INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



69 



THE BACAIRI 



This brief account of the Bacairi is based on 

 field work done among the Bacairi living in the 

 Government Indian Post on the Rio Paranatinga 

 in June 1947. The field work was carried out 

 in the course of a reconnaissance survey which 

 the writer was then making of some of the central 

 and northern Indian tribes of Mato Grosso. 

 This and other trips at the time were made in a 

 Ford truck put at the disposal of the writer by 

 the Servico de Protecao aos Indios. By using a 

 truck the trip to the Paranatinga could be made 

 over the Planalto do Matogrosense in 2 days in 

 contrast to the old route along the Rio Cuiaba 

 which, on horseback with pack oxen, takes from 

 2 to 3 weeks. The writer was accompanied by 

 Fernando Altenfelder Silva of the Escola de 

 Sociologia e Politica de Sao Paulo and by Rev. 

 Thomas Young and Rev. W. L. Buckman of the 

 South American Indian Mission. The Reverend Mr. 

 Young, who has spent more than 10 years among 

 the Bacairi, was of great help in selecting inform- 

 ants and in adding to our knowledge of the 

 Bacairi. 



According to estimates made in 1947 by the 

 Brazilian Indian Service (Servico de Protecao 

 aos Indios) there are between 200 and 250 Bacairi 

 living in the northern part of Mato Grosso State, 

 Brazil, divided between the Indian Post of Simao 

 Lopes on the Rio Paranatinga and the village of 

 Rio Novo some distance to the northwest. The 

 Bacairi claim that the whole tribe originally 

 lived together on the Rio Paranatinga (headwaters 

 of the Tapajoz River), but attacks by other 

 Indians and Brazilians forced them to move 

 about 90 years ago. Owing to a dispute the 

 tribe split, one group moving north to settle on 

 the banks of the Rio Kuliseu, a tributary of the 

 Xingu River, the other moving to Rio Novo. 

 After about 50 years in the Kuliseu Basin, this 

 group moved to the present location of Simao 

 Lopes, not far from the original Bacairi settlement 

 on the Rio Paranatinga. Although the Rio Novo 

 group has adopted Brazilian customs and manages 

 without Government help, some have moved to 

 Simao Lopes where the Bacairi now live on 

 reservation lands and receive assistance from the 



Brazilian Government. The information pre- 

 sented here was obtained at Simao Lopes from 

 the Bacairi who lived on the Rio Kuliseu and 

 relates to the life that they lived there about 

 40 years ago. 



Linguistically the Bacairi belong to the Carib- 

 speaking family and appear to be closely related 

 culturally to the other Carib -speaking tribes in 

 the Upper Xingu Basin. The Bacairi are short 

 in stature, broad-shouldered and well-built. The 

 head is broad, the nose straight or acquiline, the 

 face narrow, the lips fairly thin. In physical 

 appearance the Bacairi remind one of the Arawak- 

 speaking Paressi, but contrast sharply with the 

 large-framed, coarse-featured Bororo, Umotina, 

 and Guat6 living in the headwaters of the Para- 

 guay River to the south. 



The Bacairi Indians are first mentioned by 

 Goncalves da Fonseca in his account of his travels 

 to the Madeira region in 1749. In the atlas of 

 Thomas Jeffry, 1776, the "Bacahyris" are located 

 on the Rio Paranatinga. Ay res de Casal, in 1817, 

 refers to the "Baccahyris" as living in the region 

 around the Rio das Mortes. Martins places them 

 in the headwaters of the Xingu. From 1820 on, 

 more or less permanent contact has been main- 

 tained with the Bacairi living on the Rio Novo 

 and Rio Paranatinga. In 1820 a P. Lopez led an 

 expedition in search for gold into the area and 

 with him came priests who began to convert the 

 Bacairi to Christianity. With these contacts came 

 disease and conflicts (Von den Steinen, 1942, p. 

 123). 



The first scientific account of the Bacairi dates 

 from the voyage of Von den Steinen down the 

 Xingu River in 1884. Traveling over land from 

 Cuiabd, he and his party reached the Christianized 

 Bacairi living in the villages of Rio Novo and 

 Paranatinga with whose help he continued his 

 voyage down the Batovi River where he was the 

 first to make contact with the four pagan villages 

 of the Bacairi located between latitudes 13°30' 

 and 12°30' S. 



The following table gives size and number of 

 inhabitants of the villages visited by Von den 

 Steinen (1942, appendix, tablo 8, p. 418): 



