The indigenous “Bolsa Família” (Family Allowance): monetarization, income redistribution, and the social life of the Rikbaktsa, Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Primarily since the early 2000s, Indigenous peoples in Brazil have become beneficiaries of social security and income transfer policies, such as the program known as Bolsa Família (Family Allowance). Few field studies have evaluated the magnitude and significance of monetarization in Indigenous social lives and economies. To this end, between 2019 and 2020, the present work conducted an ethnographic study and survey in two villages of the Rikbaktsa people in the Brazilian Amazon. The quantitative results showed the social dissemination of money from governmental Programs and other activities, producing marked income classes. Important transactions were not captured, considered as “helps” that could not be denied by those with a given amount of money. Like an Indigenous “Bolsa Família”, hybrid resources were redistributed in a heated-up village market, counteracting socioeconomic differences and unequal conditions. The discussion takes place in a globally unfavorable sociopolitical context that exacerbates historical inequalities expressed in the living and health conditions of Indigenous peoples. This research contributes to the production of data and the proposal of culturally sensitive methodologies to estimate and enable the governance of public policies for/by Indigenous people, which are recommended to reverse these inequities.

Key words: Indigenous People; Public Policy; Evaluation methodologies; Health Inequity