Village schools, power and new inequalities: effects of schools on Wauja local economy, political system, and domestic relationships

Abstract

Abstract Studies argue that formal schooling in Indigenous communities tends to be negatively associated with children acquiring local cultural knowledge, and that formal schooling using a language and world views unrelated to local knowledge contributes to its erosion. Yet the impact of schooling on a community extends far beyond the curriculum itself. School reshapes the daily routine, as well as the nature of work and leisure for children, teachers, parents and the community. In cultures such as that of the Wauja of central Brazil, where, before the arrival of schools, all adults contributed to food production, schooling immediately creates a division of labor between salaried workers who can buy food and people without salaries who must produce it themselves. Salaries change not only labor patterns, but the local economy itself, as well as residence patterns, and even gender roles. Young men who earn salaries can be head of their own nuclear family households, instead of doing bride service and living in extended family households under the authority of a father-in-law. This change in residence patterns, in turn, impacts roles and status of women within their homes. Effects of various disruptive forces associated with introduction of schools are examined.