Indigenous Peoples of Brazil
“Strange People of the Forest” from Brazil and the Brazilians by George James Bruce, 1914.
From: Unknown To: 1914 C.E.
Location: Brazil
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“Strange People of the Forest” from Brazil and the Brazilians by George James Bruce, 1914.
No part of the world presents to-day a more fascinating field for the study of uncivilised tribes than South America; and no part of that continent is more interesting than Brazil for that purpose. After having travelled much in Africa, Asia, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and most of the great island groups of the world, seeing many native races, I do not feel disposed to in any way qualify that assertion. Thousands of square miles remain unexplored, and there may be in South America tens of thousands of Indians who have never beheld a European. As late as 1913 explorers have come on Indian tribes in the Orinoco and Amazon valleys to whom there can be found no reference in European literature.
For the earliest possible references to a race of people in Brazil we must go back over 3500 years, and pick up some slender threads from the slight historical records of these remote times. Diodorus of Sicily makes some references to Amazons of an Asiatic type, but concludes they came from Eastern Asia. Figures on antique vases and sarcophagi in the British Museum appear to represent these fighting women as of European or North African races.
Some historians aver that long before the heroines of Cappadocia, there existed a race of African Amazons who, after conquering the northern peoples of Africa, went across the ocean in search of other countries to subjugate. The Scythians called them "Giorpata," slayers of men. Mid-African and South African archaeological research supports Bantu legends that white women once ruled there. Where they came from or whither they went there is no indication of.
The Zulus and other African black races are waiting and looking for a white girl saviour and earthly ruler. Prominent novelists have woven romances round this peculiar idea. Some writers declare that the African Amazons, known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, made their way to Brazil and settled around her great northern waterway. Portuguese historians translating the most ancient writers, credit these with minute descriptions of the ancient Amazons of Brazil. "They wear their hair cut short like men, they go to war, and hunt with bows and arrows. Each of them has a woman who serves her."
Serious Portuguese and Spanish writers of the early part of the seventeenth century proclaim their presence in this region; and some go so far as to locate them in the mountains north of Manaos.
Indian legends agree with these writers; but it would be difficult now to determine whether the historians adopted these legends, or recorded facts of which they had got evidence. The legends of certain Amazon Valley tribes are to the effect that once upon a time the country north of the Amazon, from the junction of the Rio Negro to the ocean, was occupied by a race called the Guacaris. Adjoining their territory, further inland, was a country through which flowed a great white and a great black river. Between these two rivers were many high mountains in which lived a race of women whom none but the Guacaris could approach.
These women guarded mountains of immense treasure which they had discovered. Once a year the Guacaris visited this country and brought back with them infant boys who grew up to be great warriors and who, conquering many tribes on their way, journeyed to the south-west, where they became lost to local tradition. The women warriors disappeared gradually and were believed to have gone away or died out. Their country was latterly occupied by the Manaos, or Manoas, and the Aroaquis tribes.
The legends can be substantiated this far. Dr Martins, the Bavarian explorer and historian, in his works published in German in 1867, dealing with Brazilian Indians, gives in one volume a map in which he allots this identical region to the Guacaris. Many other well-known writers on Brazilian Indians also mention the Guacaris as occupying this territory. The first navigator of the Amazon, Orellana, also Pizarro, and quite a host of subsequent explorers, navigators, and missionaries of various nationalities, have testified to seeing and suffering at the hands of these Amazons. In the sixteenth century Europe accepted the evidence tendered of their existence, and also got excited over plans proposed to reach the treasures they guarded.
Their country was called El Dorado, a name that has been perpetuated even in the English language to define an extremely rich place. The existence of the black and white rivers with the mountains between them has long since been verified. I was on the rivers, the Rio Negro and the Rio Branco, and saw the mountains in the distance while visiting Amazonas. The great territory between those mighty rivers is yet practically a terra incognito. It is known to contain precious metals, and may one day yet justify its ancient reputation and prove to be in verity El Dorado.
There were two great nations of Indians in Brazil in the earliest era we can get anything reliable about. One of these races, the Tupis it is said came in from the north and gradually over-ran the country. The other, the Guaranis, came in from the south-west, the River Plate basin. These names are often spelt "Tupy" and "Guarany"; but the best authorities favour the "i" terminal.
Without any keen desire to introduce a new theory on this question, I feel bound to claim a place in future discussion of the subject for the Tamoy or Tamoyos. These Indians were found on the coast about Rio de Janeiro. In the Tupi-Guarani (native name "Abaneenga"), or general language of the aboriginals of Brazil, the word "tamoyo" is claimed by several authorities to mean "grandfather."
In most Polynesian languages the word "tama" means either "father" or "male heir," and "tama oha" "generous father" or "generous son." "Tama oha" is generally a term of respect applied throughout Polynesia to a parent on the male side. A word pronounced by Indians in Brazil peculiarly like the way a Polyesian would pronounce "tama oha" has been spelt "tamoyo" by the early German and Bavarian writers on the subject. There is no doubt both terms express similar ideas. If comparisons are made between Polynesian and Tupi-Guarani legends many striking resemblances will be found.
It is possible that the Tupis invading Brazil from the north, and the Guaranis from the west, found the Tamoyos there and drove them out to the east coast, where the earliest European visitors found them. From the scant evidences I was able to collect, the Tamoyos of the beginning of the sixteenth century in Brazil approximated more closely to the great people spread over the lands of the Pacific than did the other races of Brazil, if the relics seen and historical references consulted may be relied on. It may have happened that the Tamoyos were maritime visitors to the country as the Maories were to New Zealand.
There is no doubt but that subsequent to the Tupi-Guarani occupation of the country, several other Indian tribes or peoples came into Brazil and established themselves where they could. Amongst these were the "Guaianazes," "Omaguas," "Aimores" or "Botocudos,” and "Carijos."
The word "Tupi" means "uncle " or "comrade." "Guarani" means "great brave" or "lord of the soil." It is noteworthy that the Caribs in the north of South America considered the Tamoyos of the Brazilian coast their forefathers, and writers dealing with the Cariba nation refer to this. However, accepting for the present the theory that the Tupis and Guaranis were the basic races in Brazil, that there were eventually hundreds of separate tribes with a great variety in their characteristics cannot be disputed. Whether all these tribes are descendants of the Tupi-Guarani stock or not has never been decided. They have been classified in many different ways by the various writers taking up the subject, and no two writers seem to agree how this should be done.
Bruce, George James. Brazil and the Brazilians. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1914.
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