The Muras are an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
who live in the central and eastern parts of
Amazonas,
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 ...
, along the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
river from the Madeira to the Purus.
They played an important part in Brazilian history during colonial times and were known for their quiet determination and subsequent resistance to the encroaching Portuguese culture. Formerly a powerful people, they were defeated by their neighbors, the
Munduruku
The Munduruku, also known as Mundurucu or Wuy Jugu or
BMJ, are an indigenous people of Brazil living in the Amazon River basin. Some Munduruku communities are part of the Coatá-Laranjal Indigenous Land. They had an estimated population in 2014 ...
, in 1788.
[
Of the original diversity of ]Muran languages
Mura is a language of Amazonas, Brazil. It is most famous for Pirahã, its sole surviving dialect. Linguistically, it is typified by agglutinativity, a very small phoneme inventory (around 11 compared to around 44 in English), whistled speec ...
, only Pirahã survives today.
Historical encounter with the Portuguese
According to Adélia Engrácia de Oliveira in ''Autos da devassa contra os índios Mura do Rio Madeira e nações do Rio Tocantins (1738–1739)'' (CEDEAM, 1986:1): "It is known that they, who used their canoes as homes, nomadic indians ("Índios de Corso"), controlled a wide area of land from the border of Peru to River Trombetas, that they stood out for their great effort to repel the encroaching of the Portuguese, that they were valiant and fearless warriors, using special attack tactics, and that their incursions and raids frightened 18th century Amazonas."
Territory
There are about 15,713 Mura people in Brazil.
About 587 of them occupy the Cunhã-Sapucaia Indigenous Territory along the Igapó-Açu River
Igapó-Açu River ( pt, Rio Igapó-Açu is a river of Amazonas state in north-western Brazil.
It is a left tributary of the Madeira River
The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to ...
, which runs through the territory from west to east.
The lower part of the Matupiri River
The Matupiri River ( pt, Rio Matupiri) is a river of Amazonas state in north-western Brazil.
It is a tributary of the Igapó-Açu River.
Course
The Matupiri River forms in the Rio Amapá Sustainable Development Reserve where the Jutaí and ...
enters the territory, where it flows into the Igapó-Açu River.
The Matupi provides the main way to access the Matupiri State Park
Matupiri State Park ( pt, Parque Estadual do Matupiri) is a State park (Brazil), state park in the state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas, Brazil.
It protects a rich area of Amazon rainforest and an ecologically important area of woodland s ...
.
In an unusual arrangement, the Mura people have an "indigenous special use zone" in the state park that allows them to continue to fish and extract forest products, as they have for many generations.
References
Sources
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Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon