| 1837 print BRAZIL: MUNDURUKU WITH HEAD OF BOTOCUDO, #33 |
Print from steel engraving titled Mundrucu avec une tete de Botocoudo, published in a volume of L'Univers, Histoire et description de tous les peuples, Paris, approx. page size 20.5 x 13 cm, approx. image size 13.5 x 9 cm.
Mundurukú
also spelled Mundurucú,
South American Indian people of the Amazon tropical forest. The Mundurukú speak
a language of the Tupian group. They inhabit the southwestern part of the state
of Pará and the southeastern corner of the state of Amazonas, Brazil. Formerly,
they were an aggressive, warlike tribe that expanded along the Tapajós River and
its environs and were widely feared by neighbouring tribes. By the beginning of
the 19th century, Brazilian colonists had pacified the Mundurukú and annexed
their territory.
The Mundurukú economy was that of the tropical forest: a combination of farming,
hunting, fishing, and gathering. Men were warriors, hunters, and fishermen,
leaving cultivation to the women. The men lived in a separate house, visiting
their family dwellings for brief intervals.
The modern Mundurukú population has made a livelihood of collecting latex from
wild rubber trees and exchanging it for manufactured goods. Their dependence on
the Brazilian economy has led to the transformation of Mundurukú life. Most of
the old village institutions are now practically extinct, and families, living
in isolation with their rubber trees, are related to each other through the
trading post. Only their isolation in the Amazon forest has prevented them from
becoming assimilated into Brazilian life.
Botocudo
South American Indian people who lived in what is now the
Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. They spoke a language of the Macro-Ge group.
Their culture was similar to that of other nomadic tribes of the forests and
mountains of eastern Brazil. Hunting bands of from 50 to 200 members were led by
men considered most powerful in the supernatural realm. The Botocudo believed
that spirits inhabited the sky and interceded in human affairs through the
mediation of shamans, persons to whom were granted extraordinary powers.
Interband conflicts were common, but these were usually resolved by duels
between pairs of opponents using long sticks. Resistance to white expansion met
with a policy of ruthless extermination. The few remaining Botocudo are
descendants of those who took to agriculture and came to terms with the colonial
advance.