Indigenous peoples in Brazil or Native Brazilians () are the peoples whose ancestors lived in Brazil before European contact around 1500 and those pre-Columbian forebears. Indigenous peoples once comprised an estimated 2,000 distinct tribes and nations inhabiting what is now Brazil. The 2010 Brazil census recorded 305 Indigenous ethnic groups.
Historically, many Indigenous peoples of Brazil were semi-nomadic and combined hunting, fishing, and gathering with migratory agriculture. Many tribes were massacred by European settlers, and others assimilated into the growing Brazilian population.
The Indigenous population was decimated by European diseases, declining from a pre-Columbian high of 2 million to 3 million to approximately 300,000 by 1997, distributed among 200 tribes. According to the 2022 IBGE census, 1,694,836 Brazilians classified themselves as Indigenous, divided into 391 ethnic groups and the census recorded 295 Indigenous languages. Almost 77% of Indigenous Brazilians speak Portuguese.
On 18 January 2007, Fundação Nacional do Índio reported 67 remaining uncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 known in 2005. With this increase, Brazil surpassed New Guinea, becoming the country with the largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world.
History
Origins
Questions about the original settlement of the Americas have led to various hypothetical models. The origins of these Indigenous peoples remain a matter of debate among archaeologists.
Migration into the continents In Brazil, most Native tribes living in the land by 1500 are thought to be descended from the first wave of Siberian migrants to the Americas, who are believed to have crossed the Bering Land Bridge at the end of the last Ice Age, between 13,000 and 17,000 years ago.
Genetic studies
Y-chromosome DNA An analysis of Amerindian Y-chromosome DNA reveals specific clustering within much of the South American population. The micro-satellite diversity and distributions of Y-chromosome lineages specific to South America suggest that certain Amerindian populations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.
Autosomal DNA According to a 2012 autosomal DNA genetic study, Indigenous peoples of the Americas descend from at least three main migrant waves from Siberia. Most of their ancestry traces back to a single ancestral population, referred to as the 'First Americans'. However, Inuit-speaking populations from the Arctic inherited nearly half of their ancestry from a second Siberian migrant wave, while Na-dene speakers inherited about one-tenth of their ancestry from a third migrant wave. The initial settlement of the Americas was followed by a rapid expansion southward along the coast, with limited gene flow later, especially in South America. An exception to this is the Chibcha speakers, whose ancestry includes contributions from both North and South America.
mtDNA
Another study, focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited only through the maternal line, revealed that the maternal ancestry of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas traces back to a few founding lineages from Siberia, likely arriving via the Bering Strait. According to this study, the ancestors of Indigenous peoples of the Americas likely remained near the Bering Strait for a time before rapidly spreading throughout the Americas and eventually reaching South America. A 2016 study on mtDNA lineages found that "a small population entered the Americas via a coastal route around 16,000 years ago, following a period of isolation in eastern Beringia for approximately 2,400 to 9,000 years after separating from eastern Siberian populations. After spreading rapidly throughout the Americas, limited gene flow in South America resulted in a distinct phylogeographic structure of populations, which persisted over time. All ancient mitochondrial lineages detected in this study were absent from modern data sets, suggesting a high extinction rate. To investigate this further, we applied a novel principal components multiple logistic regression test to Bayesian serial coalescent simulations. The analysis supported a scenario in which European colonization caused a substantial loss of pre-Columbian lineages."
The Oceanic component in the Amazon region
Two 2015 autosomal DNA genetic studies confirmed the Siberian origins of the Native peoples of the Americas. However, an ancient signal of shared ancestry with the Indigenous peoples of Australia and Melanesia was detected among the Native populations of the Amazon region. This migration from Siberia is estimated to have occurred around 23,000 years ago.
Archaeological remains
Indigenous peoples of Brazil, unlike those in Mesoamerica or the Andes, did not keep written records or erect stone monuments. The humid climate and acidic soil have destroyed almost all traces of their material culture, including wood and bones. Therefore, what is known about the region's history before 1500 has been inferred and reconstructed from limited archaeological evidence, such as ceramics and stone arrowheads.
The most conspicuous remains of these societies are vast mounds of discarded shellfish, known as sambaquis, found at some coastal sites that were continuously inhabited for more than 5,000 years. Additionally, substantial "black earth" (terra preta) deposits in several places along the Amazon are believed to be ancient garbage dumps (middens). Recent excavations of these deposits in the middle and upper Amazon have uncovered remains of massive settlements, containing tens of thousands of homes, indicating a complex social and economic structure.
Studies of the wear patterns of precontact inhabitants of coastal Brazil found that the surfaces of anterior teeth facing the tongue were more worn than those facing the lips. Researchers believe this wear was caused by using teeth to peel and shred abrasive plants.
Marajoara culture
Marajoara culture The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó island at the mouth of the Amazon River. Archaeologists have uncovered sophisticated pottery in their excavations on the island. These pieces are large, elaborately painted, and incised with representations of plants and animals. This discovery provided the first evidence of a complex society on Marajó. Further evidence of mound building suggests that well-populated, complex, and sophisticated settlements developed on the island, as only such settlements were believed capable of undertaking extensive projects like major earthworks.
The extent, level of complexity, and resource interactions of the Marajoara culture have been subjects of dispute. In the 1950s, American archaeologist Betty Meggers, in some of her earliest research, suggested that the society migrated from the Andes and settled on the island. Many researchers believed that the Andes were populated by Paleoindian migrants from North America, who gradually moved south after being hunters on the plains.
In the 1980s, American archaeologist Anna Curtenius Roosevelt led excavations and geophysical surveys of the mound Teso dos Bichos. She concluded that the society that constructed the mounds originated on the island itself.
The pre-Columbian culture of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population as large as 100,000 people. The Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest may have used their method of developing and working in terra preta to make the land suitable for the large-scale agriculture to support large populations and complex social formations.
Xinguano civilisation The Xingu peoples built large settlements connected by roads and bridges, often featuring moats. Their development peaked between 13th and 17th century, with their population reaching into the tens of thousands.
Native people after the European colonisation
Distribution
On the eve of the Portuguese arrival in 1500, the coastal areas of Brazil were dominated by two major groups: the Tupi (speakers of Tupi–Guarani languages), who occupied almost the entire length of the Brazilian coast, and the Tapuia (a general term for non-Tupi groups, usually Jê-speaking peoples), who primarily resided in the interior. The Portuguese arrived at the end of a long pre-colonial conflict between the Tupis and Tapuias, which had led to the defeat and expulsion of the Tapuias from most coastal areas.
Although the coastal Tupi were divided into sub-tribes that were frequently hostile to each other, they were culturally and linguistically homogeneous. The fact that early Europeans encountered essentially the same people and language along the Brazilian coast greatly facilitated communication and interaction.
Coastal Sequence c. 1500 (north to south):Boundary details are partly derived from Tribos Indígenas Brasileiras Tupinambá (Tupi, from the Amazon delta to Maranhão) Tremembé (Tapuia, coastal tribe, ranged from São Luis Island (south Maranhão) to the mouth of the Acaraú River in north Ceará; French traders cultivated an alliance with them) Potiguara (Tupi, literally "shrimp-eaters"; they had a reputation as great canoeists and aggressive expansionists, inhabited a great coastal stretch from Acaraú River to Itamaracá island, covering the modern states of southern Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba.) Tabajara (tiny Tupi tribe between Itamaracá island and Paraíba River; neighbors and frequent victims of the Potiguara) Caeté (Tupi group in Pernambuco and Alagoas, ranged from Paraíba River to the São Francisco River; after killing and eating a Portuguese bishop, they were subjected to Portuguese extermination raids and the remnant pushed into the Pará interior) Tupinambá again (Tupi par excellence, ranged from the São Francisco River to the Bay of All Saints, population estimated as high as 100,000; hosted Portuguese castaway Caramuru) Tupiniquim (Tupi, covered the Bahian discovery coast, from around Camamu to São Mateus River; these were the first Indigenous people encountered by the Portuguese, having met the landing of captain Pedro Álvares Cabral in April 1500) Aimoré (Tapuia (Jê) tribe; concentrated on a sliver of coast in modern Espírito Santo state) Goitacá (Tapuia tribe; once dominated the coast from the São Mateus River (in Espírito Santo state) down to the Paraíba do Sul River (in Rio de Janeiro state); hunter-gatherers and fishermen, they were a shy people that avoided all contact with foreigners; estimated at 12,000; they had a fearsome reputation and were eventually annihilated by European colonists) Temiminó (small Tupi tribe, centered on Governador Island in Guanabara Bay; frequently at war with the Tamoio around them) Tamoio (Tupi, an old branch of the Tupinambá, ranged from the western edge of Guanabara Bay to Ilha Grande) Tupinambá again (Tupi, indistinct from the Tamoio. Inhabited the Paulist coast, from Ilha Grande to Santos; main enemies of the Tupiniquim to their west. Numbered between six and ten thousand). Tupiniquim again (Tupi, on the São Paulo coast from Santos/Bertioga down to Cananéia; aggressive expansionists, they were recent arrivals imposing themselves on the Paulist coast and the Piratininga plateau at the expense of older Tupinambá and Carijó neighbors; hosted Portuguese castaways João Ramalho ('Tamarutaca') and António Rodrigues in the early 1500s; the Tupiniquim were the first formal allies of the Portuguese colonists, helped establish the Portuguese Captaincy of São Vicente in the 1530s; sometimes called "Guaianá" in old Portuguese chronicles, a Tupi term meaning "friendly" or "allied") Carijó (Guarani (Tupi) tribe, ranged from Cananeia all the way down to Lagoa dos Patos (in Rio Grande do Sul state); victims of the Tupiniquim and early European slavers; they hosted the mysterious degredado known as the 'Bachelor of Cananeia') Charrúa (Tapuia (Jê) tribe in modern Uruguay coast, with an aggressive reputation against intruders; killed Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516)