The Zuruahã (also Suruahá, Indios do Coxodoá, and Suruwahá) are an
indigenous people of Brazil
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
, living along the
Purus River
The Purus River (Portuguese: ''Rio Purus''; Spanish: ''Río Purús'') is a tributary of the Amazon River in South America. Its drainage basin is , and the mean annual discharge is . The river shares its name with the Alto Purús National Park a ...
in the state of
Amazonas.
[
]
History
The Zuruahã are an amalgamation of other tribes fleeing disease and violence, especially from the rubber boom
The Amazon rubber cycle or boom (, ; , ) was an important part of the socioeconomic history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related to the commercialization of rubber and the genocide of indigenous peoples.
Cente ...
. Some of the original Zuruahã traded with the rubber tappers but the tribe contracted influenza, resulting in a high death rate, from 1922 to 1924. The survivors withdrew away from non-native settlements.[
They enjoyed relative isolation from non-natives until the 1970s when missionaries and latex extractors entered their traditional territory. ]Daniel Everett
Daniel Leonard Everett (born July 26, 1951) is an American linguist and author best known for his study of the Amazon basin's Pirahã people and their language.
Everett is currently Trustee Professor of Cognitive Sciences at Bentley Universit ...
reports that after first contact with the outside world, some Zuruahá, including eight in a day, have begun to commit suicide by drinking curare
Curare ( or ; or ) is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South America for hunting and for therapeutic purposes, curare only ...
. Pressures on their territories results in increased suicide by the Zuruahã.[ Sustained contact began in 1980. They are ]hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
s.[
In 1984, the Zuruahã Project was created to mitigate the adverse effects of outside contact on the Zuruahã people.][
In 2018 they were contacted to receive ]dental prostheses
A dental prosthesis is an intraoral (inside the mouth) prosthesis used to restore (reconstruct) intraoral defects such as missing teeth, missing parts of teeth, and missing soft or hard structures of the jaw and palate. Prosthodontics is the den ...
, a key element for their survival.
Language
Zuruahã people speak the Zuruahã language
The Zuruahã (also Suruahá, Indios do Coxodoá, and Suruwahá) are an indigenous people of Brazil, living along the Purus River in the state of Amazonas (Brazilian state), Amazonas.
History
The Zuruahã are an amalgamation of other tribes fleein ...
, an Arawá language
Arawá ( Aruá) was a language of Brazil. Its last speaker died in 1877, before any significant documentation of the language could be completed. The only surviving documentation of the language is an 1869 word list.
The language did, however, ...
.[
]
Notes
External links
"Hakani," information about a popular hoax film about the Zuruahã
Survival International
Ethnic groups in Brazil
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon
Hunter-gatherers of South America
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