INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



Although the Indians in the Basin are split up 

 into many tribes speaking languages belonging 

 to three or four different linguistic families, the 

 outstanding characteristic about their interrela- 

 tions is that they live in peace with one another. 

 In referring to the Indians of the Upper Xingii, 

 the Brazilians speak of them as the Xinguanos, 

 treating them as a social unit. American mission- 

 aries call them the League of Indian Nations, 

 again stressing the peace and amity that exists 

 among them. Although the Camayura mention 

 a time of troubles and the Trumai claim that they 

 are newcomers from the south and had difficulties 

 in the past, there is no doubt that the tribes today 

 intermarry, trade, and gather at each other's 

 villages for ceremonies. Settled villages and a 

 wealth of resources, common enemies, easy com- 

 munications, and tribal specialization in crafts 

 no doubt help to explain these peaceful relations. 

 Each tribe knows enough of the other languages 

 to carry on trade and ceremonials. One Arawak- 

 speaking Iwalapeti spoke Cuicdru (Carib) and 

 Camayura (Tupi) quite fluently, besides being 

 able to make himself understood for ordinary 

 purposes, after a year's practice, in Portuguese. 

 Owing to the fact that practically all white 

 visitors from the south used Bacairi canoe men 

 and interpreters when entering the Basin, many 

 Bacairi words have come into common use. 



The social interaction and the resulting peaceful 

 relations existing between the tribes is carried on 

 within a cultural framework showing great formal 

 similarities. The full extent of these similarities 

 and differences is, of course, not yet fully known 

 and awaits the more intensive study of all the 

 tribes concerned. To say that the Upper Xingu 

 Basin is a culture area may be overstressing the 

 point. It may be but a subculture in the wider 

 so-called Marginal Area surrounding the head- 

 waters of the southern tributaries of the Amazon 

 River. Yet all observers have been struck 

 particularly by the similarities in material culture. 



Brazilian observers call the Upper Xingii the 

 "area do uluri" (the uluri area). This small 

 triangular piece of bast worn by women over the 

 pubis is certainly a common trait throughout the 

 region. It is interesting to note that triangular 

 uluri-shaped pieces of pottery have been found in 

 archeological excavations near the mouth of the 

 Xingu River, thought by some to have been used 



for the same purpose. This trait is certainly 

 distinctive and marks the Xingii tribes off from 

 their immediate neighbors. 



Other common traits on the material level are 

 as follows: The large elliptical grass-covered 

 houses built in a circle or oval around a central 

 flute house, jatoba bark canoes, the keeping of 

 "harpia" eagles in conical cages, large flat- 

 bottomed pots and the openwork sieve for proc- 

 essing manioc, the general use of the openwork 

 hammock, small zoomorphic flat pottery dishes, 

 carved zoomorphic wooden seats, the spear 

 thrower used in games, the bull-roarer used in 

 religious ceremonies, the whistling arrow, neck- 

 laces of round and rectangular pieces of snail shell, 

 the sacred flute, the predominance of fish over 

 meat in the diet of the people, the intensive use 

 of piqui, and the use of tobacco restricted to men 

 who have had shamanistic experiences. 



In connection with the nonmaterial aspects of 

 the culture one might point out such traits as 

 bifurcate-merging kinship terminology, cross- 

 cousin marriage, the extended family as the 

 household unit, respect toward in-laws, the chief 

 as economic and ceremonial leader only, annual 

 ceremonies connected with the dead and possibly 

 related to the origin myth, and belief in guardian 

 spirits exemplified by a variety of sjnnbols. 



It can hardly be said that these traits are 

 restricted to the Upper Xingii. What appears to 

 be true, however, is that each of the different 

 linguistic units contributed its share of traits 

 which have now become to a great extent common 

 property to all the tribes, having been molded 

 and combined to form a complex of traits which 

 marks the Upper Xingii off from the neighboring 

 areas. 



Although all the Upper Xingii tribes are a 

 riverain people, one seldom finds the villages 

 located on the banks of the main streams. On 

 the Kuluene, at least, only the Calapalo village 

 is situated directly on the bank and visible from 

 the river itself. The pattern of settlement is 

 influenced by a number of circumstances. As the 

 main tributaries approach their junction with 

 the Xingii they flow through a flat plain, and, as 

 has been mentioned, the flood plains along the 

 rivers widen. Therefore, in order to build their 

 villages above floodvvater and to have cultivable 

 land in the rainy season, the Indians are forced to 



