The text analyses the prospects for indigenous populations development, having as a reference the Kaiowá and Guarani, in South Mato Grosso, Brazil. Although they have the same demands for protection, food supply and health care amongst other requirements, and very often, with the same economic situation or natural resources available, their historically constructed ways of satisfying the necessities of each group have been specific, this being the distinctness of each group that goes back to their social organization, world visions and specific cosmologies.
Development; Indigenous populations; Cultural distinctness