1 IDENTIDADE INDÍGENA NO BRASIL HOJE Florêncio Almeida Vaz Filho (Mg.) Antropólogo. Professor Assistente na Universidade Federal do Pará, Campus de Santarém (PA), e Doutorando em Ciências Sociais/Antropologia na Universidade Federal da Bahia, BRASIL florenciovaz@yahoo.com.br For many years, the word “Indians” in Brazil signified tribal and rural populations or “savages”, with exotic customes. Thus the descendants of the indigenous who lived in the city, even though they presented physical and characteristic traits of the indigenous, did not consider themselves indigenous and they were not considered indigenous by others. The indigenous who migrated to the cities were no longer Indians and became socially “invisible”. This picture began to change in the last years, with [1] the appearance of indigenous organizations in various Brazilian cities and with [2] the increase of the number of individuals who live in the urban areas and who identified themselves as indigenous. This doubled the number of the indigenous in the country, who reached 735 thousand in the census of 2000. There is evidence that this tendency will continue and is provoking contrary reactions with the sectors of the government that take care of the Indians. They seem to be uncomfortable with the demands of these indigenous for the rights, which are guaranteed to them by the Constitution. Certain sections of the society also react, raising suspicion about the true “indianity” of these groups, argueing that they are not true Indians. The State and a part of the society accustomed with the old idea of the Indians as being from the rural tribal villages, have not accepted the other concept, more ample and inclusive of what is an Indian. Our work or paper tries to determine the elements that will answer the question: Who are the indigenous in Brazil today? Como saber quem é indígena no Brasil hoje? Diante das mudanças ocorridas nas comunidades indígenas e na sociedade brasileira nas últimas décadas, esta pergunta aparentemente simples está rondando a cabeça de autoridades do Governo, antropólogos, indigenistas e os próprios indígenas. Durante séculos, a palavra “índio” evocava imediatamente a natureza, homens exóticos nus, com os corpos pintados e adornos de plumas. Eram as populações tribais e “selvagens”, que viviam isoladas ou com pouco contato com a sociedade nacional. Tal imagem já não explica a complexidade de situações que atualmente