The identification of the indigenous population in Brazil’s official statistics, with an emphasis on demographic censuses

Abstract

This paper describes and contextualizes how the Indigenous population has been identified in Brazil’s official statistics. In the complex trajectory of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Brazil, which spans more than 500 years, the interests, perspectives and approaches adopted by initiatives seeking to identify the Indigenous population for the purposes of official statistics have assumed a variety of forms. At present, the diverse official sources contain a multitude of criteria for identifying Indigenous peoples