INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



four different linguistic groups. The Ge'-speaking 

 Suya, who have been formerly reported as living in 

 the area, are today located on the Rio Suya 

 Missii, a small eastern tributary of the Xingii 

 some distance below the junction of the headwater 

 tributaries of the Xingii proper. The Suya. are at 

 present on a war footing with the Basin tribes and 

 when a northeast wind was blowing the Camayura 

 would point to the smoke rising from their forest 

 fires. In 1948 the Villas Boas, leaders of the 

 Roncador-Xingii expedition, gave the following 

 distribution of the tribal units and their mimbers 

 based on direct contact with the tribal groups: 



Carib-speaking tribes: 



Calapalo 150 



Cuicuru 140 



Nahukwa 18 



Matipii _ 16 



Tsiiva (at present living among the 



Cuictiru) 4 



Naravuti (living in their own house in 



the Calapalo village) 5 or 6 



Arawak-speaking tribes: 



Waura 96 



Iwalapetf (at present have no village 

 but live scattered among the other 

 tribes, planning to rebuild their vil- 

 lage) 28 



Mehinacu 110 



Custenau (consisting of a woman and 



her son living among the Waura) 2 



Tupf-speaking tribes : 



Camayura 110 



Auetf 30 



Trumai-speaking tribes : 



Trumai 25 



Scientific knowledge about the Upper Xingii 

 and its Indian inhabitants dates from the two 

 voyages (1884 and 1887) during which Karl Von 

 den Steinen descended the Xingii River. Later 

 visits to the area are summarized in the Hand- 

 book of South American Indians as follows : 



Herman Meyer made an expedition in 1896 to the 

 Kuliseu and Jatoba Rivers, and another in 1899, mainly 

 to explore the Ronuro River. In 1900-1901, Max Schmidt 

 traveled to the Kuliseu River. Later Hintermann (in 

 1924-25), Dyott (1928), Petrullo (in 1931), and Buell 

 Quain (in 1938) studied the Upper Xingii River region 

 [Levi-Strauss, 1948, vol. 3, p. 321]. 



The interest of the Brazilians themselves in the 

 Upper Xingii and its inhabitants has been intensi- 

 fied in recent years with the establishment in 1942 

 of the Central Brazilian Foundation (Fundacao 



Brasil Central). This Foundation, strongly backed 

 and financially supported by the Federal Govern- 

 ment, was created to open up the vast uninhabited 

 stretches of central Brazil by building roads, es- 

 tablishing settlements, and by laying a series of 

 airfields which would connect Rio de Janeiro and 

 Manaus in a straight line. The spearhead of the 

 Foundation which is to blaze the trail is known 

 as the Roncador-Xingii Expedition. It set out 

 from Sao Paulo under the command of Colonel 

 Flaviano Mattos Vanique in 1943. By 1944 the 

 Expedition had reached Aragarcas on the Araguaia 

 River where a permanent base camp was erected. 

 The following year a camp and airfield were es- 

 tablished at Chavantina on the Rio das Mortes. 



The advance party of the Roncador-Xingii 

 Expedition reached the Upper Xingii Basin in 

 1946, and in April 1947 an airfield and permanent 

 camp were established on Jacarei Creek, a tribu- 

 tary of the Kuluene River. In 1947 and again in 

 1948 the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro sent 

 a number of specialists into the area to study the 

 flora and fauna, to take physical measurements of 

 the Indians, and to gather information about 

 their cultures. In 1948 the author with two 

 students, Fernando Altenfelder Silva and Kaoro 

 Onaga, of the Escola Livre de Sociologia e Politica 

 de Sao Paulo, spent 2% months in the area, using 

 Jacarei Camp as a base. Dr. Sylvio Grieco of 

 Sao Paulo made trips into the area in 1947, 1948, 

 and again in 1949, his interest being the study of 

 native diseases and native psychology. 



In addition to the scientific expeditions that 

 have entered the area since its discovery by Von 

 den Steinen, the Upper Xingii has held a fascina- 

 tion for missionaries, fortune hunters, and, more 

 recently, for photographers and journalists, in the 

 last case naked Indians being the great drawing 

 card. American Protestant missionaries have 

 made repeated trips into the area since 1926 and 

 for some years the Reverend Thomas Young and 

 his family were stationed among the Nahukwa. 

 This mission was withdrawn in 1938 but in the 

 last 2 years the Reverend Mr. Young has again 

 been active in the area. At present there is a 

 move to have the Servi§o de Protecao aos Indios 

 establish a post at Jacarei Camp on the Kuluene. 



In the present century the Upper Xingii gained 

 world-wide interest with the disappearance of 

 Colonel Fawcett. In 1926 Colonel Fawcett, an 



