The Mehinaku, Mehináko or Mehinacu are an
indigenous people of Brazil
Indigenous peoples in Brazil ( pt, povos indígenas no Brasil) or Indigenous Brazilians ( pt, indígenas brasileiros, links=no) once comprised an estimated 2000 tribes and nations inhabiting what is now the country of Brazil, before European con ...
. They live in the
Indigenous Park of the Xingu
The Xingu Indigenous Park (, pronounced ) is an indigenous territory of Brazil, first created in 1961 as a national park in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Its official purposes are to protect the environment and the several tribes of Xingu in ...
, located around the headwaters of the
Xingu River
The Xingu River ( ; pt, Rio Xingu, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Byti'', ) is a river in north Brazil. It is a southeast tributary of the Amazon River and one of the largest clearwater rivers in the Amazon basin, accounting for about 5% of its water.
...
in
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso ( – lit. "Thick Bush") is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest by area, located in the Central-West region. The state has 1.66% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 1.9% of the Brazilian GDP.
Neighborin ...
. They currently reside in area around the
Tuatuari and
Kurisevo Rivers. They had a population of 254 in 2011,
[ up slightly from 200 in 2002.][
]
Name
The Mehinaku are also known as the Mehináko, Meinaco, Meinacu, Meinaku,[ Mehináku, Mahinaku, Mehinaco, and Minaco people.][
]
Language
The Mehinaku speak the Mehináku language
Mehináku (Meinaku) is an Arawakan language spoken by the Mehinaku people in the Xingu Indigenous Park of Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South Am ...
, an Arawakan
Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branc ...
language. They also speak some Portuguese. A dialect of their language, Waurá-kumá is related to the Waurá language
Waurá (Wauja) is an Arawakan language spoken in the Xingu Indigenous Park of Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At ...
.[
]
History
Like many indigenous tribes, the Mehinaku do not keep detailed, chronological historical records going back more than a few generations. The oldest known village established by the Mehinaku was set up sometime around or before 1850 and was called Yulutakitsi. However, because the community no longer exists, the exact location of its former site is unknown.
According to the Mehinaku, historical villages were located along the Tuatuari river, north of the main Aweti village. The Mehinaku claim their older villages were much larger; which is likely because European explorers had not brought the diseases that indigenous people had no immunity to. These communities were likely abandoned for a variety of reasons, overused soil, intrusion of leaf-cutter ant colonies, and a tribal taboo associated with living in places where many people had died.
In 1884, when the first German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
explorers arrived at the Xingu River headwaters and began to document the tribes living there, the Mehinaku had two villages and a camping site used only during the dry season. Many anthropologists believe that, at the time, the population of the region may have been more than four times what it is today, and that the villages were likely much larger.
In the 1950s, the Ikpeng
The Ikpeng (also known as Txikāo) are an indigenous community that now lives in the Xingu Indigenous Park in Mato Grosso, Brazil. They had a population of 459 in 2010, up from a low of 50 in 1969.
Name
The Ikpeng are also called Txicão, Txikão ...
, a separate tribal group, invaded Mehinaku territory and drove them from it. During the invasion, the Mehinaku chief was called by an arrow. Another tribe, the Yawalapiti, was forced to do the same. This tribal migration forced a political shift in the upper Xingu region.
The Yawalapiti gave the Mehinaku one of their houses at a location called Jalapapuh, and Aweti agreed to divide territory along a trail between their village and the new Mehinaku center. For around a decade, the Mehinaku built communities around their new cultural center, until an outbreak of flu and measles killed around 15 people in the 1960s. After that, the Mehinaku relocated to a nearby area. The Mehinaku moved again in 1981 but did not go far from their original community. The proximity of a post where they could receive medical care gave them little incentive to relocate to their ancestral homeland, although the risks from the Ikpeng were gone by that time.
Culture
The Mehinaku have no provision for privacy in their social arrangements, and live with a striking degree of transparency. Huts that house families of ten or twelve people have no internal walls, and are situated around an open area that is in constant view. On the rare occasions when members of the group are out of sight, their activities can be inferred by their curious fellow villagers, who are able to recognize (and draw from memory) each other's footprints. Gregor sums up the situation by writing: "Each individual's whereabouts and activities are generally known to his relatives and often to the community as a whole. A Mehinaku has little chance of staying out of the public eye for any length of time."[Gregor, ''The Mehinaku'', p. 67.]
Subsistence
The Mehinaku hunt, fish, and farm to provide for themselves. Their primary crops are manioc
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
and maize
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...
.[
]
Notes
References
* Gregor, Thomas. ''The Mehinaku: The Drama of Daily Life in a Brazilian Indian Village''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
* Gregor, Thomas. "Exposure and Seclusion: A Study of Institutionalized Isolation among the Mehinacu Indians of Brazil," ''Ethnology'', Vol. 9, No. 3 (Jul., 1970), pp. 234-250.
External links
Mehinako: History of occupation in the upper Xingu
Mehináku artwork
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The museum has three ...
''Le nostre radici - 02 Antropologia - I Mehinacu dell'Amazzonia, Antica Saggezza di una Tribù Felice''
{{authority control
Xingu peoples
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon