Karajá

Edna Luísa de Melo Taveira and Maria Heloísa Fénelon Costa

Carajá, Javaé, Javahé, Shambioá, Xambioá

The Karajá are an Indian group of Brazil. They are subdivided into the Karajá proper, Javaé, and Xambioá or Northern Karajá.

The Karajá are settled in central Brazil in the region of the Rio Araguaia, where it divides to flow around the island of Bananal. They inhabit the interior of the island as well as the longer course of the river. Some local groups live off the island, along the Rio Araguaia to the north and south.

Reports of writers, travelers, government workers, and ethnologists tell of dramatic depopulation among the Karajá from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. A 1990 census by FUNAI (Fundacão Nacional do Índio, or National Indian Foundation) showed a total of 2,200 Karajá. In 2014 there were 3,768 Karajá, 1,484 Javaé, and 287 Xambioá.

The Karajá language belongs to the Karajá family of the Macro-Gê language branch. Dialect differences, principally phonological, occur among the three subgroups. There are also differences between male and female speech.

A new phase of colonization began toward the end of the eighteenth century in Goiás, when the gold mines became exhausted. With Brazilian independence, the government became more interested in preserving the territorial unity of Goiás and restructuring the economy. In 1863 the governor of Goiás descended the Rio Araguaia, with plans to develop steam navigation and to promote colonization of lands along the banks of the river. New villages were founded as a result of this initiative, and steam navigation increased along the Araguaia. Only recently has the region been drawn into the national economy, however. The Serviço de Proteção aos Índios or SPI (Indian Protection Service) permitted cattle herders to occupy the fields that border the river, gradually involving the Karajá, Javaé, Tapirapé, and Avá (Canoeiros) Indians, and causing many changes in their lives as Indian territories were invaded by cattle during the rainy season. When the military government took power in 1964, the SPI was dissolved, and the Fundacão Nacional do Índio (National Indian Foundation) or FUNAI was created, with similar functions.

It is probable that the first contacts of the Karajá with “civilization” date to the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, when explorers began to arrive in the Araguaia-Tocantins Valley. They came from São Paulo by land or along the rivers of the Parnaíba Basin, looking for Indian slaves and gold. When gold was discovered in Goiás around 1725, miners from several regions headed there and founded villages in the region. It was against these men that the Indians had to fight to defend their territory, families, and freedom. A military post was established in 1774 to facilitate travel. Karajá and Javaé lived on the post that was called the Nova Beira colony. Other colonies were founded later but none was successful. The Indians had to adapt to a new way of life, and were subject to various contagious diseases to which they had no immunity and for which they had no treatment.

The Karajá have always inhabited linear villages along the river, unlike the other tribes of central Brazil. Traditional houses had an elongated rectangular shape and an ogival roof, and housed extended families. Houses built in recent decades are smaller, built for nuclear families, and have a square shape and four-sided roofs.

Cemeteries are located near the villages, generally at the riverside; some are contiguous with the village. Extended families have the right to use their particular burial grounds within the cemeteries, which are replicas of the villages of the living.

Early in the twentieth century there were summer camps where entire families would stay to collect the eggs of the tracajá (Padocnemis unifilis, the yellow-spotted river turtle) along with other wild products, while taking the opportunity to visit relatives in other local groups. Today, visits to other villages are frequent at all times of the year, especially during the dry season, but beaches are no longer used for camping, only as short-term resting places during collecting activities; they are never used for leisure activities. For trips to other villages the Karajá use motorboats belonging to other people in the region or to FUNAI (Fundacão Nacional do Índio).

The Karajá also practice subsistence farming, combining slash-and-burn cultivation with modern farming techniques taught by Brazilian government agents. They cultivate manioc, watermelons, bananas, maize, and sweet potatoes; also rice and beans, which are relatively new cultivars.

At one time the Karajá hunted deer, tapir, wild pigs, and other mammals. These animals have since become scarce, and the Indians have come to prefer beef. Birds are captured and killed for their feathers or kept as pets to please the children. The birds hunted most often are macaws and river birds, especially the colhereiro (Ajaia ajaja or Platalea ajaja) and the jaburu (Micteria americana).

The Karajá collect seasonal fruits from the underbrush: coconuts, pequi (Caryocar brasiliense), and fava do jatobá (Hymenaea stigonocarpa), among others. They also collect honey from bees; formerly from wild bees but now from those introduced as a result of interethnic contact.

Fishing has always been the principal means of subsistence. The Karajá catch, among other fish, pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), pirarara (Phractocephalus hemilopterus), and tucunaré (Cichla sp.). Today, part of the catch is sold to the local population. In the early 1970s the Karajá worked for commercial fishermen who exploited them. Since then FUNAI (Fundacão Nacional do Índio) has controlled commercial fishing among the Indians. Besides fish, the Karajá sell handicrafts for the tourist trade.

Karajá art features several handicraft modalities, with specialties that were traditionally masculine and others that were feminine; in recent years handicrafts have become free of rigid rules in the division of labor by sex. Among the traditionally masculine handicrafts are sculpture in wood (dolls and anthropomorphic figures), modeling in wax, feather art, the making of weapons with feather tufts, and ornamental weaving. Traditionally feminine handicrafts include ceramics and the weaving of cloth. Weaving has always been done by both sexes; however, there are types of weaving dominated by males and other kinds by females, depending on the raw materials and the methods used. Currently, weaving is the most commonly pursued handicraft in all Karajá villages, and they sell some articles to tourists. The production of ceramics is of greater importance only in the village of Santa Isabel do Morro (Hawaló). In the past, the Karajá hunted and made war with weapons such as clubs, spears, bows, and spear-thrower darts. They would make miniatures for children and weapons for older boys, the dimensions modified according to the age of the user. Today, they hunt and fish with instruments acquired from non-Indians: rifles, metal fishhooks, and nylon fishing line.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the southern Karajá would obtain wood for bows, stones for hatchets, domesticated macaws, and other items from the northern Karajá. The southern Karajá also received raw materials from the Tapirapé, a nearby Tupí tribe, and from the Javaé subgroup; from the latter they obtained tobacco plants, manioc roots, and arrows. The Karajá also traded with the local Brazilian population and with outsiders, offering manioc and fish in exchange for salt, farinha (manioc flour), tobacco, beads, and machetes. Handicrafts were always a part of trade, and in recent years the production and sale of craft items to tourists has acquired major economic importance. River transportation is central to trade. In addition to cash purchases, intratribal barter continues to take place.

Men and women perform different agricultural labor; the more difficult and time-consuming tasks are undertaken by the men, whereas the women occupy themselves with the less strenuous, ancillary aspects. For the most labor-intensive farming tasks, the men of each local group get together and help one another in a communal undertaking. The principal subsistence activity is fishing, which is a male pursuit.

The collection of wild products for food and craft production can be done by either sex, depending on their craft specialization. Herbalist medicine men collect medicinal herbs. House construction is male work. Cargo baskets are made by men, as are the weapons that formerly were used in hunting and war but today are intended only for rituals or for the tourist trade. Featherwork is a masculine specialty but women can make certain smaller, less complex pieces. Wood carving and wax modeling are male activities, although some exceptions occur with respect to figurative art.

The Karajá acknowledge the existence of territorial dominions, pertaining to each village and historically assured by consuetudinary law. These territories are defined by the sum of the lands of local family groups considered adequate for hunting and fishing as well as for the collection of raw materials for homebuilding and craft production. If usable natural resources are located outside their territory, interested individuals direct themselves to the chief of the respective territory for authorization to exploit the resources. The Karajá make relatively long trips outside of the territories of their own village to fish, to collect, and to trade for or buy raw materials and Indian-made or industrially-produced goods.

The Karajá kinship system is classified as being one of double descent. The mother's line is emphasized and defines an individual's ties to the village. Traditional chiefhood (the office of isãdinudú) and inclusion in tribal moieties are patrilineally inherited.

Karajá kinship terminology has not yet been clearly classified. One infers that it is of the Hawaiian type, manifesting probable combinations with other types.

There are tribal moieties that do not regulate matrimony, having only a ceremonial role. It has been observed by researchers of various Gê groups of central Brazil that, among such segmentary societies, there occur non-exogamic but ceremonial and cosmological moieties. There do not appear to be impediments to matrimony with parallel or cross cousins, but marriage between people belonging to different generations is censured, even though there are a few such unions. The avunculate is important, and some cases of levirate and sororate occur. There are also cases of sororal polygyny. Monogamy is generally prevalent, but there are frequent separations and successive unions. There is a tendency toward village endogamy.

Until about 1960 the domestic unit was composed of an extended matrilineal family occupying just one house. Even then, however, there were exceptions to the rule. By the 1990s there was a tendency for siblings (or married sons, if the parents are alive) to occupy houses next door or nearby, in nuclear-family households. These, according to common law, must always occupy the same area within the village. Extended families also have distinct burial grounds within the communal cemetery.

The right to ownership of a house in the territory of an extended family was transmitted from mothers to daughters, even though dwellings were, and continue to be, burned after the death of the head of the household, either man or woman. Some objects of individual use accompany the dead person, some are given to the burial party (which may or may not include the deceased's relatives). The remaining objects go to the family, which generally prefers to give them away, even though they may be very valuable. A man can acquire for his son the right to take part in rituals performed with specific dance masks.

Female relatives have great influence on the socialization of the young people, even with respect to the boys, a pattern that continues as they become young men. At times, married men show more solidarity with their mothers and sisters than they do with their wives. Between ten and twelve years of age, boys start to receive a more formal education on topics concerning religion and ethical questions related to consuetudinary law after their solemn initiation into the men's house at the feast of Hetohokã (Big House).

Youngsters of both sexes attend regional public schools and/or bilingual schools for the Karajá. Some of the older boys (those over the age of fifteen) have attended schools in Goiânia, the capital of the state of Goiás.

The use of corporal punishment has always been rare because the Karajá prefer to address the improper behavior of youngsters through ridicule. This method of correction persists with regard to adults; Karajá women commonly laugh in a screeching, mocking manner at incidents involving someone's unacceptable behavior.

Children receive an informal education at home, and learn from their maternal and paternal relatives to conduct themselves according to the expectations of Karajá society. The relatives teach them the techniques of domestic tasks as well as those for subsistence and craft production. Children also receive an introduction to myths, cosmology, and tribal history.

The Karajá moieties are clearly apparent in the complex Hetohokã ritual that marks the initiation of seven-year-old boys (piercing of the lower lip to receive a distinctive adornment of the masculine condition), and of ten- to thirteen-year olds (the solemn entrance into the men's house, or the Masks of Aruanã). In this house are guarded the vestments that represent the supernatural beings of the, the forest, the sky, and the depths of bodies of water.

Three houses are built for the Hetohokã ceremonies: the Big House (hetohokã), the Small House (hetorioré), and the Middle House that is situated between the other two and in which the ityamahadú (Middle people) congregate. Since the Karajá say that everybody belongs to either the Big House or the Small House, the Middle group is probably made up of individuals who, in addition to being bonded to one or the other of the main groups, perform the role of ritual mediators during the feast, keeping the competitiveness between the two divisions from intensifying to the point of disturbing the proper performance of the ritual. Ceremonial pairs are present in the Hetohokã, during which, traditionally, two villages in territorial proximity always associate.

Karajá political organization was based on an equilibrium of complementary functions exercised by different individuals: traditional chiefs belonging to the Council of the Elderly, and those hereditarily responsible for the houses where the tribal moieties congregate at the feast of the initiation of the boys.

Since the nineteenth century there have been two complementary chieftaincies: the isãdinudú who addresses religious matters, and the idjesudú (“captain of Christian”) who deals with problems of a practical nature, especially those concerning interethnic contact.

Until about the 1960s, social control was exercised by a Council of the Elderly, comprised of mature men with grandsons, the heads of extended families that constitute matrilocal domestic groups. The complementary opposition of age groups is very clear, there being distinct terms among individuals of the same generation that qualify them as “older” or “younger. Modifications of social structure as a result of interethnic contact provoke dissension between the old and the young, which has eroded the harmony of the past.

In former times, the Karajá fought with nearby tribes such as the Tapirapé, the Xavante, and the Kayapó. In recent decades the conflicts have been individual, factional, or generational. Disputes are most intense within the local group of Hawaló (Santa Isabel do Morro), which is more exposed to government agents, tourists, and regional non-Indians; anomic situations occur from interethnic contact, which has been eroding the Karajá social structure. In 1970 FUNAI (Fundacão Nacional do Índio) began organizing the Indian Guard, enlisting in its ranks the boys of the village. A gradual weakening of the power of the Council of the Elderly ensued. The council mediates conflicts between individuals and families. The guard was disbanded in 1981 but, because the traditional authorities and chiefs had lost prestige, factionalism increased, making individual conflicts more dramatic, sometimes resulting in death.

The Karajá believe in supernatural beings—inhabitants of sky, forest, and water. They look like humans but, in the words of bilingual Indians, they are “spirits of animals.” Only shamans, who in life and after death hold the power of going to the sky and to the bottom of the river, can see them. The Karajá believe in the survival of the souls of the dead. Souls are classified according to the type of death: uní, for cases of violent death—by drowning, killing, or suicide; and worasã, for deaths considered normal—from sickness, old age, or witchcraft. Uní souls are dangerous (cannibalistic), as much to the living as to the souls of the dead, which they have the power to annihilate.

The soul of the hyrí (shaman) is classified as worasã (benign) and has great power over other worasã as well as over the uní (malignant) type, both of which heed its commands. In addition, the soul of the shaman enjoys special mobility, being able to meet with supernatural beings in the heavens and under the waters.

Shamanism is present, even though its manifestations (trance and the shamanic voyage) seem less dramatic than those seen in other Indian groups in Brazil. It is characterized by supernatural vision and intense contact with the supernatural world. There are herbalists who treat maladies. Ehrenreich observed in 1888 that Karajá shamans used suction techniques to withdraw noxious material from the sick person's body, and that they also used the sound of maracas (werú) to scare away the supernatural agents of disease. More recently, herbalist medicine men are known who, for a fee, take individuals from their own village as well as from other local groups into their houses for treatment. The term hori is applied to shamans with supernatural vision, whose power can both cure and kill.

Men and women who have especially deep or broad knowledge are called ohutibedú. The isãdinudú (traditional chief) is frequently considered to be a ohutibedú since it is expected that the position will be held by individuals who were educated for the office, are able to resolve individual and group conflicts, and have considerable cosmological, ceremonial, and genealogical knowledge. They may be an herbalist, are perhaps expert in the classification of both flora and fauna, and may or may not have the power of supernatural vision. Another authority, the iolo, is responsible for knowing the judicial system and must see that the common law is observed.

The spirits of nature are personified in rituals in which male dancers, usually in pairs, carry masks representing each of the beings. These ceremonies are called Aruanã (Idjasó), which is the name of a fish of the Rio Araguaia.

Other ceremonies have the purpose of pacifying the souls of enemies killed by the Karajá in years past, like the Xavante and Tapirapé. The rites de passage are various and elaborate, the most important ritual complex being that of Hetohokã, steps for initiation into adult life and imparting religious knowledge to the younger male generation. There are also seasonal feasts, such as the honey feast held in August.

The Karajá have vocal music associated with dancing, the rhythm of which is marked by the maraca (werú), a gourd rattle that accompanies the rituals of Aruanã and is important in the practice of shamanism. Chants are sung in falsetto to convey the impression that the beings personified by the dancers are not human. Such chants refer to Karajá history, to their everyday life, and to mythical and cosmological affairs.

Pictographs—both geometric features and representations of events ranging from everyday to ceremonial—are extremely complex in style and meaning. Body painting is practiced by both sexes, usually by the young, although individuals of other age groups also ornament themselves on ceremonial occasions. Ornamentation features a number of basic patterns that subdivide into innumerable variants and elaborate combinations.

The Karajá recognize many types of diseases. Those transmitted by non-Indians include, among others, tuberculosis, pneumonia, chicken pox, venereal diseases, and flu, the preferred treatment for which is in hospitals and with medicines administered by doctors and nurses in regional health posts, or in larger cities like Goiânia, Brasília, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Among diseases considered to be Indian diseases, many are thought to be the result of witchcraft and must be treated by herbalists and shamans.

The Karajá believe normal death results from disease, old age, or witchcraft. Even though accusations of witchcraft are common on the occasion of someone's death, the supposedly guilty parties are buried in the same manner as their victims, be the suspects shamans or anyone else. There are both primary burials and secondary burials in funeral urns. Food offerings are deposited in the cemetery by relatives of the dead. People who died by violence and whose malignant souls are called uní, in addition to having to be buried in a place separate from the other graves, are buried face down to make it more difficult for them to see, capture, and devour benign souls (worasãs).

This culture summary is based on the article "Karajá" by Edna Luísa de Melo Taveira and Maria Heloísa Fénelon Costa (translated by William R. J. Schaper), in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 7, South America, Johannes Wilbert, ed. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. 1994. The text was revised and the population figures were updated by Leon G. Doyon in April-May, 2018.

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