Indigenous peoples in Brazil

The Indigenous peoples in Brazil (povos indígenas in Portuguese) comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500. Like Christopher Columbus, who thought he had reached the East Indies, the first Portuguese explorers called them índios ("Indians"), a name that is still used today in Brazil.

At the time of European discovery, the indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. Many of the estimated 2000 nations and tribes which existed in 1500 died out as a consequence of the European settlement, and many were assimilated into the Brazilian population. The indigenous population has declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated 4–6 million to just 100,000 in 1950—probably one of the largest genocides in human history. Most of the surviving tribes have changed their ways of life to some extent, e.g. by using firearms and other industrialized items, trading goods with mainstream society, using schools and medical posts, etc.. Only a few tribes (such as the Korubo, isolated in remote areas of the Amazon Rainforest) still retain their original culture.

However, changes in government policies over the past 50 years have managed to afford some protection to the remaining indigenous peoples, and the population has risen again to some 300,000 (1997), grouped into some 200 tribes. A somewhat dated linguistic survey (Rodrigues 1985) found 188 living indigenous languages with 155,000 total speakers.

Brazilian Indians made substantial and pervasive contributions to the country's material and cultural development—such as the domestication of cassava, which is still a major staple food in rural areas of the country.

In the last IBGE census (2000), 700,000 Brazilians classified themselves as indigenous.

Origins

The origins of these indigenous peoples are still a matter of dispute among archaeologists. The traditional view, which traces them to Siberian migration to America at the end of the last ice age, has been increasingly challenged by South American archaeologists.

The Siberian Ice Age Hypothesis

Anthropological and genetic evidence indicates that most Native American peoples descended from migrant peoples from North Asia (Siberia) who entered America across the Bering Strait in at least three separate waves. In Brazil, particularly, most native tribes who were living in the land by 1500 are thought to be descended from the first wave of migrants, who are believed to have crossed the so-called Bering Land Bridge at the end of the last Ice Age, around 9000 BC.

A migrant wave around 9000 BC would have reached Brazil around 6000 BC, probably entering the Amazon River basin from the Northwest. (The second and third migratory waves from Siberia, which are thought to have generated the Athabaskan and Eskimo peoples, apparently did not reach farther than the southern United States and Canada, respectively.)

The American Aborigines hypothesis

The traditional view above has recently been challenged by findings of human remains in South America, which are claimed to be too old to fit this scenario—perhaps even 20,000 years old. Some recent finds (notably the Luzia skeleton in Lagoa Santa) are claimed to be morphologically distinct from the Asian genotype and are more similar to African and Australian Aborigines. These American Aborigines would have been later displaced or absorbed by the Siberian immigrants. The distinctive natives of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the American continent, may have been the last remains of those Aboriginal populations.

These early immigrants would have either crossed the ocean on boat, or traveled North along the Asian coast and entered America through the Bering Strait area, well before the Siberian waves. This theory is still resisted by many scientists chiefly because of the apparent difficulty of the trip.

Archaeological remains

Virtually all the surviving archaeological evidence about the pre-history of Brazil dates from the period after the Asian migratory waves. Brazilian Indians, unlike those in Mesoamerica and the western Andes, did not keep written records or erect stone monuments, and the humid climate and acidic soil have destroyed almost all traces of their material culture, including wood and bones. Therefore, what is known about the region's history before 1500 has been inferred and reconstructed from small-scale archaeological evidence, such as pottery and stone arrowheads.

The most conspicuous remains of pre-discovery societies are very large mounds of discarded shellfish (sambaquís) found in some coastal sites which were continuously inhabited for over 5,000 years; and the substantial "black earth" (terra preta) deposits in several places along the Amazon, which are believed to be ancient garbage dumps (middens). Recent excavations of such deposits in the middle and upper course of the Amazon have uncovered remains of some very large settlements, containing tens of thousands of homes, indicating a complex social and economical structure.

Brazilian Indians at the time of discovery

Tools

The earliest Brazilian peoples used bone and chipped stone tools and weapons, similar to those found throughout the Americas at comparable dates. Eventually those were replaced by polished stone tools.

Spears and bows were used for hunting, fishing, and war. Fishing was also done with bone fishing hooks, nets, and by poisoning.

Ceramics

Pottery was introduced at a very early date; indeed the earliest ceramic finds in the Americas are from the Amazon region, which may indicate a local invention and cultural diffusion from South to North, opposite to the generally expected trend. Brazilian potters used sophisticated materials (such as microscopic silica spikes obtained from certain freshwater sponges) to make fine utilitarian and ceremonial vessels, with intricate carved, molded, and painted decoration. However they did not know the potter's wheel or the vitreous glazes.

The evolution of pottery styles in various locations indicates a complex pattern of internal migrations and replacement. In particular, is seems that the Tupi-Guarani Indians — which by 1500 were a major ethnic family East of the Andes — originated as a small tribe in the Amazon region, and migrated to their historic range — from Central Brazil to Paraguay — sometime in the first millennium AD. gagag

Economy

The first indigenous peoples of Brazil appear to have subsisted from hunting, fishing, and gathering. At some point, they developed or learned the technique of agriculture. Some crops (like maize) were imported from the more advanced civilizations West of the Andes, while cassava, which became the main staple for many populations, appears to have been developed locally.

Brazilian Indians had no domesticated animals that could be used for transportation or plowing, so agriculture was carried out entirely by hand power. That involved cutting down the jungle to create a clearing, burning the dead wood in place to free its mineral nutrients, planting the crops and harvesting. Usually two or three crops were planted together. Fields would be abandoned and rebuilt frequently.

Brazilian Indians manufactured an alcoholic beverage, cauim, from fermented maize or cassava — a custom which they probably imported from beyond the Andes, together with agriculture.

The Indians after the European colonization

First contacts

When the Portuguese discoverers arrived for the first time in Brazil, in April 1500 they found, to their astonishment, a widely inhabited coastland, teeming with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of indigenous people living in a "paradise" of natural riches. Pero Vaz de Caminha, the official scribe of Pedro Alvares Cabral, the commander of the discovery fleet which landed in the present state of Bahia, wrote a letter to the King of Portugal describing in glowing terms the beauty of the land and of its inhabitants. The Indians at the site of landing were peaceful and received the strangers well.

Slavery and the Bandeiras

The mutual feeling of wonderment and good relationship was to end in the succeeding years. The Portuguese colonists, lacking in numbers, tried to enslave the Indians for agricultural work. Groups of fierce conquistadores organized expeditions, called "bandeiras" (flags) into the backlands to capture Indians and to look for gold and precious stones.

As the bandeiras explored more and more of the vast lands of Brazil, they found hundreds of new tribes, which mostly suffered the same fate as those who inhabited the coast. Of the few tribes that managed to survive to the present day, many did so by retreating into the Amazon rain forests — which provided a protection of sorts, due to its vastness, its hostile environment, and its dense vegetation.

The Indians were soon infected by diseases brought by the Europeans against which they had no natural immunity, and began dying in enormous numbers. Many were also forced from their lands by the aggressive conquerors. They refused to be enslaved, sometimes in extreme ways, such as suicide, and receded into the backlands, so that the Portuguese had to start importing black slaves from Africa.

The Jesuits

The Jesuit priests, who had come with the first Governor General to provide for religious assistance to the colonists, but mainly to convert the "pagan" peoples to Catholicism, took the side of the Indians and extracted a Papal bull stating that they were human and should be protected.

Jesuit priests such as fathers José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega studied and recorded their language and founded mixed settlements, such as São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, where colonists and Indians lived side by side, speaking the same Língua Geral (common language) and freely interbred. They began also to establish more remote villages peopled only by civilized Indians, called Missiones, or reductions (see the article on Guarani for more detail).

Indian wars

A number of wars between several tribes, such as the Tamoio Confederation, and the Portuguese ensued, sometimes with the Indians siding with enemies of Portugal, such as the French, in the famous episode of France Antarctique in Rio de Janeiro, sometimes allying themselves to Portugal in their fight against other tribes. At approximately the same period, a German soldier, Hans Staden, was captured by the Tupinamba and released after a while. He described it in a famous book.

Government protection

In the 20th century, the Brazilian Government adopted a more humanitarian attitude and offered official protection to the Indians, including the establishment of the first Indian reserves. The National Indian Service (today the FUNAI, or Fundação Nacional do Índio) was established by Cândido Rondon, a Bororo Indian himself and a military officer of the Brazilian Army. The remaining unacculturated tribes have been contacted by FUNAI, and accommodated within Brazilian society in varying degrees. However, the exploration of rubber and other Amazonic natural resources led to a new cycle of invasion, expulsion, massacres and death, which continues to this day.

Major ethnic groups

For complete list see List of Indigenous peoples in Brazil

External links

Indigenous peoples of South America | Indigenous peoples in Brazil | Brazilian society | History of Brazil

Indigene Bevölkerung Brasiliens | Peuple indigène du Brésil | שבטים ילידים בברזיל | ブラジルの先住民 | Povos indígenas brasileiros

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