Talk:Mércio Pereira Gomes

Stuff
I think there is nothing wrong in this article. He created so much of publicity in Brazil. This article have links outside. It is not just an article about a person. Head of FUNAI is a well known figure in Brazil. Even more well known are his threats to the people who he is supposed to protect. I want this article to be reviewed by an anthropologist and a brazilian. - unsigned edit by User:Anandks007
 * I've added some further info and fixed up the article a bit. Have removed the tags - no sense deleting this. Particularly with the Sydney Possuelo conflict it's very notable. Tomtefarbror 15:57, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I reverted to the MHKing version on grounds of possible conflict of interest (see WP:COI/N), plus removed one unsourced potentialy libellous statement per WP:BLP. Tearlach 02:43, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Consensus, please
I've moved the unreferenced material here for discussion. Basically we've got two versions: a referenced hatchet job, and an unreferenced version that contains a lot of apparently accurate detail but is a whitewash. Revert warring never, ever, gets an article in a stable condition that either of the opponents wants. So how can this all be put together as a NPOV compromise? Tearlach 12:40, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
 * The first referenced version is a slenderous account of Mercio Pereira Gomes´role as head of Funai. The referenced material was picked up from among many other news material that consideres Gomes a very important anthropologist and the first civilian to head Funai for as long as three and half years. The person Gomes fired from Funai is also a controversial figure that purports to have made contact with many Indian tribes but is actually considered a media expert. After being fired from Funai the section he directed was reoriented and today works in a more transparent and decisive manner. The reference to Mercio Gomes´Blog is important, as well as to Funai´s site where much information can be collected about Brazilian indians and the presidency of Gomes. It is unacceptable that the first writer of Mercio Pereira Gomes voices the opinion that Gomes has made "threats to the people who he is supposed to protect." - unsigned edit by  (Please sign your edits)
 * It's not right to delete and replace a whole article just because you personally happen to not agree with it. At least create a Criticism section to move the old content into. I find the new content makes it sound like Gomes practically invented indigenous people and that it reads like an advert for something on sale! (no pun intended..). I don't think Sydney Possuelo would have been featured in National Geographic or been listed on this list of unsung heroes on the United Nations site if he was "actually considered a media expert" who just "pretends" to make contact with indian tribes? And Survival International probably wouldn't have a consultative status with UN  if they were in the habit of just making things like this up? The old content is going back in! Tomtefarbror 15:18, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I've added the criticism back in - no censorship please. Have left the whitewash in the article for now to avoid another revert-war, but if at least some of the claims to his greatness such as "..he received the highest praise from the part of the Minister of Justice and from all Indians present." cannot be backed up by references I think it should go. Also, I think it's worth noting that the pro section was written by someone with the username "Mercio Gomes". Tomtefarbror 16:27, 13 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Undid another delete of all criticism without any comment...this time done by anonymous IP 65.74.26.97. Next time it happens I will remove all non-referenced content from the article. Tomtefarbror (talk) 14:37, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Unreferenced version
Mércio Pereira Gomes is a Brazilian anthropologist who presently (April 2007) teaches at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, in Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Florida, in 1977, under the supervision of Charles Wagley, who at that time was considered the foremost Brazilianist in the United States and had done extensive fieldwork in Brazil. Gomes's dissertation was about the Tenetehara Indians of northern Brazil and in it Gomes expounded how this Indigenous people had managed to survive almost 400 hundred years of relations with Western society. It was one of the first dissertations to demonstrate that it was possible for Indigenous peoples in Brazil to survive. Years later, Gomes published his first book called "Os índios e o Brasil" (Petropolis, Vozes, 1988), where he not only demonstrated but hailed the survival of Brazilian Indians as the most important news in the recent history of internethnic relations in that country. This book was later translated into English by the University of Florida Press (2000) with the title "The Indians and Brazil", and received excellent reviews. Another important publication by Gomes was his book on the Tenetehara Indians called "O Índio na História" (Petropolis, Vozes, 2002).

Gomes has done extensive fieldwork with several Brazilian Indigenous peoples, foremost the Tenetehara, the Guajá, and the Avá-Canoeiro. In 1991 he was invited together with three other scholars from different parts of the world by several Dutch NGOs to carry out a research on how the Dutch people relate to the environment. The result was a report which was published under the title "A Vision for the South: how wealth degrades the environment" (Leiden, 1992). Besides teaching in several universities in Brazil and abroad, such as Unicamp, in Campinas, SP, UERJ, in Rio de Janeiro, and Macalester College, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Gomes has also been undersecretary of culture and education in the State of Rio de Janeiro (1991-1995) and president of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (FUNAI -- National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples).

As head of FUNAI between September 2003 and March 2007, Gomes left a record of organizing and promoting the demarcation of 50 new Indigenous lands, including the Trombetas-Mapuera Indigenous Land, with about 40.000 square km, besides concluding the process of demarcation and registration of some 67 new Indigenous Lands, including the much controversial Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land. Though considered a very difficult job, with critics coming from all sides, such as farmers, agribusiness, politicians, wildcat miners, loggers, and, last but not least, anthropologists and NGOs, Gomes was the head of FUNAI for the longest time ever for a civilian and particularly for an anthropologist. At the conclusion of his term he received the highest praise from the Minister of Justice and from all Indians present.

Referenced version
Mercio Pereira Gomes is the controversial head of FUNAI (National Indian Foundation of Brazil). Critics say that he is allied with ranchers and loggers. Gomes has stated he plans to reduce the size of reservations and open them up for "productive activity" by outside people. Reservations like Igarape Omere where isolated people live have been earmarked for productive activity and logging.

The indians response to Gomes allegations that they "have too much land" can be read on the Survival International page.

Sydney Possuelo, famous anthropologist and Director of the Department of Unknown Tribes (Departamento de Indios Isolados) at FUNAI since the early 1990's was dismissed from his position on January 24 2006, only days after publicly criticizing Mercio Gomes statements.

External links
 * Sydney Possuelo - Mercio Gomes conflict
 * Survival International criticism
 * Champion for Brazil's indigenous gets fired

Article full of lies
The article tries to show Gomes as a protector of Tribals. In truth he is widely involved in the genocide of indigenous people in Brazil. (Axxn 05:20, 19 May 2007 (UTC))