The Maxakali are an ethnic group of indigenous people in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Geography and Ethnology

The Maxakali live in the districts of

Santa Helena de Minas Santa Helena de Minas is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. the population was 6,386 in a total area of . The elevation is . It became a municipality in 1997. Santa Helena de Minas is part of the statistic ...

Bertópolis Bertópolis is a municipality in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. the population was 4,607 in a total area of 426 km². The elevation is 278 meters. It became a municipality in 1962. The postal code (CEP) is 39875-0 ...

, Ladainha and

Teófilo Otoni Teófilo Otoni is a municipality in northeast Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The population of the municipality was 140,937 in 2020 and the area is 3,242.818 km2. Origin of the name The city is named after (Vila do Príncipe, 27 January 1807 - ...

in the federal state

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literall ...

. The 400 members of the group live in isolation and poverty. They speak the Maxakalí language, which is one of the Maxakalían languages. This language is notable for having neither nasal nor fricative consonants contrastively. There are mixed marriages these days.

Mythology

In the Maxakali creation story the creator Topa gave them a tame otter for

otter fishing Otter fishing is a fishing technique which uses trained otters to fish in rivers. This method has been practised since the 6th century in various parts of the world, and is still practiced in southern Bangladesh. History Otter fishing has been ...

. This would help them to get always something to eat, as long as they do not forget, to give him the three largest fishes that he caught. When the husband of the grand daughter of the otter keeper neglected this rule, the community was punished by a heavy flooding.Jonathan W. Warren
''Antiracism and Indian Resurgence in Brazil''
Durham .C. Duke University Press, 2001, .

References

Minas Gerais Indigenous peoples of Eastern Brazil {{Brazil-ethno-group-stub