The Parintintin are an indigenous people who live 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 ...
in the
Madeira River
The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is ...
basin. They refer to themselves as Cabahyba, Kagwahiva’nga, or Kagwahiva, which means "our people."
As of 2010, the Parintintin have a population of around 418
[ and live in three villages on two indigenous territories (TIs):
*TI Ipixuna , and
*TI Nove de Janeiro .
]
Language and culture
The Parintintin language is a dialect of the Tenharim language, which belongs to the Tupi-Guarani language family. It is written in the Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
.[
Parintintin people are argicultalists, fishermen, and gatherers.][ Their social structure is based on two moieties that are ]exogamous
Exogamy is the social norm of marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which two groups c ...
and named for different types of birds. They are a patrilineal
Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...
society.[
]
History
Following contact with Brazilians in 1946, a population of 4,000 at the time was eventually reduced to 120 after Brazil's second rubber boom
The Amazon rubber boom ( pt, Ciclo da borracha, ; es, Fiebre del caucho, , 1879 to 1912) was an important part of the economic and social history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the extraction and comm ...
and the construction of the Trans-Amazon highway
The Trans-Amazonian Highway (official designation BR-230, official name Rodovia Transamazônica), was introduced on September 27, 1972. It is 4,000 km long, making it the third longest highway in Brazil. It runs through the Amazon forest and ...
in 1970. Further colonization of the Amazon basin led to the spread of diseases that the Parintintin were not prepared for.
Current issues
The Parintintin currently face possible downstream impacts from th
Madeira Hydroelectric Complex
See also
* List of indigenous peoples in Brazil
Notes
External links
Instituto Socioambiental
(Portuguese)
* Parintintin (Portuguese)
Flickr set of TI Nove de Janeiro
International Rivers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parintintin
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon