O "indígena" que emerge do Censo Demográfico de 2010

Abstract

In the context of the Americas, Brazil has a specific profile vis-à-vis the presence of indigenous peoples: approximately 230 indigenous ethnic groups live in the country, which thus displays one of the continent's broadest social diversities, even while the proportion of indigenous people in the country's total population is one of the lowest (less than 1%). In Brazil, as in other countries, an important challenge is to produce nationally representative statistics that allow characterizing the socio-demographic situation of indigenous peoples, which in general experience marked vulnerability, including the worst health indicators. In recent decades, strides have been made in correcting the lack of data on indigenous people in Brazil's national statistics. This has been the case in the decennial censuses conducted by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Thus, the 1991 Census included the category "indigenous" as an option in response to the question on "color/ race" in the sample questionnaire, and the category was repeated in 2000. Until 2000 the "color/race" item was only investigated in the sample questionnaire, but beginning in the 2010 Census the question was also included in the basic questionnaire, meaning that the entire population was counted directly. Furthermore, if the interviewees answered "indigenous" to the "color/race" question, they were asked additional questions on their specific ethnic identity and language. The IBGE recently published the first results of the 2010 Census, including the size of the self-classified "indigenous" population. Compared to 2000, there was an increase in the number of "indigenous" persons (from 734,000 to 818,000), but the increase was much less than between 1991 and 2000 (440,000). From 2000 to 2010 there was a strong shift in territorial distribution: in 2000 there were more "indigenous" individuals in the country's urban areas (383,000) as compared to rural (351,000), while in 2010 theses figures were 315,000 and 503,000, respectively. There was a decrease in the number of individuals in urban areas that classified themselves as "indigenous" (from 383,000 to 315,000) and a major increase in rural areas (from 351,000 to 503,000). In urban areas, the largest decreases occurred in the Southeast and South, with negative annual growth of more than 5% in the States of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul. While the growth in rural areas is consistent with what is known about indigenous demographics in Brazil, the decrease in the number of self-classified "indigenous" persons in urban areas is striking. The 2000 and 2010 Censuses differed in the way the data on "indigenous" persons were captured, such that the observed changes may not have resulted exclusively from strictly demographic characteristics (fertility, mortality, and migration). The inclusion of questions on specific ethnic identity and language may have influenced whether individuals classified themselves as "indigenous". In the 1991 and 2000 Censuses, the question on "in...

Características sociodemográficas de indígenas nos censos brasileiros de 2000 e 2010: uma abordagem comparativa

“…Miranda 20 argues that recent variations in the proportions of black and brown individuals in Brazil, with an upward trend from 2000 to 2010, may be due to the implementation of affirmative action policies with a racial focus in recent years (see also Telles 19 and Francis & TannuriPianto 21,22 ). In the case of the indigenous population, on the basis of census data, color or race classification cuts across dimensions linked to ethnicity and language, in addition to a whole plethora of socioeconomic aspects, resulting in complex classification processes, the characteristics of which require further understanding 3,8,10,15,23 .…”

“…An important research issue in the field of demography of indigenous peoples has been to elucidate the indigenous population's characteristics across the various censuses, especially due to important variations in the size of the indigenous population that cannot be explained only by demographic factors 7,8,9,10 . For example, there was an increase over time in the number of indigenous persons identified by the censuses through the question on color or race (from 294,131 in 1991 to 734,127 in 2000 and 817,963 in 2010, that is, successively higher totals with each census, indicating that it is not only a matter of vegetative growth), and the growth patterns differed in urban versus rural areas.…”

“…With regard to the two most recent censuses (2000 and 2010), the potential reasons for the abovementioned variations are still being debated, including differences in data collection procedures and changes in perspectives on ethnic and racial recognition 8,10 . For example, while in the 2000 Census the indigenous self-identification was based solely on the answer to the question on color or race, the 2010 Census included questions on specific ethnic affiliation (with a specific indigenous people or ethnic group) and languages spoken in the home 11 , which may have influenced perceptions on indigenous self-identification.…”

Mortalidade infantil segundo cor ou raça com base no Censo Demográfico de 2010 e nos sistemas nacionais de informação em saúde no Brasil

“…No que diz respeito à população indígena do país, a inclusão da categoria "indígena" no quesito cor ou raça dos censos decenais e de outras pesquisas de representatividade nacional realizadas pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), a partir de 1991, tem possibilitado uma importante ampliação das fontes de dados sobre este segmento populacional 14,15,16,17 . Vale destacar que, no Censo Demográfico de 2010, a pergunta sobre cor ou raça foi também incluída no questionário básico, permitindo que toda a população fosse classificada segundo tal variável 18 .…”

Can urban migration contribute to rural resistance? Indigenous mobilization in the Middle Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil

“…Brazilian census methods have probably underestimated the indigenous population in 1991(Santos and Teixeira 2011;IBGE 2013b).…”