The Reuters FaithWorld blog reports on a controversial YouTube video making the rounds that purports to depict the “common problem” of infanticide among indigenous tribes in Brazil. The controversy has arisen because the video was funded by the missionary group Youth With A Mission (who have a vested interest in eliminating traditional religions), the video itself is an admitted “recreation” of unverified events, and Survival International claims that infanticide is actually a rare and “dying out” occurrence among Brazilian Indians.

“Enock Freire, one of the makers of the film that was shot with members of the Suruwaha tribe, defended it when contacted by Reuters. He said it was no secret that it was fiction, acted out by local Indians, but that it was aimed at drawing attention to the very real and what he said was the common problem of infanticide by Amazon Indian tribes. He said there is a widespread belief among tribes that children with “bad souls”, including those who are disabled, need to take their last breath underground to avoid them coming back to haunt the village.”

So what does it matter if the practice is “rare” or “common”? Both Survival International and Youth With A Mission are against the practice of infanticide, so what’s the big deal with a video drawing attention to the problem? The problem, according to Survival International, is that the video is racist, incites anti-Indian sentiment, and is actually part of an evangelical campaign for passage of the “Muwaji law”.

“The Muwaji law focuses on what it calls ‘traditional practices’ and says what the state and citizens must do about them. It says that if anyone thinks there is a risk of ‘harmful traditional practices’, they must report it. If they don’t, they are liable to imprisonment. The authorities must intervene and remove the children and/or their parents. All this because someone, anyone, a missionary for example, claims there is some risk.”

Survival also points out that killing children is already illegal in Brazil, and that this new law would grant vast powers to unscrupulous missionaries, and prompt “witch-hunts” against indigenous peoples.

“…this law could bring catastrophic social breakdown, with neighbor spying on neighbor, families split and lives destroyed. Local authorities are bound to err on the side of caution, and wade in, especially if they risk imprisonment themselves if they don’t act. All manner of petty neighborhood disputs risk escalating into appalling and irreversible action … suppose, for example, some disgruntled community member, or local missionary, reported his thoughts that everyone in a village knew about a risk of infanticide but hadn’t gone to the authorities. Under the proposed law, everyone except him should be imprisoned! It’s a law fostering witch-hunts.”

There are web sites that quite plainly position the “Hakani” video as a tool to pass this new law, and brands opponents as followers of “radical” Cultural Relativism. Plainly revealing the political agenda behind their public cries of empathy. Nor is Survival International the only critic of this film. The Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department has called for an investigation into whether Youth With A Mission broke the law in the making of “Hakani”. While all sides agree that infanticide is tragic and something that should be ended, it seems rather clear that passions are being inflamed in order to pass laws that could target tribes resistant to advances from Christian missionaries. Distracting the public from the real dangers tribal groups face from loggers, ranchers, and even the Brazilian government’s own military.

Tags: Brazil, Christianity, Hakani, indigenous, Survival International