Indigenous culture is the set of values, knowledge, beliefs and customs of the native peoples of Brazil. It is important to highlight that there is not a single indigenous culture, but an enormous cultural diversity represented by autonomous civilizations, with unique ways of thinking and acting.
According to data from the 2010 Census, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), there are 896.9 thousand indigenous people in Brazil distributed in 305 different ethnicities, who speak 274 languages. Just by these numbers, it is already possible to notice the enormous diversity of indigenous cultures that inhabit the Brazilian territory.
In relation to language, there are two major linguistic trunks: o Tupi (predominantly Amazonian) and the Macro-Jê (not Amazonian). Language trunks are sets of language families that have the same origin. These two great trunks bring together almost all indigenous languages active in Brazil.
customs of indigenous peoples
orality
A fundamental aspect of the cultures of indigenous peoples is orality. Traditionally, knowledge, customs and values are transmitted from the eldest to the youngest through speech. The writing was not known to indigenous peoples when Europeans arrived here in 1500.
Today the situation has changed. Indigenous peoples have access to writing, which allows them to record their traditions, whether in the language of their people or in Portuguese. Even so, orality remains an essential element of indigenous culture. In a primer of the Pro-Indian Commission dedicated to teaching history, indigenous educators from Acre wrote as follows: "When an old acquaintance dies, it is as if a great library of the history of our people is burned."
food
The food of indigenous peoples comes basically from these activities: fishing, hunting, gathering and agriculture.
Collection is normally a female task. Among the items collected, there are nuts, roots, wild fruits and honey.
Birds, monkeys, tapirs, wild pigs, capybaras and armadillos are examples of hunted animals, whether using traps, blowguns or bow and arrow. To conserve meat, the Indians use the moquém technique, which consists of installing a wooden structure over the fire. The roasted (or smoked) meat is used in different recipes.
Among the items traditionally cultivated by indigenous peoples, we can highlight the cassava it's the corn. For many tribes, cassava is the staple of their diet. Among the Tembé Indians, from Pará, the roasted meat is shredded and mixed with manioc flour to make cakes.
Among the Apurinã Indians, who live in the Purus river valley, in Amazonas, the process of cultivation and preparation of cassava is long. and it involves the entire community, from preparing the land (made by men) to washing the roots (task female). With cassava, the Apurinã make beiju, flour and a fermented beverage called caiçuma.
Generally speaking, there is a sexual division of labor: women collect and take care of the fields, while men hunt. Hunting can be done individually or in groups. When out hunting, men can spend days camping in the woods.
Among the Yanomami Indians, women take care of agriculture and gathering, and men hunt. 80% of the food consumed by Yanomami peoples comes from agricultural activities. The Caiapó, who live between Mato Grosso and Pará, also attach great importance to agriculture, maintaining large areas of cultivation, commanded by true experts on the subject.
Despite this division of labor, there are some exceptions. Some activities related to agriculture are masculine: clearing the bush and preparing the land, for example.
clothing
In relation to clothing, it is necessary to draw attention to the great difference that exists between the peoples more inserted in the white man's culture and the peoples with little or no contact.
According to IBGE, 36.2% of Brazilian indigenous peoples live in cities. It is not difficult to imagine that many indigenous people have acquired urban habits. They wear sneakers, hats, jeans. But they don't stop being indigenous because of that. This is the case of the Indians from the Krukutu village, located in the south of the city of São Paulo. Despite being part of the urban culture, the inhabitants of the Krukutu village maintain their traditions.
There are indigenous people who dress “the Western way” on a daily basis and wear their typical costumes at solemnities and parties.
Indigenous clothing is quite varied. There are people who basically use thongs and belts. In the Araweté people, for example, men traditionally walk around naked, with a cord attached to their sexual organ. Araweté women, on the other hand, use more items, such as a skirt, blouse and a head cloth dyed with annatto.
indigenous art
Indigenous art is quite varied and can be seen in several everyday objects (such as pottery, weapons and baskets) in ritual objects (like masks) or even in body decoration items (such as feathers, clamps and buttons).
Among the peoples of the Xingu, the masks they are used in rituals of a religious character. The so-called "mask rituals" of the Wauja Indians, for example, are performed with the purpose of celebrating the spirit beings apaatai, so that they can protect and empower community members.
THE ceramic art Indigenous people are a very important aspect of their material culture. The tradition of ceramic art, although quite varied in its techniques and styles, encompasses almost all indigenous ethnic groups. Let's look at some aspects of ceramic art:
- The production of ceramic objects is a feminine task.
- Ceramic art occupies a prominent position within the culture of a people, and can serve as a mark of its identity against the culture of other peoples.
- There are ceramics that have a practical purpose (containers, pans, bowls and vases) and decorative ceramics (sculptures).
Ceramics from the Aparaí people, distributed between Pará, French Guiana and Suriname.
Indigenous peoples use diverse body ornaments, such as necklaces, earrings, bracelets, headdresses, hair ornaments, armbands, lip reamers, etc. There are peoples who adorn themselves with feathers, like the Tupi. The Bororo Indians, who inhabit Mato Grosso, are known for using blue feathers.
Among the numerous ornamental items used by Brazilian Indians, we can mention the button, lip and ear reamer traditionally used by the Krenak Indians (also called botocudos) and by the Kayapó.
The indigenous leader Raoni, from the Caiapó ethnic group, uses the labial disc called the botoque.
Another important aspect of indigenous cultures is the body paintings. Among the Xavante Indians, body paintings are done on the occasion of parties and ceremonies, such as weddings. The colors used are basically red (annatto) and black (genipap or charcoal).
Xavante Indians dance at Funai's headquarters in celebration of Indian Day, in 2004.
Read about the Brazilian indigenous art.
dances and parties
An important element of indigenous culture is dance, performed in various social situations, such as parties, religious rituals, celebrations or even funeral rites. In the shamanic rituals of the Kaiowá and Nhandeva peoples, for example, music and dance play an important role.
Among the Araweté, there is the opirahë – dance performed for simple entertainment or as part of the preparation ritual of the cauin (Alcoholic drink made with cassava). At the opirahë, the men dance in rows, to the sound of the rattle. It is a dance of war, in which men flaunt their weapons.
The Cinta Larga, a Tupi people who live in the states of Mato Grosso and Roraima, hold long-lasting parties that involve lots of dancing, food and drink. The host is the one who provides the main dish (usually game meat) and the drink (made from manioc or corn). Traditionally, the Cinta Larga promote these parties on the occasion of the inauguration of a new maloca (house) or to gather men for war.
Many indigenous peoples of the North and Northeast regions, such as the Potiguara, the Pankararé and the Pankararu, maintain a tradition known as toré. O toré it varies from village to village, but generally consists of a ritual dance performed on special occasions such as religious festivals, receptions and weddings. The dance is performed outdoors by men and women and is accompanied by instruments such as the maracas (rattles made with gourds and seeds) and by the choir of the participants.
dance of toré practiced by Indians of the Pankararu people.
Among the peoples of the Alto Xingu, in Mato Grosso, we can highlight the tradition of kuarup, a religious party held in honor of the dead. One of the elements of the ritual is the use of wooden logs to represent the spirits of the deceased. The logs are placed in front of the malocas and each one is painted with the distinctive signs of the deceased.
Party of kuarup in the Kamayurá village, in the Xingu Indigenous Park.
Read more about the kuarup.
Knowledge of herbs and plants
Many indigenous peoples live in the forests, from where they get their subsistence through gathering, hunting, agriculture and fishing. The environment in which they live provides all the resources for the development of their material culture (adornments, tools, weapons), in addition to being the source of medicines (herbs and plants).
The Indians are experts in the flora and fauna that surround them. In addition to the cultivation of medicinal plants, their botanical knowledge is used, for example, for the manufacture of poisons that are used for hunting with the blowgun. The Yanomani, who live in the Amazon, use a plant extract called curare as a poison.
Plants are also used for religious purposes.. In healing ceremonies, the shamans of the Yanomami peoples use hallucinogenic snuff (yakoana) in order to get in touch with the spirits that cause illnesses and control them. Among the Kaxinawa, who live in Acre, the shamans drink the tea from the ayahuasca.
Indigenous peoples' religion
If it is impossible to speak of a single indigenous culture, it is impossible to speak of a single religion. Each Brazilian indigenous people has its own belief system, with its rituals, its gods and its legends.
However, it is possible to point out some of the main characteristics of the religions of indigenous peoples. One of them is the figure of the shaman – the shaman (dad and), in Tupi-Guarani.
The shaman is a spiritual leader, an expert in religious matters who, through trance, manages to get in touch with the spirits of ancestors and supernatural beings. The shaman, therefore, is the one who establishes the intermediation between the village of the living and the “village” of the spirits, whether they are people or animals.
The main task of shamans is healing. Through this transit between the world of the living and the supernatural dimension, the shaman manages to control the spirits that cause illnesses, even preventing the patient's death.
Among the indigenous peoples of Brazil, there is no worship of a single deity, as occurs in the great monotheistic religions. There are also no dogmas or a set of doctrines recorded in sacred books like the Bible.
An important feature of the religiosity of indigenous peoples is the belief in supernatural beings or spirits. These deities vary widely between ethnicities. The Yanomami, for example, believe in the existence of forest spirits (xapiri) who live on top of the mountains.
Among the Tenetehara (known in Maranhão as Guajajara, and in Pará as Tembé), there is a traditional belief in karoara, supernatural beings that can be distinguished into four types: creator spirits, forest spirits, spirits of the dead and animal spirits.
an important tupi myth speaks of Mahyra, creator spirit or ancestral mythical hero. In a world completely destroyed by a great fire, Mahyra came out of a Jatobá tree, created a woman for himself (with whom he had children), built the first house, cultivated the first corn plantation and gave fire to the men. Thus, in Tupi mythology, Mahyra is a civilizing hero.
Among the Suruí Indians, who inhabit the states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia, the karoara they are negative spirits, responsible for causing illness and even death. The healing process, conducted by the shaman, consists of removing the karoara of the sick person's body.
Read more about the meanings of shaman, shaman and shamanism.
Indigenous Influences on Brazilian Culture
More correct than saying that we were influenced by indigenous culture is to say that indigenous culture participates in the formation of national identity. Generally speaking, Brazilian culture is the result of a mixture of three cultures: African, European and indigenous.
Many elements of our culture, even if we are not aware of it, originate from the culture of the first peoples who inhabited this territory that we now call Brazil.
The indigenous heritage is noticed in the names of neighborhoods, streets, cities, states etc. Abaeté, the name of a city in Minas Gerais and a lake in Salvador, means “true man” in Tupi-Guarani. Aracaju means “parrot cashew tree” in Tupi-Guarani. Curitiba, in Tupi-Guarani, means “place of the pinhão” or “pine forest”.
In the state of São Paulo, many municipalities have Tupi names, such as Barueri, Bertioga, Botucatu, Caçapava, Arujá, Avaré and Votuporanga.
Several animals and plants have indigenous names, most of them originating from the Tupi linguistic trunk. Among the animals, we have the words cotia, pirarucu, tortoise, capybara, puffer fish, tree frog, piranha, anaconda, caterpillar, anteater, toucan, alligator, vulture, saúva, etc. In relation to plants, fruits and other elements of nature, we have cajá, cocoa, açaí, babassu, buriti, grass, catuaba, vine, igarapé, pitanga, jatobá, ipê, water hyacinth etc.
Own names, like Apoena, Janaína, Iara, Moacir and Tainá are of indigenous origin.
In addition to the linguistic heritage, there are many other elements of our culture that come from the Indians, such as:
- Knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs, such as basil, boldo and sucupira seed.
- Certain foods widely used by Brazilians, such as cassava and corn, are fundamental items in indigenous cuisine.
- Recipes and typical ingredients of Brazilian cuisine have indigenous origin: tapioca, pirão, porridge, açaí, pamonha, paçoca, tacacá, corn flour, manioc flour, etc.
- Use in everyday life of objects such as hammocks, bags woven with fibers or other objects made of straw, such as baskets.
- Legends and characters from indigenous folklore are part of the national imagination and were even incorporated by the cultural industry. E.g.: Saci-Pererê, Boitatá, Curupira, Caipora, Iara, Uirapuru etc.
Read about the Brazilian folklore characters.
Acculturation process and isolated Indians
Since the beginning of the colonization of Brazil, in 1500, the indigenous population has significantly decreased. At that time, there were about five million natives. Today, that number does not reach one million. In addition to the population reduction, there was also a process of cultural erasure caused by the imposition of European culture.
Since the 16th century, the customs of various indigenous peoples have undergone numerous changes as a result of contact with white customs. Currently, there are villages located in large cities, such as São Paulo, where exchanges with non-Indians are daily.
On the other hand, there are the so-called "isolated Indians" – groups that live practically without contact with the white man's culture. According to National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), there are 46 evidences and 12 confirmations of isolated groups living in the Amazon rainforest. With the advance of deforestation and illegal mining in protected areas, the isolation of these groups may have its days numbered.
See too:
- Brazilian culture
- Formation of the Brazilian People
- Cultural Diversity in Brazil
- what is culture
