Indigenous Peoples in Brazil - The Natives After The European Colonization

The Natives After The European Colonization

On the eve of the Portuguese arrival in 1500, Brazil's coastal areas had two major mega-groups - the Tupi (speakers of Tupi–Guarani languages), who inhabited practically the entire Brazilian coast, and the Tapuia (a catch-all term for non-Tupis, usually Jê language peoples), who resided in the interior. The Portuguese arrived in the final days of a long struggle between the Tupis and Tapuias, which had resulted in the defeat and expulsion of the Tapuias from the coastal areas.

Although the Tupi were broken down into sub-tribes, they were culturally and linguistically homogeneous. The fact that the Portuguese encountered practically the same people and language all along the Brazilian coast made interaction rather easy.

The names by which the different Tupi tribes were called and recorded by Portuguese and French authors of the 16th C. are poorly understood. Most do not seem to be proper names, but descriptions of relationship, 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 the migration waves of Tupi peoples to the coast, e.g. first Tupi wave to reach the coast being the "grandfathers" (Tamoio), soon joined by the "relatives of the ancients" (Tupinamba), by which it could mean relatives of the Tamoio, or a Tamoio term to refer to relatives of the old Tupi back in the Amazon basin. The "grandsons" (Temiminó) might be a splinter. The "side-neighbors" (Tupiniquim) meant perhaps recent arrivals, still trying to jostle their way in. However by 1870 the Tupi tribes (more famously and indistinctly known as the Amazonian Indians) population had declined to 250, 000 indígenas and by 1890 had diminished to an approximate 100,000 tribes.

Coastal Sequence (north to south):

1. Tupinambá (Tupi, from the Amazon delta to Maranhão)
2. Tremembé (Tapuia (non-Tupi), coastal tribe, ranged from São Luis Island (south Maranhão) to the mouth of the Acaraú River in north Ceará; French interlopers cultivated an alliance with them)
3. Potiguara (Tupi, literally "shrimp-eaters"; they had a reputation as great canoeists and aggressively expansionist, inhabited a great coastal stretch from Acaraú river to Itamaracá, covering the modern states of souther Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba.)
4. Tabajara (tiny Tupi tribe between Itamaracá island and Paraiba River; frequent victims of the Potiguara)
5. Caeté (Tupi group in Pernambuco, ranged from Paraiba River to the São Francisco River; after killing and eating a Portuguese bishop, they were subjected to Portuguese extermination raids and the remnant pushed into the Pará interior)
6. Tupinambá again (Tupi par excellence, ranged from the São Francisco River to the Bay of All Saints, population estimated as high as 100,000; hosted Portuguese castaway Caramuru)
7. Tupiniquim (Tupi, covered Bahian discovery coast, from Camumu to Rio São Mateus; these were the first people encountered by the Portuguese in 1500)
8. Aimoré (non-Tupi (Jê) tribe; concentrated on a sliver of coast in modern Espirito Santo)
9. Goitacá (Tapuia (non-Tupi) tribe; once dominated the coast from São Mateus River (in Espírito Santo state) down to the Paraíba do Sul river (in Rio de Janeiro state); hunter-gatherers and fishermen, they were a shy people that avoided all contact with foreigners; estimated at 12,000; they had a fearsome reputation and were eventually annihilated by European colonists)
10. Temiminó (small Tupi tribe, centered on Governador island in Guanabara bay; frequently at war with the Tamoio around them)
11. Tamoio (old branch of the Tupinambá, ranged from the western edge of Guanabara bay to Ilha Grande)
12. Tupinamba again (Tupi, indistinct from the Tamoio. Inhabited the Paulist coast, from Ilha Grande to Santos; main enemies of the Tupiniquim to their west Numbered around 6 to 10,000).
13. Tupiniquim again (Tupi, on the Paulist coast from Santos/Bertioga down to Cananeia; aggressively expansionist, they were recent arrivals imposing themselves on the coast at the expense of their neighbors; first formal allies of the Portuguese colonists of the 1530s)
14. Carijó (Guarani tribe, from Cananeia down to Lago dos Patos; victims of the Tupiniquim and early European slavers; hosted mysterious degredado known as the Bachelor of Cananeia)
15. Charrúa (non-Tupi (Jê) tribe in modern Uruguay coast, with an aggressive reputation against intruders; killed Juan Dias de Solis)

With the exception of the Goitacases, the coastal tribes were primarily agriculturalists. The subtropical Guarani cultivated maize, tropical Tupi cultivated manioc (cassava), highland Jês cultivated peanut, as the staple of their diet. Supplementary crops included beans, sweet potatoes, cará (yam), jerimum (pumpkin) and cumari (capsicum pepper).