Xingu River

Description and history

The first Indigenous Park in Brazil was created in the river basin by the Brazilian government in the early 1960s. This park marks the first indigenous territory recognized by the Brazilian government and it was the world's largest indigenous preserve on the date of its creation. Currently, fourteen tribes live within Xingu Indigenous Park, surviving on natural resources and extracting from the river most of what they need for food and water.

The Brazilian government built the Belo Monte Dam on the Lower Xingu, which began operations in 2019 and is the world's fifth-largest hydroelectric dam. Construction of this dam was under legal challenge by environment and indigenous groups, who assert the dam would have negative environmental and social impacts along with reducing the flow by up to 80% along a 100 km stretch known as the Volta Grande ("Big Bend"). The river flow in this stretch is highly complex and includes major sections of rapids. More than 450 fish species have been documented in the Xingu River Basin and it is estimated that the total is around 600 fish species, including many endemics. At least 193 fish species living in rapids are known from the lower Xingu, Many species are seriously threatened by the dam, which will significantly alter the flow in the Volta Grande rapids.

In the Upper Xingu region was a highly self-organized pre-Columbian anthropogenic landscape, including deposits of fertile agricultural terra preta, black soil in Portuguese, with a network of roads and polities each of which covered about 250 square kilometers.

Near the source of Xingu River is Culuene River, a 600 km tributary.

In popular culture

• The name is the title of a humorous Edith Wharton short story from 1911.
• "Xingu" is the title of a song on Waterfall Cities, a 1999 album by Ozric Tentacles.
• The river is also honoured in the album Aguas da Amazonia.
• A beer produced near the river is sold in the international market under the name "Xingu".
• In the novel Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, the Xingu River is the location of the doomed Whittlesey/Maxwell expedition responsible for discovering evidence of the lost Kothoga tribe and their savage god Mbwun.
• Xingu is a 2011 Brazilian movie, directed by Brazilian film-maker Cao Hamburger. The movie tells the story of the Villas-Bôas brothers 1943 expedition to the region, which led to the creation of the indigenous reserve twenty years later.
• The Embraer Xingu is a design of twin-engine airplane manufactured in the 1970s by Brazilian company Embraer.

References

• Cowell, Adrian. 1973. The Tribe that Hides from Man. The Bodely Head, London.
• Original text from 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica

References

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9. "Summary and History of the Belo Monte Dam: Rainforest Foundation". Summary and History of the Belo Monte Dam: Rainforest Foundation.
10. (2018). "Diversity and community structure of rapids-dwelling fishes of the Xingu River: Implications for conservation amid large-scale hydroelectric development". Biological Conservation.
11. Camargo, M., T. Giarrizzo and V. Isaac (2004). ''Review of the geographic distribution of fish fauna in the Xingu River Basin, Brazil.'' [[Ecotropica]] 10: 123–147
12. and at least 26 of these are endemic. From 2008 to 2018 alone, 24 new fish species have been described from the river.Hyland, T: ''[http://exelmagazine.org/article/race-against-time/ Race against time.]'' Retrieved 4 June 2014.
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