Botocudo

Ian Skoggard

Aimoré, Aimboré, Amburé, Borun, Krenak, Crenak, Krén, Grén, Guerens, En-hérakmung, Engeräkmung

The Botocudo mainly live in two locations in the Rio Doce basin in eastern Minas Gerais and western Espirito Santo, with a third small enclave in northern Sao Paulo. The name “Botocudo” comes from the Portuguese botoque, a term for barrel lid, and refers to the wooden ear and lip plugs worn by men and women. The same name was used to refer to a number of unrelated groups, usually anyone who resisted Portuguese colonization. The Botocudo refer to themselves as Grén or Krén.

Frontier wars amplified by the discovery of gold in Minas Gerais in the 1790s—in particular a campaign targeting the Botocudo that began in 1808—no doubt drastically reduced their numbers. By 1884, an estimated 5,000 persons remained. In 1939, only 78 Botocudo were counted. There were an estimated 200 individuals in 1998, and 434 were counted in 2014.

The Botocudoan or Krenak language is part of the Aimore subfamily and Nuclear-Macro-Je (Ge) family group.

At first contact in 1535, the Botocudo were living along the coast between the Rio Pardo in southern Bahia and Rio Doce in Espirito Santo. Driven into the interior (sertão) of Espirito Santo and eastern Minas Gerais by settlers beginning in the 1560s, they continued to harass coastal settlements. Settlers responded with bloody reprisals. The discovery of gold and diamonds in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century brought more settlers into the interior, instigating a series of frontier wars. In 1808, the government declared open war on the Botocudo, merely legitimizing what was already occurring; the proclamation lasted until 1831. Also early that century, the Botocudo began to settle near ranches and serve as day laborers, although some remained independent in the interior.

Using palm fronds, the Botocudo made both domed and lean-to shelters, large enough to house several families. The largest villages comprised around eight shelters.

The Botocudo grew manioc, sweet potatoes and bananas. They collected a variety of seeds and fruit, including inga (Inga sp.) and feijão do monte (wild bean) pods, and tree fruits such as maracujá (passion fruit), araticu (soursop), guayaba (guava), jabuticaba (Mouriri pusa), and imbú (Spondias tuberosa). They also ate palm shoots and roasted the root of a creeper. In the dry season they gathered sapacaia (Lecythis pisonis) and coconuts. They hunted animals from behind blinds, using bows and arrows. The bows were made of palm wood and were five to seven feet in length. Arrows were made of reeds and had sharpened bamboo points. They also fished using bows and featherless arrows. Bird arrows had a pellet knob on the end.

The Botocudo used net bags to hold and carry items. The inner bark of the bottle tree (Ceiba ventricosa) was used to make cordage by chewing and steeping the material. Fibers were extracted from tucum palm (Astrocaryum sp.) bark, and from caraguatá (Bromelia balansae) leaves that were left in water to rot.

Men hunted and women gathered. Men tilled the fields and women harvested. Women made string and cords.

The Botocudo had a generation system, without distinction of maternal and paternal uncles and aunts.

The Botocudo kinship system distinguished between generations, gender, and in-laws, but not between maternal and paternal uncles and aunts. The same term was used for all people in the same generation.

Girls married at puberty. Marriage was usually band exogamous; marriage within the band had to have parental consent. Skillful hunters could support more than one wife.

The Botocudo were organized into bands consisting of 10–20 extended families, totaling 50–200 individuals. An individual gifted with supernatural powers led the band and was responsible for adjudicating disputes, distributing food, and leading war parties.

Bands feuded constantly. Opponents fought each other with sticks. Women from different bands also wrestled and boxed each other. Sexual jealousy and revenge were common sources of conflict.

Adults have upwards of six souls (nakandyúng), only one of which resides in the body, the others are nearby. The first soul is acquired at four years of age. When dreaming, the soul leaves the body to wander. The sky spirits (tokón or marét) are beneficial to humans and supplicated by shamans, in some cases to provide game to hunters. One sky spirit rules them all, a giant with white hair (Maret-khmakniam or Yekán kren-yirugn) who never comes down to earth but who sends rain and storms, kills enemies, causes the phases of the moon, controls all medicines, and holds captive the souls of murderers. Eclipses occur when the moon and sun quarrel. The rainbow is the shadow of the sun. In myths, Hummingbird splashed water to create the rivers and lakes, and Curassow stole fire from Vulture, giving it to the Heron who hurled it to the ground.

Shamans (yikégn) communicate with the sky spirits and supplicate them to cure the sick and revive the dead. Most chiefs are shamans but not all shamans are chiefs. Shamans summon the sky spirits who descend into the village down a three-meter-high sacred post (yoñkyón) carved in human form.

Botocudo musical instruments include a bamboo nose flute and whistles. Men and women danced together in circular formations, stamping and hopping to dramatize the hunt. Songs recounted the day’s events, with everyone joining in the chorus. Men wore feather ornaments and women, necklaces, bracelets and anklets. Bodies were painted for feasts and war.

Knowledge of medicinal plants was extensive and use of purges and diaphoretics common. An astringent juice rich in tannin was applied to wounds. Respiratory ailments were treated with the smoke or powder of a creeper plant. The jaborandi do matto plant (Pilocarpus sp.) was used as a rub to cure skin diseases. Fever was treated by either sitting next to a fire or bathing in a river. Steam was another form of treatment. Soul loss is one cause of illness.

Adults may have up to six souls, one of which resides in the body. The inner soul dies on the deathbed, while the others weep unseen above the grave and are eventually carried off by sky spirits (marét). The corpse is buried in an extended position. A fire is built over the grave to keep evil spirits away. A chief’s grave is marked by a small cabin. Ghosts (nandyóñ) rise from the bones of the corpse to dwell in the underworld, although they occasionally appear to humans on earth.

The culture summary was written by Ian Skoggard in February, 2019.

Instituto Socioambiental (2018). "Krenak." Povos Indígenas no Brasil. Last modified March 26, 2018. https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Krenak.

Métraux, Alfred (1946). "The Botocudo." Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 1. The Marginal Tribes, edited by Julian H. Steward. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 143, Vol. 1, 531-540. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.

Nimuendajú, Curt (1946). "Social Organization and Beliefs of the Botocudo of Eastern Brazil." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 2(1):93-115.

Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig, eds. (2019). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-second edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.