 Mehinako people, ca. 1894 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 3,000 |
The Xingu are an indigenous people of Brazil living near the Xingu River. They have many cultural similarities despite their different ethnicity. Xingu people represent fifteen tribes and all four of Brazil's indigenous language groups, but they share similar belief systems, rituals and ceremonies.
The Upper Xingu region was heavily populated prior to European and African contact. Densely populated settlements developed from 1200 to 1600 CE. [1] Ancient roads and bridges linked communities that were often surrounded by ditches or moats. [2] The villages were pre-planned and featured circular plazas. [2] Archaeologists have unearthed 19 villages so far. [2]
Kuikuro oral history says Portuguese slavers arrived in the Xingu region around 1750. [2] Xinuguano population was estimated in the tens of thousands but was dramatically reduced by diseases and slavery by the Portuguese. [2] In the centuries since the penetration of the Europeans into South America, the Xingu fled from different regions to avoid the spread of deadly disease and enslavement by the Portuguese. By the end of the 19th century, about 3,000 natives lived at the Alto Xingu, where their current political status has kept them protected against foreign intruders. By the mid-twentieth century this number had been reduced by foreign epidemic diseases such as flu, measles, smallpox and malaria to less than 1,000. Only an estimated 500 Xingu peoples were alive in the 1950s. [2]
The Brazilian Villas-Bôas brothers visited the area beginning in 1946, and pushed for the creation of the Parque Indígena do Xingu, eventually established in 1961. Their story is told in a film, Xingu . The number of Xingu living there in 32 settlements has risen again to over 3000 inhabitants, half of them younger than 15 years.
The Xingu living in this region have similar habits and social systems, despite different languages. Specifically, they consist of the following peoples: the Aweti, Kalapalo, Kamaiurá, Kayapó, Kuikuro, Matipu, Mehinako, Nahukuá, Suyá, Trumai, Wauja and Yawalapiti.
The different tribes comprising the Xingu have not been reported to battle each other in war. [3] The only violence seen between the groups are murdering for witchcraft and wrestling matches that take place either between people of the same tribe or between people of different tribes as a means of letting people release the anger they have towards one another, and defending themselves from invasions from other tribes. [3] The Xingu classify people into three different categories that they believe exist because the Sun gave people different personal traits; these categories are the Xingu people, the other indigenous people, and the white people. [3] In a Wauja myth, the Xingu are seen as peaceful whereas these other two groups are seen as violent. [3] The Xingu people maintain peace within their own tribes through trade, intermarriage, and ceremonies. [3]
Tribes specialize in specific items, such as pottery (Wauja tribe), wooden bowls (Kamayurá tribes), accessories (Kalapalo and Kuikuru tribes) and decorations (Yawalapití tribe) made from shells, and salt (Trumaí and Mehinaku tribes). [3]
For the Kuikuru and Mehinaku tribes, the percentages of marriages that occur between members of these tribes and other tribes are 30% and 35% respectively. [3] Members of the Yawalapití tribe try to marry people from the Kamayurá, Kuikuru, Kalapalo, and Mehinaku tribes. [3]
One religious practice that the Xingu engage in involves fishing, as many people within the Xingu communities depend on eating fish to provide them with protein. [4] Specifically, shamans expel smoke from herbs in an attempt to prevent the fishermen from being harmed by alligators. [4] The community participates in the preparation of the fish, in which many fish are heated on an open fire. [4] Women prepare beiju, which are pancakes that are made of cassava. [4]
All of the Xingu tribes attend ceremonies to inaugurate new tribal chiefs and honor deceased chiefs. [3]
Yawalapiti Chief Aritana and eleven other Xingu people died from the COVID-19 virus. [4] Aritana passed away in August 2020 at the age of 71. [5] The members of the Xingu community commemorated the victims of COVID-19 by putting four painted tree trunks at the center of the village. [4] The spirits are believed to be contained within the tree trunks and are believed to move to the underworld to be with their ancestors. [4] The death of Aritana and three Xingu elders caused women to cry for multiple days. [4] To commemorate Aritana’s death, the Xingu participated in a funeral ceremony called the Kuarup, where ritualistic dances and combat are performed to honor the cycle of life. [4] The combat ritual consists of a competition in which warriors from various tribes perform a dance followed by a wrestling match. [4] The Kuarup also consists of a feast. [4] Men honored the life of Aritana by holding a parade where they blew bamboo trumpets and by painting their bodies black and red. [4] The black paint came from fruit of the jenipapo tree and the red paint came from urucum seeds. [4]
Xingu people have historically used fire as a landscaping tool. [6] For centuries, they have understood and utilized the environment based on oral traditions. [6] Xingu tribes from the twenty-first century are noticing changes in the level of fire in the rainforest as well as hotter temperatures, changing rain patterns, and higher river levels. [6] For generations, the Xingu and other tribes in the South American lowlands have been using the emergence of the Pleiades to predict the start of the rainy season, but now this method is not able to be used as consistently. [6] Evidence of the rising river is seen in a meeting of Waurá elders about the year 2005, when turtles failed to hatch because the river rose at an earlier point in the year than what was observed in previous years. [6]
In May 2019, Xingu women held a women’s conference with around 200 attendees on the Ilha Grande where they discussed issues concerning climate change, deforestation, concerns about President Jair Bolsonaro’s treatment of indigenous peoples, and the distribution between gender, occupations, and leadership. [7] In some families, the men carried out household tasks while the women participated in the conference. [7]
Between July and August 2019, 147 square kilometers or 57.8 square miles of the Xingu’s land was destroyed, which was a 172% increase from the July to August period in 2018. [7] Factors that contribute to the loss of land include invasions, illegal activity, and forest fires. [7] The recent changes in Xingu land have caused the loss of plants used in medicine. [7]
In August 2019, Xingu women joined the First Brazilian Indigenous Women’s March in Brasilia. [7] The purpose of the march was to promote the defense of indigenous lands and allow indigenous women to be seen in and participate in places outside of their tribes. [7]
Stenzel, Kris & Bruna Franchetto (eds.) (2017). On This and Other Worlds: Voices from Amazonia. Berlin: Language Science Press. ISBN 978-3-96110-018-7. doi : 10.5281/zenodo.892102. Open access.
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The Xingu River is a 1,640 km (1,020 mi) river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water.
The Amazon rainforest, also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories.
The Kamayurá are an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil. Their name is also spelled Kamayura and Kamaiurá; it means "a raised platform to keep meat, pots and pans." The Kamayurá language belongs to the Tupi–Guarani family.
The Panará are an Indigenous people of Mato Grosso in the Brazilian Amazon. They farm and are hunter-gatherers.
The Xingu Indigenous Park is an indigenous territory of Brazil, first created in 1961 as a national park in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Its official purposes are to protect the environment and the several nations of Xingu Indigenous peoples in the area.
The Trumai are an indigenous people of Brazil. They currently reside within the Xingu Indigenous Park, in the state of Mato Grosso. They have a population of 258 in 2014. They were 97 in 2011 and 120 in 2006, up from a low of 26 in 1966.
The Yawalapiti are an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil. The name is also spelled Iaualapiti in Portuguese. The current village Yawalapiti is situated more to the south, between the Tuatuari and Kuluene River. Their population in 2011 was 156, down from a 2010 population of 237 (2010) but up from a low of 25 in 1954.
The Kuikuro are an indigenous people from the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Their language, Kuikuro, is a part of the Cariban language family. The Kuikuro have many similarities with other Xingu tribes. They have a population of 592 in 2010, up from 450 in 2002.
The Matipu people are an indigenous people of Brazil. They live in the southern part of the Xingu Indigenous Park in the state of Mato Grosso. Their a population is estimated at about 149 individuals in 2011, up from population of 40 in the 1995 census. They are mainly of animist faith and share many cultural traits with other Xingu peoples.
The Kalapalo are an indigenous people of Brazil. They are one of seventeen tribal groups who inhabit the Xingu National Park in the Upper Xingu River region of the state of Mato Grosso. They speak the Amonap language, a Cariban language, and one of four spoken languages in the area. They have a population of 569 as of 2010.
Kuhikugu is an archaeological site located in Brazil, at the headwaters of the Xingu River, in the Amazon Rainforest. The area around Kuhikugu is located in part of the Xingu National Park today. Kuhikugu was first uncovered by anthropologist Michael Heckenberger, working alongside the local Kuikuro people, who are the likely descendants of the original inhabitants of Kuhikugu.
The Aweti people are a group of Native Americans living in the Xingu Indigenous Park, close to the headwaters of the Xingu River in Brazil. The Aweti inhabit two villages in the region. One is called Tazu’jyretam, and the other is unnamed. Tazu’jyretam is the main village of the Aweti people, and has been inhabited since at least the 19th century. Tazu’jyretam also has a small port. Both of these villages are located in an area between the Curisevo and Tuatuarí rivers, which feed into the Xingu further upstream. Their population was 196 in 2011, up from 140 in 2006.
The Nahukuá are members of a small, indigenous ethnic group in the upper Xingu River area of Brazil. Their population was 146, as of 2010, making them the smallest group in the region.
The Wauja or Waura are an indigenous people of Brazil. Their language, Waurá, is an Arawakan language. They live in the region near the Upper Xingu River, in the Xingu Indigenous Park in the state of Mato Grosso, and had a population of 487 in 2010.
Yamurikuma is a female spirit who represents the ancestral women of the indigenous Wauja people. The Wauja people are located at South America, in the Upper Xingu River, Brazil. Wauja people have celebrated Yamurikuma in rituals, ceremonies, and traditions for centuries. Shamans in Xingu villages call women specifically to perform sing and song rituals for the female spirit Yamurikuma and the deceased or terminally ill Xingu people. It is one of the only exceptions made for the women in these communities to lead a ritual. Yamurikuma is also celebrated in a festival named after the spirit herself. This festival is organized by the Xingu Tribes, and throughout this specific festival, the Xingu women take on the male roles of the tribe for a week.
Trumai is an endangered language isolate of Brazil. Most Trumai are fluent in languages of wider communication, and children are not learning it well.
Raoni Metuktire, also known as Chief Raoni or Ropni, is an Indigenous Brazilian leader and environmentalist. He is a chief of the Kayapo people, a Brazilian Indigenous group from the plain lands of the Mato Grosso and Pará in Brazil, south of the Amazon River and along Xingu River and its tributaries. He is internationally famous as a living symbol of the fight for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest and indigenous culture.
Amonap, also known as Apalakiri, is a Cariban language spoken by the Kuikuro and Kalapalo peoples of Brazil, and formerly by the Matipu. It is spoken in seven villages along the Culuene River in the Xingu Indigenous Park of Mato Grosso.
Huka-huka is a Brazilian folk wrestling style of the indigenous people of Xingu, in the state of Mato Grosso. It is performed as a ritual fight during the ceremony of Kuarup.
Aritana Yawalapiti was a Brazilian cacique of the Yawalapiti indigenous tribe of Brazil inside the Xingu Indigenous Park. He served as President of the Instituto de Pesquisa Etno Ambiental Xingu.
