INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



85 



Caduveo, perhaps remindful of their slave-owning 

 past, are proud, conceited, and boastful. The 

 Arawak-speaking Terena and Paressi, like the 

 Arawak-speaking Waura, are quiet, unassuming, 

 friendly, and ready to help yet take no liberties. 

 The Umotina speak only when spoken to and 

 appear to wish to be by themselves. They pro- 

 vide information if they think the gifts are suffi- 

 cient and to their taste; otherwise, they saunter 

 off and are never available when required. An 

 Umotina does just what he wishes to do and hates 

 any kind of dictation. The Bacairi and Camayura 

 are intimately friendly, talkative, and ingratiat- 

 ing, expect gifts and bestow gifts in return, volun- 

 teer information, are full of humor and curiosity, 

 and are clean and polite. 



The Nambicuara, on the other hand, are surly, 

 and impolite even to rudeness. On many occa- 

 sions when I went to visit Julio at his camp he 

 was lying down near a fire and as he saw me ap- 

 proach he turned his back to me saying that he 

 did not wish to talk. The missionaries informed 

 me that a Nambicuara will ask for some object 

 several times and if it is not given to him he will 

 try to take it. In order to keep the Indians out 

 they would sometimes close the screen door, but 

 if a Nambicuara really wanted to enter he would 

 tear a hole in the screen and walk in. The Nam- 

 bicuara have two well-recognized ways of showing 

 disgust or disdain. One day I stopped a woman 

 carrying a burden basket to take her photograph. 

 She evidently did not like being stopped, for as 

 she passed me a moment later she turned her back 

 to me and passed wind. This the missionaries 

 claimed is a very common custom of the Nam- 

 bicuara. The men have an even stronger way of 

 showing disbelief and disgust. After listening to 

 something with which he does not agree a Nam- 

 bicuara will get up, grasp his penis, and slap it 

 sharply against his groin and walk off with a "that 

 for you" look. One might call it a Nambicuara 

 "razzberry." Although some of these personality 

 traits are old and culturally defined, there appears 

 to be little doubt that the Nambicuara have a deep 

 hatred of the white man. They realize that the 

 white men are rich compared with themselves and 

 that contact with the whites has brought diseases 

 which are killing them off rapidly. They realize, 

 too, that both the whites and the Paressi consider 

 them in the lowest category of human beings. 



The Paressi call the Nambicuara "those who sleep 

 on the ground" and ridicule them in other ways. 

 One does not have to remain long among the Nam- 

 bicura in order to feel this underlying hatred, mis- 

 trust, and despair, which create in the observer a 

 feeling of depression not unmixed with sympathy. 



The Nambicuara is the only tribe I have met 

 who speak pidgin Portuguese, which without some 

 training is almost unintelligible. For instance, 

 "bastante" becomes marante, "pequeno" becomes 

 shibi, "grande" becomes papai, and "crianca" be- 

 comes pinto. If they wish to compare two things 

 to bring out a likeness they say this thing is the 

 brother of something else. 



Compared with their neighbors, the Paressi and 

 Iranxe, the Nambicuara are taller, darker, and 

 longer-headed. It is very easy, for instance, even 

 at a distance, to distinguish Nambicuara children 

 from Paressi children when they are bathing in 

 the river. In contrast to the light brown of the 

 Paressi skin the Nambicuara skin appears to have 

 an element of black that gives it a dark-gray 

 undertone. Many individuals have a certain 

 amount of wave in their hair, although the wavi- 

 ness may be accentuated by the unkempt matted 

 condition of the hair. Detailed measurements 

 and indexes are given in Appendix 3. The eyes of 

 the Nambicuara are very dark brown, almost 

 black in some individuals, and have a brightness 

 which contrasts sharply with the rather dull eye 

 of the Paressi. The only other Indians that I 

 have met with this brightness of the eye are the 

 Caduveo. This brilliance of the eyes does not 

 appear to be correlated with health, for even the 

 sick have it among both peoples. 



The Nambicuara, as a whole, occupy a terri- 

 tory bounded on the east by the Papagaio River 

 and on the west by the headwaters of the Rio 

 Roosevelt and the Pimenta Bueno River. To the 

 south they extend as far as the headwaters of the 

 Rio Juruena and the Rio Kabishi. To the north 

 they are bounded by a line running roughly from 

 latitude 12°30' on the Papagaio River to latitude 

 1 1° on the Rio Roosevelt. Formerly, it is believed, 

 they extended farther northward. The telegraph 

 line runs through Nambicuara territory begin- 

 ning at Utiarity and ending at Barao de Mclgaco 

 to the west. The territory to the south and east 

 of the Nambicuara is occupied by the remnants 

 of the Paressi. To the north of the Nambicuara 



