Native American Indian Cultures

Area: central Mato Grosso, Brazil (Map), seven villages. The traditional territory of Bororo occupation reached Bolivia to the West; the Center-South of the State of Goiás to the East; the margins of the rivers that form the Xingu River to the North; and, to the South, the vicinity of the Miranda River (Ribeiro, 1970:77). It is estimated that the Bororo have been living in this area for at least 7,000 years (Wüst & Vierter, 1982).

Today: Due to reduction in territory, they supplement their existence by farm labor and menial jobs.

Among the Bororo the political unit is the village (Boe Ewa), formed by a group of houses built on a circle, with the men's house (Baito) at the center. West of the Baito is the ceremonial court, called Bororo, where the society's most important ceremonies are held. Even in the villages where the houses are disposed in a linear way because of the influence of missionaries or of government agents, the village circularity is considered the ideal representation of the social space and of the cosmological universe. In the complex Bororo social organization individuals are classified according to their clan, their lineage and their residential group. Rituals are a constant in Bororo life. The most important rites of passage (in which people pass from one social category to another) are naming, initiation and funeral.

This Nation has shown an enormous ability to assimilate into the culture of non-Indians without losing their traditions. From the depths of their cultural complexities, intricacies of their accumulated wealth of environmental and cosmological information useful to the non-Indian has produced the Encyclopedia of the Bororo. Their language shows a rare richness for detail that has resulted in an enormous three volume dictionary written by two Salesian priests, Albisette and Ventureilli, who lived among the Bororo for more than a quarter century.

The Bororo Indians of Brazil think that it would be certain death to eat the new maize before it has been blessed by the medicine-man. The ceremony of blessing it is as follows. The half-ripe husk is washed and placed before the medicine-man, who by dancing and singing for several hours, and by incessant smoking, works himself up into a state of ecstasy, whereupon he bites into the husk, trembling in every limb and uttering shrieks from time to time. A similar ceremony is performed whenever a large animal or a large fish is killed. The Bororo are firmly persuaded that were any man to touch unconsecrated maize or meat, before the ceremony had been completed, he and his whole tribe would perish. (from Frazer, Sir James George. 1922. The Golden Bough)

The poari is an idioglottal "clarinet" used by the Bororo Indians of southern Brazil. The instrument's mouthpiece is a narrow cane reed whose upper end is closed and whose lower end is open. The lower end of the reed is placed inside a gourd, which functions as a resonator and is adorned with parrot feathers. It's possible that the Bororo still play the poari in their ceremonies. (Picture and text from the American Museum of Natural History.)

In 1791 the Portuguese scientist Araucho brought a bright headdress made of bird feathers and a ritual stone ax which belonged to the Bororo Indians from the South America. A long time ago this tribe occupied a great territory called Matou-Grossou which now belongs to the Brazilian state, and also adjoining regions of Southwestern Bolivia. Gradually the western group of the Bororo tribe died out in the 19th century, while the remains of the eastern group still dwell on their original territory. Such headdresses were used by the Bororo Indians at spiritual festivals; they helped to create images of mythological characters or totems who had blood ties with the Bororos. The ritual stone ax was also used for a multitude of purposes. (Picture and text from Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography.)

headdresses were used by the Bororo Indians

Bororo - Culture summary of this Mato Grosso tribe from the Ethnographic Atlas.

Book - Crocker, John Christopher, 1985. Vital Souls; Bororo Cosmology, Natural Symbolism, and Shamanism. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. This is an examination of the Bororo-speaking peoples of central Brazil and their shamanistic practices. This work investigates the recurrent theme of shamanism within Bororo life.

Hands Around the World

Bororo Indians