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Tapirapé
Tapirapé are an indigenous people of Brazil who survived the European conquest and subsequent colonization, sustaining the majority of their culture and customs. Residing deep in the Amazon rainforest, they had little direct contact with Europeans until around 1910, and that contact was sporadic until the 1950s.
The main reports about the Tapirapé were written by anthropologists Herbert Baldus (1899–1970) and Charles Wagley (1913–1991) and by a group called Little Sisters of Jesus, nuns who have been involved with the Tapirapé since 1953.
Wagley conjectured that the Tapirapé descended from the Tupinamba, who populated part of the Brazilian coast in 1500, since both tribes speak the Tupi language[better source needed]. As the Europeans expanded their control, it was theorized that some Tupinamba fled inland, eventually arriving at a segment of tropical forest 11 degrees latitude south of the equator, close to the Amazon River. By 1900, five Tapirapé villages hosted a population of about 1500, spread across 50 and 51 degrees longitude.
Sporadic contact with European Brazilians started in 1910; they brought iron tools and trade goods. European Brazilians infected them with a host of diseases: measles, mumps, and the common cold. American Elizabeth Kilgore Steen spent the night in Tampitawa, one of the five villages, in 1930. She returned with a number of examples of Tapirape material culture, housed at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
By 1939, epidemics and skirmishes with neighboring tribes had reduced the population to just 187 in one village, Tapiitawa; by 1953 only 51 remained. That year, the Little Sisters started their mission among them, and the Brazilian government established a nearby post of the Indian Protection Service. The population started to recover, and, by 1976, had reached 136.
The Tapirapé sustained themselves via slash-and-burn horticulture, hunting, and fishing. Patches of forest were cleared and then burned to produce fertile soil planted once or twice before moving to another patch. Each Tapirapé loghouse, hosting four or five families related through maternal links, owned a garden; however, agricultural and hunting products could be shared among people from other houses.
Objects such as tools, hammocks, baskets, strings of beads, and so on were individually owned. Several mechanisms of object distribution were in use. Shamans and midwives were typically paid for their services with goods, which also served to make peace. An annual gift exchange ceremony served to share bounty among the less fortunate. In this ceremony, all men in the village had the opportunity to take a sip of "bad kawi", a drink that produces intense nausea. Wealthy people typically chose not to taste it, but had to donate gifts to those who did. Less fortunate people usually drank in order to receive donations.
Each loghouse had a leader; these leaders were not organized in a village council, and did not elect a village chief. Loghouses were located in an oval formation surrounding the takana - a sort of men's club and home of the six Bird Societies, each named after a bird species. Men spend part of the day in the Takana. Membership in a Bird Society is by parental lineage; thus each such society mixed people from several loghouses and served as a medium to integrate the population. Bird Societies organized group hunts and group expeditions to clear gardens. Both men and women belonged to one of a few Feast Groups used for food sharing in the village plaza.
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Tapirapé
Tapirapé are an indigenous people of Brazil who survived the European conquest and subsequent colonization, sustaining the majority of their culture and customs. Residing deep in the Amazon rainforest, they had little direct contact with Europeans until around 1910, and that contact was sporadic until the 1950s.
The main reports about the Tapirapé were written by anthropologists Herbert Baldus (1899–1970) and Charles Wagley (1913–1991) and by a group called Little Sisters of Jesus, nuns who have been involved with the Tapirapé since 1953.
Wagley conjectured that the Tapirapé descended from the Tupinamba, who populated part of the Brazilian coast in 1500, since both tribes speak the Tupi language[better source needed]. As the Europeans expanded their control, it was theorized that some Tupinamba fled inland, eventually arriving at a segment of tropical forest 11 degrees latitude south of the equator, close to the Amazon River. By 1900, five Tapirapé villages hosted a population of about 1500, spread across 50 and 51 degrees longitude.
Sporadic contact with European Brazilians started in 1910; they brought iron tools and trade goods. European Brazilians infected them with a host of diseases: measles, mumps, and the common cold. American Elizabeth Kilgore Steen spent the night in Tampitawa, one of the five villages, in 1930. She returned with a number of examples of Tapirape material culture, housed at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
By 1939, epidemics and skirmishes with neighboring tribes had reduced the population to just 187 in one village, Tapiitawa; by 1953 only 51 remained. That year, the Little Sisters started their mission among them, and the Brazilian government established a nearby post of the Indian Protection Service. The population started to recover, and, by 1976, had reached 136.
The Tapirapé sustained themselves via slash-and-burn horticulture, hunting, and fishing. Patches of forest were cleared and then burned to produce fertile soil planted once or twice before moving to another patch. Each Tapirapé loghouse, hosting four or five families related through maternal links, owned a garden; however, agricultural and hunting products could be shared among people from other houses.
Objects such as tools, hammocks, baskets, strings of beads, and so on were individually owned. Several mechanisms of object distribution were in use. Shamans and midwives were typically paid for their services with goods, which also served to make peace. An annual gift exchange ceremony served to share bounty among the less fortunate. In this ceremony, all men in the village had the opportunity to take a sip of "bad kawi", a drink that produces intense nausea. Wealthy people typically chose not to taste it, but had to donate gifts to those who did. Less fortunate people usually drank in order to receive donations.
Each loghouse had a leader; these leaders were not organized in a village council, and did not elect a village chief. Loghouses were located in an oval formation surrounding the takana - a sort of men's club and home of the six Bird Societies, each named after a bird species. Men spend part of the day in the Takana. Membership in a Bird Society is by parental lineage; thus each such society mixed people from several loghouses and served as a medium to integrate the population. Bird Societies organized group hunts and group expeditions to clear gardens. Both men and women belonged to one of a few Feast Groups used for food sharing in the village plaza.
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