THE DIGITAL VILLAGE PROJECT: EXAMINING THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF XAVANTE MEDIA PRODUCTION IN CENTRAL BRAZIL

Abstract In this article, I analyze the social organization of Xavante media production during the Digital Village Project, and explore how student involvement in the latter reflects the social characteristics and specificities of the Xavante community. To explain how project participants organized themselves into groups, I connect these groupings to the Xavante social structure and political system. My hypothesis is that the formation of the groups making up the project and the interaction of their members were established through categories already present in Xavante social structure. In this sense, we can conclude that the introduction to media production in the community is not enough to change the social relations prevailing in Sangradouro village.

the digital village project sociol. antropol. | rio de janeiro, v.10.02: 513 -535, may. -aug., 2020 terminating with the youngest. There are eight age groups in all, four for each moiety. The age group system is made up of those who lived together in the phase prior to initiation rituals, a period spanning around five years, in the "house of those who are single" -Hö, in the Xavante language. Not only do they take part in initiation rites together, they are also married together in a collective ceremony.

THE DIGITAL VILLAGE PROJECT
The goal of the Digital Village Project is to promote education in media use among the A'uwē Xavante of Sangradouro village, offering workshops on blogmaking, animated film, documentary video and posters. Workshop activities include filming, recording, documentation, and the written and audiovisual description of the cultural practices of the A'uwē Xavante, as well as the subsequent distribution, publication and transmission of the material produced via the internet. The purpose of the workshops the project team gave was to offer education and training to the youth of the village so that they could acquire the skills needed to produce their own media. In global terms, our purpose was to enable the digital inclusion of this indigenous ethnic group.
The Indigenous Land (T.I.) Xavante of Sangradouro covers a surface area of approximately 100,000 hectares, and is inhabited by 1,660 people, distributed among 25 villages. Sangradouro is the main village and the largest, founded in 1957 by a group coming from the Xavante of Parabubure Indigenous Land, led by Pedro Toroibu. 2 The village is located 1.5km from the BR-070 interstate highway (km 225), some 53km distance from the town of Primavera do Leste.
According to the last census, carried out in 2010 by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the population of Sangradouro village was 882 people. Near to Sangradouro village is a village belonging to the Bororo ethnic group, as well as a Salesian mission. The mission is a mere 700 meters from the village, and comprises a church and a residential building that accommodates priests, nuns and occasional guests. Next to the mission is a health center and the San José Indian School, which offers primary and secondary school education.
A large proportion of our workshops were held in the computer laboratory of the Indian School in Sangradouro village. The Sangradouro Indian School was founded in 1957 by the Salesians. From 1957 to 1974, it functioned as a boarding school. From 1975From until 1990, it no longer operated as a boarding school but continued to be managed by the Salesians. In 1991, the school administration was switched over to the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Finally, since 2006, all its teachers and the school principal have been Xavante. The center has a computer laboratory with around 20 computers, internet access and an A'uwē Xavante computer instructor called Natal. At present, the laboratory is used for teaching and educational activities at the school, whose curriculum includes a basic course on computer use. 515 article | rafael franco coelho Our project team had permanent members responsible for its management and organization, as well as collaborators who worked with the former on specific tasks. Interdisciplinary in makeup, the team comprised professors, staff, technicians and students from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG), the School of Information and Communication (FIC), the School of Visual Arts, and the School of Social Sciences and Anthropology. I was the project coordinator, always working in close conjunction with the A'uwē Xavante, however, both within the project team and with the council of elders, in each successive phase.
The coordinating team sought to enable self-management, as well as respect for the traditional A'uwē Xavante manner of decision-making, through ongoing consultation with its council of elders. (MEC) through a program that supports community outreach projects for the implementation of public policies for social inclusion. One of its financing streams is specifically for digital and ethnic inclusion.

METHODOLOGY
My research methodology takes as a central reference the method expounded in the book Through Navajo eyes: an exploration in film communication and anthropology (Worth & Adair, 1972). As Banks (2008) affirms, this work provides a clear and well-designed model for empirical research, with lucid and objective methodologies. In addition to this classical reference work, my research employed multiple methods of field research, including interviews, focal groups, actionresearch, participant-observation and ethnographic method, with emphasis on the use of photography and the audiovisual as field observation methods.
In my research, I have opted for the description and qualitative analysis of the material. I examine the process of media development within the framework of Aldeia Digital (Digital Village) project, as well as the results and products it generated. In interpreting the results, I reflect upon and discuss the concepts of social organization involved in media production and indigenous media.
Workshops were developed over the course of 2012 and held monthly, over weekends and holidays. In July 2012, we carried out a workshop whose activities were split between the Sangradouro and San Marcos Indigenous Lands (ILs), separated by a distance of 127km. Finally, in July 2013, we ran a workshop that used the Television Studio and video editing computer at the School of Information and Communication of the Federal University of Goiás (FIC-UFG).
Our students were A'uwē Xavante from Sangradouro village, the focal group of our research. We initially issued an open invitation to the entire village, and tried not to limit workshop students to one gender, age group or clan. As 516 the digital village project sociol. antropol. | rio de janeiro, v.10.02: 513 -535, may. -aug., 2020 the project unfolded, it took shape spontaneously as a self-managed, fixed group of students. It was made up of 15 men between 15 and 25 years of age, divided into four groups. They possessed basic knowledge in computers, acquired in classes taken at the village school.
The workshops led to the production of a blog, a documentary video, nine animated short films using a stop-motion technique, two logos, a series of posters and a Facebook group. This added up to a total of 13 workshops, 11 of which were used as a source of information for my research.  Ginsburg (1991: 107) defines indigenous media as media produced by indigenous peoples who have been historically dominated by the States of countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia. To this list we can add Brazil, which has sometimes been referred to as the 'fourth world. ' Wilson and Stewart (2008: 2) provide us with a definition that speaks of media "conceptualized, produced and/or created by the indigenous people of the world." For Ginsburg (1995: 211), the use of the term "indigenous media" is respectful of the understandings and modes of identification of indigenous producers themselves.

INDIGENOUS MEDIA
How can the concept of indigeneity be used as a theoretical tool for reflections on indigenous media? According to Wilson and Stewart (2008: 23), indigenous media "articulate and negotiate the meaning of indigeneity in the 20th century" and, in Ginsberg's view (1993: 369), its "multiple ways […] emerges from very different social bases for the understanding of [indigeneity] and its representation […] across cultural and national borders." In other words, the existing set of relational concepts of indigeneity can serve as a point of departure for answering the question posed above. Ginsburg (1995: 216) sees indigenous media as a tool that is implemented by different parties in order to reach an agreement: in other words, it becomes a form of mediation, and has the role of negotiating the boundaries and relationships between different social and ethnic groups, between different cultures and generations within an indigenous community, and between identities and Nation States. Turner (1992: 16) highlights the role of indigenous media "as mediators of social and political activ-517 article | rafael franco coelho ity." Barth (1976: 11) asserts that the anthropological literature usually defines ethnic group as -among other things -a population that "integrates a field of communication and interaction" and operates between and across ethnic boundaries. Wilson and Stewart (2008: 18) give salience to ethnic media as a central tool for indigenous peoples' movements and actions in relation to the State and national society.
Many of those who conduct research on indigenous media -Ginsburg (1991,1993,1995), Turner (1992), Alia (2010), Wilson and Stewart (2008), Michaels (1984, Leuthold (1997) − are unanimous in their view that these media play a key role in the set of criteria, properties or conditions that inhere within indigenous communities, in keeping with concepts that emerge around the notion of "indigeneity." In this sense, indigenous peoples have utilized and appropriated a variety of media for political and cultural purposes, "as new vehicles for internal [inter-ethnic] and external communication, for self-determination, and for resistance to outside cultural domination" (Ginsburg, 1991: 92). Prins (2004: 516) and Michaels (1986) refer to these processes as the indigenization of media. For Turner (1992: 5), the global expansion of information technologies and low-cost digital technologies have allowed "the appropriation and use of new technologies on the part of indigenous peoples, to their own ends," especially in the case of peoples who live at a distance from the West, such as aboriginal Australians, Canadian Inuit, and Amazonian native peoples.
In Ginsburg's view (1991), the appropriation of media by indigenous communities poses questions regarding the positive and negative options for the use of technologies. "Is it indeed possible to develop an alternative practice and aesthetic using forms so identified with the political and economic imperatives of Western consumer culture and the institutions of mass society?" (Ginsburg, 1995: 210). On the one hand, we are observing "new modes for expressing indigenous identity through media […] to serve their own needs and ends" (Ginsburg, 1991: 96). At the same time, "the spread of communications technology […] threatens to be a final assault on culture, language, imagery, relationship between generations, and respect for traditional knowledge" (Ginsburg, 1991: 96).
As the present text should make evident, indigenous media pose challenges to traditional models of communication. Turner (1992) argues that indigenous peoples use media very differently from non-indigenous populations. Molnar (1990: 152) asserts that indigenous peoples see their land as "the center from which information emanates. Their information/communications model is the reverse of the European model, which sees urban cities as the center and remote communities as the periphery". This model of indigenous communication unfolds through what we can refer to as the "indigenous perspective." This involves not only a change in point of view and reference, but also a questioning of policies, power, and the processes of domination and exploitation that remain concealed in the importation and adoption of external models. 518 the digital village project sociol. antropol. | rio de janeiro, v.10.02: 513 -535, may. -aug., 2020

INDIGENOUS MEDIA AS SOCIAL PROCESS
According to Michaels (1984), the way in which indigenous media are produced, exhibited, and used reflects the social structure of the community from which they emerge, their political system, rules of kinship and other issues related to indigenous society.
In comparison to traditional media and their generally stereotypical ways of representing indigenous communities, indigenous media not only permit other forms of representation but other processes and forms of social organization of production -more vertical and less hierarchical, more inclusive, participatory, collaborative and collective. In Ginsburg's view (1993Ginsburg's view ( , 1995, the diverse types of indigenous media produced by and with indigenous communities operate across different levels of social, political and economic change and organization. They represent the varied social roles and positions occupied by indigenous communities and the way in which they acquire "visibility and cultural control over their own images" (Ginsburg, 1995: 228). Ginsburg (1993: 378) emphasizes that "the social relations built out of indigenous media practices are helping to develop support and sensibilities for indigenous actions for self-determination", making their concerns visible to the entire world and creating areas of cooperation that connect indigenous producers "at local, national, transnational and international levels" (Ginsburg, 1993: 378). From within this framework, the author suggests that the work and social production of indigenous media comprise a new model of cultural production. She proposes the analysis of indigenous media as a complex cultural object and as part of the mediascape (Appadurai, 1990) of social relations.
In a pioneering work, Michaels (1984) analyzes the social organization of video production among Australian aborigines. In his article, the author describes kinship relations among media project participants. The genealogy of kinship demonstrates that the people involved were closely related, whether through the maternal or paternal lineage. The communicational division of labor was distributed among these lineages. The author also shows that the major functions of video production, such as directing and camera work, were divided according to criteria inherent to the social structure of aboriginal communities. Hence, cameraman would come from a key individual's paternal line, and the director from the maternal line. The social organization of video production thus observed and respected kinship rules and the ceremonial requisites of aboriginal tradition.

XAVANTE MEDIA
The Xavante people have a longstanding relationship with media, initially as objects that interested them and, more recently, as relations that they themselves produce. According to Leal (2017), during the 1940s, the Xavante became known throughout Brazil due to the publication of numerous articles in the 519 article | rafael franco coelho mass media, in particular, which recorded the first contacts with the population. One example was the article published in 1942 in the magazine O Cruzeiro. Intitled "Enfrentando os Chavantes" (Confronting the Xavante), it included an aerial photo taken by the photographer Jean Manzon in which a group of several Xavante can be seen shooting arrows at an airplane circling above their village. The text reports that arrows hit the plane as it flew some five meters from the ground. With the sponsorship and support of the Brazilian state, the press represented the Xavante as warlike savages. Leal (2017) observes that the first experience of Xavante use and appropriation of communication technologies in their struggle for rights dates back to the late 1970s. At that time, Mario Juruna, the political leader of the San Marcos Indigenous Land, had the idea of using a tape recorder to record government personnel, who would be caught making false promises to return Xavante land to tribal control. Later, using the press, Juruna disseminated the recordings and publicly exposed the government staff as liars (Graham, 2011). This activism made Juruna quite well known, and in 1982 he became the first and only indigenous person to be elected to Congress. This was a pioneering example of the use of communication technology in the construction of a political career and in relation to the Nation State.
Audiovisual filmmaking is the primary Xavante media and was first put to use in 1997 through the Vídeo nas Aldeias project. The first video was made by Caimi Waiasse, a Xavante man from the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Land, and bears the title Tem que ser curioso (One has to be curious). In the film, the Xavante director discusses how he became interested in cinema. The second film was made in 1998 and called Hepari Idub'rada, thank-you, brother. Directed by Divino Tserewahú from the Sangradouro Indigenous Land, it features Divino's own testimony as he thanks his brother for having taught him to use a video camera and make audiovisual productions. This initial series of films provide an interesting insight into an indigenous people's discovery of film and communications media.
In 1999, Divino invited Caimi, along with two other Xavante and a Suyá person, to make a documentary on Xavante initiation rituals. The other two Xavante are Bartolomeu Patira from Sangradouro and Jorge Protodi from Pimentel Barbosa. The resulting production was Wapté Mnhõnõ, iniciação do jovem xavante (Initiation of a Xavante Youth), made on the training workshops of the Vídeo nas Aldeias project. The video went on to win five awards: two in Brazil, two in Italy and one in Bolivia. Coelho (2007: 57) states in his master's dissertation that this film represents "the first attempt on the part of a Xavante group to produce an anthropology of themselves, a narrative and audiovisual text on their own ritual." Caixeta de Queiroz (2008: 113) also asserts that in the film Iniciação do jovem xavante, "it is the power of the images and sounds that allow for the production of a true native anthropology." 520 the digital village project sociol. antropol. | rio de janeiro, v.10.02: 513 -535, may. -aug., 2020 In general terms, this production, as well as most of the videos made by

Factions
According to Paula (2007: 78), factions are "context-related and corporatist social groups that emerge around ephemeral political goals, made up exclusively of men who belong to the elder age group (Iprédu)." For Maybury-Lewis (1984), a faction is made up of a lineage and those who support it, the latter element consisting of members of another lineage from the same clan, isolated individuals or even lineages belonging to a different clan. They are temporary political groupings that come together around the dichotomous categories found in clans and lineages. According to Lopes da Silva (1986: 246), the ground from which factions spring are "groups with common paternal ancestry". The Xavante term for people of the same faction is watsiwadí, a term that can be translated as "my people." In Sangradouro, when we began the Digital Village Project, we were informed that there was a split in the village. According to project members, this split dated back to 2011, during the election of the leaders of the youths who were set to take part in the initiation ritual. Tsereruremé'dzai'wa, a man from the Pö´redza'õnõ clan, presented his son to the men's council as a candidate to lead the initiation rites. The Pahöri'wa leader is the most important ritual and ceremonial position in Xavante society. It is the exclusive function of the Pö'redza'õnõ clan, specifically of the Pahöri'wa lineage and the leader of its age group during the ritual, noting here that it is important to distinguish between the Pahöri'wa lineage and the leader of the initiation ritual, also referred to as Pahöri'wa. In Sangradouro village, the major lineages are the Pahöri'wa of the Pö´redza´õnõ clan and the Tebe of the Öwawē clan.
On this occasion, the council elected four leaders for the initiation rites rather than the customary two. This outcome displeased one group of people who subsequently broke off their alliance with the dominant faction and transferred their support to the opposition. The results of the election thus weakened 521 article | rafael franco coelho the dominant group, which lost supporters. In turn, the opposition was strengthened, bringing the discontented and those aspiring to the chiefdom together.
It may well be that the problem of the election of the Pahöri'wa had been used as pretext to weaken the dominant faction.
According to Maybury-Lewis (1984), in the Xavante village of San Domingos (today Pimentel Barbosa), there was only one Pahöri'wa leader who was not of the same lineage as the chief. The chief kept the ceremonial position among his own sons, whose status, in turn, came from their father's position as chief.
Each of his sons belonged to a different age group (generation).

MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE OF THE DIGITAL VILLAGE PROJECT
In the development of Digital Village workshops in Sangradouro, students were divided into working groups. The animated film workshop was the first, splitting students into five groups. This was followed by the documentary video workshop, which divided its participants into two groups. Finally, the second animated film workshop split its students into the four groups that have been maintained until the present. In this article, I restrict myself to analysis of the last and current training program. Group divisions have enabled self-management, thus restricting my role to the request to form groups. The criteria used by members to form them have not yet been studied. In Table 1 below I present the clans to which group members taking part in the Digital Village Project belong.

Group 3 3 people -
Group 4 3 people 1 person Table 1 Clans of Digital Village group members Source: Author's own field data. 526 the digital village project sociol. antropol. | rio de janeiro, v.10.02: 513 -535, may. -aug., 2020 Initially, the large number of people coming from the Pö'redza'õnõ clan attracts our attention and seems to suggest a certain 'dominance' on its part, since all the members of groups two and three belong to it. This could indicate that these groups are organized according to 'moieties,' yet the presence of members of the Öwawē clan in groups one and four obliges us to dig more deeply into the reasons for their presence. Giaccaria (2000: 145) notes that the article | rafael franco coelho

The leader of the Digital Village Project
The four groups of the Digital Village Project each chose a coordinator, one of whom became the overall leader of the project. The choice was made by group members, using criteria I would like to tease out and explore further.
The general coordinator of the Digital Village Project is Natal Anhahö'a Tsere'ruremé. Natal is from the Pö'redza'õnõ clan and belongs to the Pahöri'wa lineage, the same as Alexandre. In fact, Natal is Alexandre's nephew and Domingos's son-in-law, married to his daughter. Through personal communication with Bartolomeu, I learned that Natal was being prepared to become a leader.
According to Maybury-Lewis (1984), the route to leader status is a long one that actually begins with the initiation rites carried out while youths are living in the house of the single men (referred to as Hö in the Xavante language).
During this period, young people are groomed for their ability to exercise lead- sociol. antropol. | rio de janeiro, v.10.02: 513 -535, may. -aug., 2020 system, external factors such as participation in the Digital Village Project became instrumental in the construction of his internal political career.

Coordinators
In addition to Natal, the coordinators of the other three groups of the Digital Village Project are from the Pahöri'wa lineage, the same as Alexandre and Natal.

Mature youth Danhohui´wa
Mature man Iprédu ité Table 2 Xavante age-classes and categories in Sangradouro (2012) Source: Author's own field data. Table 3 Age-categories of Digital Village Project members Source: Author's own field data. In general, we can note that as men reach higher age categories, they acquire greater power and political prestige. In the case of the groups in our project, leadership became one way in which the old dominant group sought to guarantee control over the project. My fieldwork enabled me to perceive the political implications that the hierarchy present in age categories has for power relations. In general, the elderly have more political prestige than young people, except for those who become leaders.

Abstract
In this article, I analyze the social organization of Xavante media production during the Digital Village Project, and explore how student involvement in the latter reflects the social characteristics and specificities of the Xavante community. To explain how project participants organized themselves into groups, I connect these groupings to the Xavante social structure and political system. My hypothesis is that the formation of the groups making up the project and the interaction of their members were established through categories already present in Xavante social structure. In this sense, we can conclude that the introduction to media production in the community is not enough to change the social relations prevailing in Sangradouro village.

Indigenous media;
social organization of media production; Lowland South America; Xavante.