brother Claudio, and Xingu: Tribal Territory (1979).

Orlando Villas-Bôas Edit Profile

activist explorer author

Background

Orlando Villas-Bôas was born on January 12, 1914, in Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, Brazil. He was a son of Agnello Villas-Bôas, a lawyer, and Arlinda Villas-Bôas. As boys, he and his brothers, Claudio and Leonardo, would listen wide-eyed to their father's tales of venturing into Brazil's backlands and his encounters with Indians. His family moved to the capital when he was 15.

Career

Orlando Villas-Bôas was a clerk, but he was not cut out for city life. In 1941, he and three of his brothers, Claudio, Leonardo, and Álvaro, joined a government expedition to open up and chart the little-known mountains and dense forest of central Brazil. At the time Rio de Janeiro was Brazil's capital, and most of the Brazilian population lived on or near the 4,000 km-long coastlines. There were no roads into central Brazil and the dense tropical forests of the Mato Grosso area.

The Roncador-Xingu expedition lasted for 20 years, opening up 1,500 km of trails, exploring 1,000 km of rivers, including six previously unmapped ones, carving scores of airstrips out of the forest, and founding over three dozen towns. The 14 indigenous nations who lived along the banks of the Xingu river had no previous contact with outside society and it fell to the Villas-Bôas brothers, by now the leaders, to negotiate with the Indians to allow the expedition to pass.

It was Orlando Villas-Bôas' first contact with a different world, a world that fascinated him for the rest of his life. He always remembered the faces of the Indians in the forest, firing arrows at them. From the start, the brothers adopted the code of behavior bequeathed by the general who laid the telegraph lines through the Amazon in the 1920s, Marshall Candido Rondon: "Die, if need be. Kill, never." The brothers were instrumental in establishing the first contact with the Xavantes in 1948, the Jurunas in 1949, the Kayabis in 1951, the Txucarramaes in 1953, and the Suyas in 1959.

After contacting the Kalapalo, Orlando Villas-Bôas appeared to solve the riddle of the Amazon explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett, who disappeared while canoeing through the steaming forests of the Upper Xingu in 1925. He announced that chief Sarari had confessed that the Kalapalos had killed Fawcett after he had upset them by not sharing a duck he had shot - an outrage to the communally-minded Indians - and then slapping a child. "All the Kalapalos came to the top of the cliff by the lake and sat in a semi-circle," Villas-Bôas recalled. "They made me promise that no aeroplanes would come [to take revenge], and after that, they told me how the killing was done." Villas-Bôas brought back what was supposedly Fawcett's bones as evidence, but Fawcett's son Brian later insisted they belonged to a shorter man. Moreover, a duplicate set of dentures, kept by Fawcett's widow, did not fit the skull.

Non-aggression was not the norm in those days: most who ventured into the forest regarded the Indians as savages to be shot like animals. Villas-Bôas himself said: "On our expedition, the peao (laborer) with the least number of crimes had eight murders under his belt. I lived for 40 years among the Indians and never saw one of them slap another in the face. But we were the ones who were going to civilize [them]."

The Villas-Bôas brothers realized that the Indians had no protection against the society that would advance along the tracks opened up by the expedition, and from then on Orlando and Claudio, in particular, devoted themselves to creating an area where the indigenous nations of the Xingu area would be safe. They were joined by anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro and public health doctor Noel Nutels, and the result was the Xingu National Park, an area of 26,000 square km where 15 different previously warring tribes learned to live together. They belonged to the four main language groups of indigenous peoples in Brazil: Aruwak, Karib, Gê, and Tupi. The park was the first of its kind in the world.

"The Roncador-Xingu expedition opened up space for our society to advance: luckily for the Indians, Orlando and his brothers were on it. If it hadn't been for their presence, maybe there wouldn't be any more Indians in the region," said Carmen Junqueira, an anthropologist who knows the Xingu well.

Orlando Villas-Bôas became the first director of the park. To avoid the occasional devastating epidemics of influenza, he arranged with the São Paulo Medical School under Dr. Roberto Baruzzi for regular visits by health teams and programs of vaccination. Beginning in 1963, he also helped build airplane landing strips and set up hospitals to treat tribal members for illnesses such as influenza.

Over the years the park took in more tribes threatened by the invasion of their lands, including the Kreen-Akarore or Panará, whom Orlando Villas-Bôas himself had contacted in 1973 when the military regime decided to build a road through their territory. He became disillusioned, saying "each time we contact a tribe, we are contributing to the destruction of what is most pure in it".

The Xingu Park was an innovation for the time when there was no indigenism movement in Brazil. But Villas-Bôas did not escape criticism from later anthropologists, who accused him of being paternalist and turning the park into a showcase. In the 1970s, Orlando and Claudio Villas-Bôas finally left the Park, and in 1984 the first indigenous director, Megaron, was appointed to run it.

Orlando Villas-Bôas was the author of several books about his work in the Amazon jungle, including two in English translation: Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths (1973), co-authored with brother Claudio, and Xingu: Tribal Territory (1979).

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Achievements

Orlando Villas-Bôas was a pioneer who not only helped to hack landing strips out of the rainforest in central Brazil but tried to defend the indigenous nations who lived there. With his brothers, Cláudio and Leonardo, Orlando Villas-Boas helped open 1,000 miles of jungle paths, chart six previously unknown rivers, and discover at least 18 Indian villages. For their work, Orlando and Claudio Villas-Bôas were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 and 1975. Though they did not win this prize, they received a Founders Gold Medal from the Royal Geographical Society in 1967.

Works

Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths

Xingu: Tribal Territory Xingu: Tribal Territory

book
- Xingu: The Indians, Their Myths 1973
- Xingu: Tribal Territory 1979

Views

The Villas-Bôas philosophy was to protect land and health and restrict the entry only of items that would damage native society: for example, guns, alcohol, and manufactured items that competed with tribal crafts. Missionaries were also excluded, along with tourists. The aim was to "allow them to change at the speed Indians want, rather than at a speed imposed on them."

Connections

In 1969, Orlando Villas-Bôas married Marina, a nurse who went to work in the Xingu National Park, and their first son was born and raised in the Park. He had two sons: Noel and Orlando.

Father:: Agnello Villas-Bôas
Mother:: Arlinda Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Claudio Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Leonardo Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Álvaro Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Erasmo Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Acrísio Villas-Bôas
Sister:: Maria de Lourdes Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Aldamo Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Nelson Villas-Bôas
Brother:: Oswaldo Villas-Bôas
Son:: Noel Villas-Bôas
Son:: Orlando Villas-Bôas , Jr.
Wife:: Marina Villas-Bôas
friend, colleague:: Noel Nutels
colleague:: Darcy Ribeiro

Main Photo