# Talk:Teso Dos Bichos (The X-Files)

I don't get the title... "dos" can mean either "two" or "of the", depending on whether one is translating from Spanish or Portuguese. But if the episode is about Equador, why would the translation be from Portuguese? And why is Portuguese mentioned in the article anyway?203.97.110.64 (talk) 11:35, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Good question. This was just a piss-poor episode though.--Gen. Quon (talk) 14:52, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Is that Zachary Quinto in the teaser at 05:12? 85.179.3.2 (talk) 23:05, 17 January 2016 (UTC) Hans

Hi, I'm not someone who watches the X Files, but there is something I'd like to discuss. In real life, there is an archeological site called Teso dos Bichos. We have an article about it, which is called Monte de Teso dos Bichos. There are several things I would like to discuss here:

Currently, this article says: The episode's title is Brazilian Portuguese for "burial mound of small animals". It seems plausible to me that the episode's title was based on the archeological site. If this is the case, then I would like this information to be included.
I'm not happy with the current referral structure. As it is now, Teso Dos Bichos is about the X Files episode, and Monte de Teso dos Bichos (where the "Monte" part seems rather superfluous) is about the archeological site. Neither article links to the other. I would like to have a structure here that is more in line with Wikipedia practice, either through a disambiguation page, or taking one of them (the archeological site?) as the principal meaning of the term.
Thank you, LeRoc (talk) 12:11, 11 May 2025 (UTC)

I don't know if any reliable sources makes a connection between the two, but if they do, I think that certainly warrants a mention. In the meantime, I've added a "Template:For" note at the top of this article, pointing to the "Monte de Teso dos Bichos" page.--Gen. Quon[Talk] 20:54, 11 May 2025 (UTC)
Thank you. I don't have access to The Unauthorized X-cyclopedia. Not to be adversarial, but does it say that the makers had "burial mound of small animals" in mind when they titled the episode? As someone who is fluent in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, this seems highly unlikely. "Teso dos Bichos" is not a slang expression in either language. LeRoc (talk) 13:45, 12 May 2025 (UTC)
The cited book does mention the possible translation (here's a snippet). I also found this in the book Moundbuilders of the Americas: "Teso dos Bichos [is] a typical artificial mound of the Marajoara Phase on the Goiapi River in central Marajo ... The site is also called Aterro dos Bichos or Ilha dos Bichos. The words teso and aterro mean earthen mounds in Brazilian Portuguese, and the word ilha means island. Bichos refers to animals."--Gen. Quon[Talk] 14:34, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
I went ahead and made these tweaks. What do you think? IMHO, "burial" is a bit of an extrapolation from the meaning of Teso, so I just left it "mound".--Gen. Quon[Talk] 14:43, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
Thank you. Just mentioning again that I'm fluent in Portuguese, I live in Brazil. Teso isn't a generic term for "burial mound", it refers to a specific type of burial mounds that are only found in the Brazilian Amazon (near its delta). I started writing the article teso (archeological site) yesterday. There are hundreds of them. The one that is most known — also outside of Brazil — happens to be called Teso dos Bichos. I assume people called it that because animals seek refuge on this elevation in times of flooding.
Without knowing much about the X-Files, I am now convinced that the makers of this episode named it after this archeological site and then took some artistic liberty situating the story in Ecuador. The only way the combination of words Teso, Dos and Bichos makes sense in South America (or anywhere else) is when they refer to this archeological site. I can imagine that these sites have something of a mysterious aura, which fits perfectly within the framework of the program.
Just for fun, suppose that I wanted to write an article on Wikipedia about a Dutch television series, and one of the episodes was called De Piramide van Djoser. Would I need to show a source where the makers explicitly say they were referring to the Pyramid of Djoser before I can include this link in the article? Would these makers even do that? LeRoc (talk) 15:19, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
Re the name's origin: I just thought it would be good to have another (non-TV-focused) source that affirms the translation. As for your question about explicitly mentioning the link, it's tricky. Wikipedia's policy on original research means that we can't include "any analysis or synthesis of published material that reaches or implies a conclusion not stated by the sources". That said: it is a fact that the two share the same name, so I think mentioning that fact (rather than saying one directly, definitely inspired the other) in the article seems reasonable. As such, what do you think about this edit?--Gen. Quon[Talk] 16:30, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
Yes I know. The phrasing you proposed is acceptable to me, thank you. If you don't mind, I am thinking of requesting a name change. The current title Monte de Teso dos Bichos is a bit of a pleonasm, it means something like "Hill of Bichos Hill". (Maybe the person who started the article named it like this because the X-Files article already existed.)
I have two options in mind:
Create a disambiguation page Teso dos Bichos that links to Teso dos Bichos (archeological site) and Teso Dos Bichos (X-Files).
Make the page Teso dos Bichos about the archeological site as the primary meaning of the term, with a link to the X-Files episode.
I'm neutral between the two, and am also open for other options. What do you think? LeRoc (talk) 17:33, 13 May 2025 (UTC)
I don't think that's a bad idea at all. I know that Wikipedia has a preference for the most popular page getting precedent, but that could be hammered out in an official discussion. Either way, I think it makes sense.--Gen. Quon[Talk] 13:08, 14 May 2025 (UTC)
It's a bit different on the Dutch Wikipedia, where the preference for disamb pages seems to be stronger. I'll make the request and see how it plays out. LeRoc (talk) 05:16, 15 May 2025 (UTC)
(As an aside, I think the 'Dutch approach' is how it should be: I don't like the rather arbitrary way some pages get precedent.)--Gen. Quon[Talk] 13:34, 15 May 2025 (UTC)
I'm with you here. I made the move request (see below). Let'see. LeRoc (talk) 09:16, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Monte de Teso dos Bichos which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you.  —RMCD bot 09:09, 21 May 2025 (UTC)