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Tupi [archive]

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Tupi

The Tupi or Tupinamba culture is an Indian culture native to what is now present day Brazil. The Tupi were the largest of the native Indian tribes found in Brazil and made major influences on Brazilian culture and language. Each of the tribes were made up of several villages with approximately six to eight houses per village. These houses were very large and long, and could house up to 30 families each. The families all had there designated area within the house where they would congregate. These people were semi-nomadic moving their entire village about once every five years.

At the time that the Europeans arrived there were over 250 tribes of Tupi.

There were two main groups of Tupi tribes. There were the hunting and gathering tribes and the more prevalent tropical forest farmers. By 1950 there were only 143 tribes and less than 100,000 Indians left in Brazil (Native Races). Today Tupi can be found in remote isolated areas in Brazil and are not a prevalent culture alone.

One of the things for which the Tupi people are best known is their language. Many of the words still used in Brazil today are Tupi in origin. Tupi does not exist on its own as a language it is instead a dialect of language spoken in Brazil. Tupi language was spoken by many tribes in Brazil and when the Portuguese and French came to Brazil they also learned to speak the language. Many of the geographic names in Brazil are of Tupi origin.

Tupi religion was not as organized as the western world's concept of religion. They did have gods that they worshiped mainly through sacrifice. In the Tupi tribes there were aldermen, called shamans that were a concept that is similar to our priests. These shamans were also the tribe's medicine men and were thought to be able to communicate with ghosts and demons through trances. When the Jesuit missionaries arrived in Brazil they began to try and convert the Tupi people in Christians. They baptized many of the Tupi and began to take records of their families. The Jesuits made efforts to protect the Tupi from the Portuguese for about 200 years so that they would not be taken for slavery.

The Tupi people were very aggressive in nature. They were often engaged in inter-tribal wars against other Tupi. When the Europeans came over the Tupi shifted their focus from one another to defending their homelands. This does not mean that Tupi were always fighting together. Different groups of Tupi often sided with either the French or the Portuguese. The people that the Tupi killed in warfare were often used in cannibalistic rituals. This was an important part of their religion but was often seen as very immoral and savage by the Europeans.

The Tupi were seen as very brave warriors that did not fear death themselves. They had weapons that they used in warfare that took the Europeans by great surprise. They were also very skilled warriors that could fire their bows very fast with great accuracy that astounded the westerners. The Tupi did not like to attack their enemies after sunset. They instead would attack at dawn to the sound of gourd trumpets that they had made. They would not wear any clothes during war, but would instead paint themselves with either red or black normally. They sometimes wore feathers as well in battle. They did not have a person in charge so their battles were not as ordered as western warfare had become. They did however take advice of the older Tupi although there was no one man designated as the leader. They were known for displaying the results of their efforts in war by either getting piercings or scars to represent the number of enemies that they had killed. There were often necklaces made out of the teeth of their victims as well.

The number of Tupi that now live in Brazil is very few. These people were not looked upon very favorably by the westerners and many of them died from disease and warfare. They were however very influential in making Brazil's culture and language.

Sources

www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/southamerica/tupinamba.html

http://www.geocities.com/lincoln_tupi/historicol.html (Ancient Tupi Language)

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/Rg/guide/Brazil25.asp#native_races (Native Races)

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/library/brazilwood.htm

http://www.native-net.org/archive/nl/9410/0062.html

Additional Reading

Tupi
Tupi-Guarani Language
Indigenous Tribes of Brazil

Tupi [archive]

Tupi

Sources

Additional Reading

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