Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples in Brazil or Native Brazilians are the peoples whose ancestors lived in Brazil before European contact around 1500 and those pre-Columbian forebears. Indigenous peoples once comprised an estimated 2,000 distinct tribes and nations inhabiting what is now Brazil. The 2010 Brazil census recorded 305 Indigenous ethnic groups.
Historically, many Indigenous peoples of Brazil were semi-nomadic and combined hunting, fishing, and gathering with migratory agriculture. Many tribes were massacred by European settlers, and others assimilated into the growing Brazilian population.
The Indigenous population was decimated by European diseases, declining from a pre-Columbian high of 2 million to 3 million to approximately 300,000 by 1997, distributed among 200 tribes. According to the 2022 IBGE census, 1,693,535 Brazilians classified themselves as Indigenous, divided into 391 ethnic groups and the census recorded 295 Indigenous languages. Almost 77% of Indigenous Brazilians speak Portuguese.
On 18 January 2007, Fundação Nacional do Índio reported 67 remaining uncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 known in 2005. With this increase, Brazil surpassed New Guinea, becoming the country with the largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world.
History
Origins
Questions about the original settlement of the Americas have led to various hypothetical models. The origins of these Indigenous peoples remain a matter of debate among archaeologists.Migration into the continents
In Brazil, most Native tribes living in the land by 1500 are thought to be descended from the first wave of Siberian migrants to the Americas, who are believed to have crossed the Bering Land Bridge at the end of the last Ice Age, between 13,000 and 17,000 years ago.Genetic studies
Y-chromosome DNA
An analysis of Amerindian Y-chromosome DNA reveals specific clustering within much of the South American population. The micro-satellite diversity and distributions of Y-chromosome lineages specific to South America suggest that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.Autosomal DNA
According to a 2012 autosomal DNA genetic study, Indigenous peoples of the Americas descend from at least three main migrant waves from Siberia. Most of their ancestry traces back to a single ancestral population, referred to as the 'First Americans'. However, Inuit-speaking populations from the Arctic inherited nearly half of their ancestry from a second Siberian migrant wave, while Na-dene speakers inherited about one-tenth of their ancestry from a third migrant wave. The initial settlement of the Americas was followed by a rapid expansion southward along the coast, with limited gene flow later, especially in South America. An exception to this is the Chibcha speakers, whose ancestry includes contributions from both North and South America.mtDNA
Another study, focused on mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only through the maternal line, revealed that the maternal ancestry of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas traces back to a few founding lineages from Siberia, likely arriving via the Bering Strait. According to this study, the ancestors of Indigenous peoples of the Americas likely remained near the Bering Strait for a time before rapidly spreading throughout the Americas and eventually reaching South America. A 2016 study on mtDNA lineages found that "a small population entered the Americas via a coastal route around 16,000 years ago, following a period of isolation in eastern Beringia for approximately 2,400 to 9,000 years after separating from eastern Siberian populations. After spreading rapidly throughout the Americas, limited gene flow in South America resulted in a distinct phylogeographic structure of populations, which persisted over time. All ancient mitochondrial lineages detected in this study were absent from modern data sets, suggesting a high extinction rate. To investigate this further, we applied a novel principal components multiple logistic regression test to Bayesian serial coalescent simulations. The analysis supported a scenario in which European colonization caused a substantial loss of pre-Columbian lineages."The Oceanic component in the Amazon region
Two 2015 autosomal DNA genetic studies confirmed the Siberian origins of the Native peoples of the Americas. However, an ancient signal of shared ancestry with the Indigenous peoples of Australia and Melanesia was detected among the Native populations of the Amazon region. This migration from Siberia is estimated to have occurred around 23,000 years ago.Archaeological remains
Indigenous peoples of Brazil, unlike those in Mesoamerica or the Andes, did not keep written records or erect stone monuments. 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 limited archaeological evidence, such as ceramics and stone arrowheads.The most conspicuous remains of these societies are vast mounds of discarded shellfish, known as sambaquis, found at some coastal sites that were continuously inhabited for more than 5,000 years. Additionally, substantial "black earth" deposits in several places along the Amazon are believed to be ancient garbage dumps. Recent excavations of these deposits in the middle and upper Amazon have uncovered remains of massive settlements, containing tens of thousands of homes, indicating a complex social and economic structure.
Studies of the wear patterns of precontact inhabitants of coastal Brazil found that the surfaces of anterior teeth facing the tongue were more worn than those facing the lips. Researchers believe this wear was caused by using teeth to peel and shred abrasive plants.
Marajoara culture
; Marajoara culture |
The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó island at the mouth of the Amazon River. Archaeologists have uncovered sophisticated pottery in their excavations on the island. These pieces are large, elaborately painted, and incised with representations of plants and animals. This discovery provided the first evidence of a complex society on Marajó. Further evidence of mound building suggests that well-populated, complex, and sophisticated settlements developed on the island, as only such settlements were believed capable of undertaking extensive projects like major earthworks.
The extent, level of complexity, and resource interactions of the Marajoara culture have been subjects of dispute. In the 1950s, American archaeologist Betty Meggers, in some of her earliest research, suggested that the society migrated from the Andes and settled on the island. Many researchers believed that the Andes were populated by Paleoindian migrants from North America, who gradually moved south after being hunters on the plains.
In the 1980s, American archaeologist Anna Curtenius Roosevelt led excavations and geophysical surveys of the mound Teso dos Bichos. She concluded that the society that constructed the mounds originated on the island itself.
The pre-Columbian culture of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population as large as 100,000 people. The Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest may have used their method of developing and working in terra preta to make the land suitable for the large-scale agriculture to support large populations and complex social formations.
Xinguano civilisation
The Xingu peoples built large settlements connected by roads and bridges, often featuring moats. Their development peaked between 13th and 17th century, with their population reaching into the tens of thousands.Native people after the European colonisation
Distribution
On the eve of the Portuguese arrival in 1500, the coastal areas of Brazil were dominated by two major groups: the Tupi, who occupied almost the entire length of the Brazilian coast, and the Tapuia, who primarily resided in the interior. The Portuguese arrived at the end of a long pre-colonial conflict between the Tupis and Tapuias, which had led to the defeat and expulsion of the Tapuias from most coastal areas.Although the coastal Tupi were divided into sub-tribes that were frequently hostile to each other, they were culturally and linguistically homogeneous. The fact that early Europeans encountered essentially the same people and language along the Brazilian coast greatly facilitated communication and interaction.
Coastal Sequence c. 1500 :
- Tupinambá
- Tremembé
- Potiguara
- Tabajara
- Caeté
- Tupinambá again
- Tupiniquim
- Aimoré
- Goitacá down to the Paraíba do Sul River
- Temiminó
- Tamoio
- Tupinambá again.
- Tupiniquim again
- Carijó tribe, ranged from Cananeia all the way down to Lagoa dos Patos
- Charrúa
Behind the coasts, the interior of Brazil was primarily dominated by Tapuia people, although significant sections of the interior were the original pre-migration Tupi-Guarani homelands. In addition to the Tupi and Tapuia, two other Indigenous mega-groups were commonly identified in the interior: the Caribs, who inhabited much of what is now northwestern Brazil, including both shores of the Amazon River up to the delta, and the Nuaraque group, whose constituent tribes inhabited several areas, including most of the upper Amazon and significant pockets in modern Amapá and Roraima states.
File:Familia botocudo.jpg|thumb|Illustration of Botocudos, c. 1816, by Prince Maximilian
The names by which different Tupi tribes were recorded by Portuguese and French authors in the 16th century are poorly understood. Most do not seem to be proper names but rather descriptions of relationships, usually familial—e.g., Tupi means "first father," Tupinambá means "relatives of the ancestors," Tupiniquim means "side-neighbors," Tamoio means "grandfather," Temiminó means "grandson," Tabajara means "in-laws," and so on. Some etymologists believe these names reflect the ordering of migration waves of Tupi people from the interior to the coasts. For example, the first Tupi wave to reach the coast might have been referred to as "grandfathers", soon joined by the "relatives of the ancients", which could mean relatives of the Tamoio or a Tamoio term for relatives of the old Tupi in the upper Amazon basin. The "grandsons" might represent a splinter group, while the "side-neighbors" could denote recent arrivals still establishing their presence. However, by 1870, the Tupi tribes' population had declined to 250,000 Indigenous people, and by 1890, it had diminished to approximately 100,000.