Tupi (people)

Early history

As researchers suggest, the Tupany was originally inhabited by the Amazon rain forests, but around the 10th-9th centuries. BC er began to settle to the south and gradually occupied the coast of the Atlantic Ocean ^[1] .

Tupi people inhabited before the arrival of Europeans almost the entire coast of Brazil . In 1500, their number, according to modern estimates, was about 1 million people - almost as many as in Portugal at that time. Tupi were divided into several dozen tribes, each of which ranged from 300 to 2,000 people, among them: Tupinikim, Tupinamba, Tigiguara, Tabahara, Kaetes, Temimino, Tamoios.

Tupi engaged in farming: they grew manioc , corn , yam , beans , peanuts , tobacco , pumpkin , cotton, and many other plants. The name of the vegetable " Jerusalem artichoke " in European languages ​​is derived from the tribe name (tupinamba), although in fact the vegetable was borrowed from the North American Indians , and tupinamba were not familiar with it, but were at that time the most famous Indian tribe.

Tupi tribes often clashed with other tribes in the region or even with each other. The idea of ​​a single people Tupi they were absent, despite a common language . During wars, the Tupi captured prisoners in order to later be eaten during special rituals ^[2] .

If you believe the memories of the German landsknecht Hans Staden , who participated in the Brazilian expeditions of the conquistadors , Tupi (at least the Tupinamba tribe to which he was captured) practiced cannibalism , because they believed that they absorbed his power together with the meat of the enemy. Staden was not eaten allegedly because every time he loudly begged for mercy, but the Tupi did not eat cowards, believing that anyone who ate a coward would take over his cowardice. Staden's book, published in 1557 , was widely known in Europe, not least because of the description of cannibal rituals ^[2] .

European colonization

Since the 16th century, the Tupi, like other Indian tribes in the region, underwent cultural assimilation by the Portuguese colonialists, often turned into slavery, which led to their almost complete destruction, with the exception of a few small communities living in Indian reservations in Brazil ^[2] .

Mixing races and "svoyachestvo" ( Cunhadismo )

Various peoples contributed to the formation of the Brazilian ethnos, but the contribution of the Tupi descendants was particularly significant. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in the 16th century, the Tupi were the first to meet them. Soon mixed marriages between Portuguese settlers and local women spread, especially since the Portuguese seldom brought women with them ^[2] . At the same time, the phenomenon of "svoyachestva", known as " cunhadismo " (from Portuguese cunhado , "brother-in-law"), began to spread in the colony. “Svoyachestvo” was essentially an ancient Native American tradition of including strangers in their community. The Indians offered the European a girl from his tribe to wife, and if he agreed, he became a “svoyakom” for all Indians of the tribe. Europeans quickly mastered the polygamy common among the Indians, and one European could have dozens of Indian wives ( temericós ) ^[2] .

“Svoyachestvo” was also used to recruit labor. Using the numerous kinship ties acquired through their aboriginal wives- temericós , the Portuguese used “svjakok” to work for themselves, primarily for felling caesalpinia and loading wood into ships. During this process, a significant population of mestizo was formed , which received the name “ Mameluco ” in Brazil and constituted the overwhelming majority of the population of this country. Without the practice of “svoyachestva”, the Portuguese would hardly have been entrenched in Brazil, since their numbers were very small, especially women ^[2] .

Lifestyle

Although purebred Tupi in Brazil disappeared - partly because of the difficult conditions of slavery, partly due to the diseases brought by Europeans - most of Brazil’s territory was inhabited by the maternal descendants of Tupi, who largely inherited the ancient traditions of their people. Darcy Ribeiro wrote that, in terms of their characteristics, the first Brazilians were more Tupi than Portuguese, and even the creolized language they spoke - “Nheengatu”, also known as “ lingua zhural ”, served in as a lingua franca in Brazil until the 18th century ^[2] . The distribution center of the Mameluco (descendants of the Portuguese and Tupi) was the region of São Paulo . Hence, in the 17th century, they, as participants in the slave campaigns organized by the Banderans , penetrated the whole territory of present-day Brazil, including regions where historically Tupi had never lived. It was these mestizos that spread the Iberian culture to the farthest corners of the country. They civilized isolated Indian tribes and spread the Creole language “ lingua-zhelral ”, which originated in the XVII century and is now almost supplanted by the Portuguese, but still exists in some regions of the Amazonia.

In the way of life, the old "Paulista" (residents of São Paulo ) were almost no different from the Indians. In the family, the language of communication was nyengatu ( lingua-zhelal ). Farming , hunting, fishing, and fruit picking were the same as among the Indians. They differed from the Tupi only by using clothes, salt, metal tools, European weapons and a number of other European items ^[2] .

When the areas where the mestizos lived began to fall under the influence of the capitalist economy, the characteristic tupi characteristics began to be gradually lost. The Portuguese language prevailed, and the lingua-zhural language almost disappeared. Rural traditions derived from Tupi were supplanted by European technologies, since agriculture began to be more export- oriented ^[2] .

Vocabulary

Portuguese Brazilian language borrowed a lot of words from the extinct Tupi language , in particular, such common as mingau, mirim, soco, cutucar, tiquinho, perereca, tatu . The names of representatives of the local fauna (for example, arara - parrot " ara ", jacaré - " alligator ", tucano - " toucan ") and flora ( mandioca - " manioc ", abacaxi - " pineapple ") come from Tupi . From it, a number of place-names of modern Brazil ( Itaquaquecetuba , Pindamonyangaba , Caruaru , Ipanema , etc.) originate.

There are also names originating from the Tupi language - Ubirajara , Ubiratã , Moema , Jussara , Jurema , Janaína, and others. ^[3] , however, they do not say that their speakers are really descendants of Tupi, but rather echoes of Brazilian nationalism ^{[4 ]} .

Mass Culture

The Tupinamba tribe was depicted in the 1971 satirical film by Nelson Pereira dos Santos “ How Delicious My Frenchman Was ” ( Como Era Gostoso o Meu Francês ).

• Portugal in America