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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 15 



are their enemies whom they call the Salunde or 

 Salaosu, probably the Apioes whom the local 

 Brazilians call the Beico de Pau, owing to the 

 fact that they wear labrets. 



Linguistically the Nambicuara are divided into 

 an Eastern and a Western group. Both the 

 Eastern and Western Nambicuara, in turn, are 

 dialectally subdivided. The Eastern group is made 

 up today of four bands: the Eldtasu situated 

 south of the telegraph line on the Rio Formiga, a 

 tributary of the Suina River; the Waklitisu just 

 north of the telegraph line on the Juruena River; 

 the Kitanhlu south of the telegraph line on the 

 Camarare River; and the Chiwaisu now including 

 the Hegndisu north of the telegraph line on the 

 Camarare River. The Eastern bands thus extend 

 on both sides of the telegraph line from Utiarity to 

 Vilhena. The Western Nambicuara are composed 

 of at least three bands, the Waindisu on the 

 KabishI River (a tributary of the Guapore River) , 

 the Taondisu and Suedndisu on the upper Roose- 

 velt River. The above-mentioned names were 

 given by Julio of the Waklitisu band. The different 

 subdivisions of the Nambicuara have been called 

 various names in the reports. As far as concerns 

 the Eastern Nambicuara the following names ap- 

 pear to be synonymous. For instance, the local 

 Brazilians call the Waklitisu, El6tasu, and Ki- 

 tanhlu the Iritoa; these names appear to cover at 

 least part of the people whom Roquette-Pinto 

 called the Kokozii. The combined Chiwaisu and 

 Hegndisu are called the Manduca by the local 

 people, and the Anunze by Roquette-Pinto. Or, to 

 put it another way, the Eastern Nambicuara of the 

 literature are divided into the Kokozii and the 

 Anunze by Roquette-Pinto, and into the Iritoa and 

 Manduca by the Brazilians who live in the region. 



The confusion in band names in all probability 

 has arisen from the changes in band organization 

 in the last half century. Fifty years ago the 

 Nambicuara were far more numerous than they 

 are today, and no doubt the number of bands was 

 also greater than today. The extension of the name 

 of an important band to lesser bands is thus quite 

 conceivable. The economy of the Nambicuara 

 appears to indicate that there are maximum and 

 minimum limits to the size of a band. If it grows 

 too large for a given area to support, it will break 

 up, or if it becomes so small that its economic 



security and marital possibilities are endangered it 

 will unite with some other band. 



According to the missionaries who live in the 

 area, the number of individuals in each band of the 

 Eastern Nambicuara are as follows: Waklitisu, 

 18; Kitanhlu, 45, Elotasu, 17; Chiwaisu, 50. 

 Old census figures give the population of the 

 Western Nambicuara as 500, but the missionaries 

 assured me that they doubted whether even half 

 as many exist today. It must be remembered 

 that an epidemic of measles or "grippe" can 

 diminish the population very rapidly. Syphilis 

 and tuberculosis also exist among them. Judging 

 from the physical appearance of the individuals 

 and their general attitude toward life, it appears 

 that the Eastern Nambicuara, at least, are dying 

 out rapidly. 



According to Roquette-Pinto, perhaps the 

 earliest visitor to the territory now occupied by the 

 Nambicuara was Antonio Pires do Campo, who 

 went north up the Sepotuba River, which he 

 called Hisipotuba, between 1718 and 1723, and 

 in all likelihood reached the headwaters of the 

 Sacre and Papagaio Rivers. In his Breve Noticia 

 published in 1746, he mentions the Caviro Indians 

 living in the valleys of the rivers running north- 

 ward into the Amazon River. 



Some years later Padre Ayres de Casal men- 

 tions a tribe living on the Juruena River, a ter- 

 ritory long occupied by the Nambicuara. From 

 1800 on, rumors about the Indians living in this 

 area increased. In 1862, Dr. Amed6e Moure pub- 

 lished a monograph on the Indians of Mato 

 Grosso in which he devoted a chapter to the 10 

 savage, man-eating tribes, among whom he listed 

 the Umotina, Cabixi, Nambicuara, and the 

 Tapanuma (Roquette-Pinto, 1938, pp. 26-51). 



The first reliable accounts of the Nambicuara 

 date from 1907 to 1912, the period when General 

 Rondon was putting up the telegraph line between 

 Cuiaba and Porto Velho. In 1912, Roquette- 

 Pinto visited the Nambicuara and the Paressi, 

 and later published the results of his investiga- 

 tions in his book entitled "Rondonia." This book 

 undoubtedly is the first anthropologically compe- 

 tent report about the Nambicuara. After 1910, 

 small Government Indian Posts were established, 

 one at Tolosa on the upper Cravari River, a short 

 distance east of Utiarity, and another called 

 Pyreneus de Sousa between Campos Novos and 



