The Trumai (or Trumaí; native name: Ho kod ke) 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 currently reside within the
Xingu Indigenous Park
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 ...
, in the state of
Mato Grosso. They have a population of 258 in 2014.
[ They were 97 in 2011 and 120 in 2006,][ up from a low of 26 in 1966.
]
Background
The Trumai are one of the last groups to have settled on the upper 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.
...
, moving there in the 19th century[ from the region between the Xingu and Araguaia Rivers, as a result of attacks from another people. They currently live in four villages in the Xingu Indigenous Park, Terra Preta, Boa Esperança, Steinen and Terra Nova, situated halfway from the Leonardo Villas-Bôas Post and the Diauarum Indigenous Post, where some families also live.
The Trumai are one of the ethnicities included in the ]standard cross-cultural sample
The Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS) is a sample of 186 cultures used by scholars engaged in cross-cultural studies.
Origin
Cross-cultural research entails a particular statistical problem, known as Galton's problem: tests of functional rela ...
.
They are considered the ones who introduced the jawari ritual ("hopep" in the Trumai language), that is, along with the kwarup, one of the most important inter-tribal festivals in the Upper Xingu cultural complex.
Subsistence
The Trumai are farmers, growing primarily 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 ...
, peppers, and beans.[
]
Language
The Trumai language is not closely related to other languages, and it is considered a language isolate.[ It is severely endangered, as children are becoming native speakers of Awetï, Suyá, or ]Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
.
Notes
Further reading
* Robert F. Murphy and Buell Quain
Buell Halvor Quain (May 31, 1912 – August 2, 1939) was an American ethnologist who, after graduating from University of Wisconsin–Madison and studying as a graduate student at Columbia University, worked with native peoples in Fiji and Brazil ...
. "The Trumai Indians of Central Brazil." ''American Anthropologist'', New Series, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Aug., 1956), p. 747
*Quain, Buell; Murphy, Robert F. (1955). ''The Trumai Indians of Central Brazil''. Locust Valley, N.Y.: J. J. Augustin
* Anne Sutherland Louis. "Alliance or Descent: The Trumai Indians of Central Brazil." ''Man'', New Series, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Mar., 1971), pp. 18–29
External links
Trumai language dictionary online from IDS
(select simple or advanced browsing)
Socioambiental page
by Raquel Guirardello (Rice University)
Trumai on the Documentation of Endangered Languages
Trumai - 10.5281/zenodo.1008781
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trumai
Xingu peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon
Indigenous peoples in Brazil