Nambikwara

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The Nambikwara are an indigenous people in the Amazon region . They live in the border area of ​​the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Rondônia . The numerically small ethnic group (approx. 1,200) speaks its own language, the Nambikwara .

Culture

The Nambikwara don't know any clothes , they only wear ribbons, the men wear a straw apron on their genitals. They live semi-nomadically , which means that the group moves around in the dry season and feeds on the men's hunt and what the women collect. During this time they only have a sun protection made of leaves and twigs. Only in the rainy season do they temporarily build more solid huts; During this time, the men farmed (including manioc).

The material culture of the Nambikwara is described as extremely simple and also appears sparse compared to neighboring ethnic groups. They sleep on the bare floor, hardly know any decorative art, sometimes not even pottery. The family's possessions can be found in a large box that is carried by the wife when moving around.

The organization of the Nambikwara is weak. The only solid bond is the family (the Nambikwara practice cross-cousin marriage ); Membership in a group is free to decide and can be changed. The power of the chiefs is based on the conviction of the group members ( charismatic rule ). In return, the chief does not enjoy any noteworthy privileges other than the permission of a polygamous way of life (he adds concubines to his main wife ).

Research history

During the construction of a telegraph line , the Brazilian adventurer Cândido Rondon came into contact with the tribe in the early 20th century. The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss conducted field research with the Nambikwara in 1939, and he also dealt with them in his doctoral thesis ( La vie familiale et sociale des indiens Nambikwara , 1948). In his travelogue Sad Tropics from 1955 he also devotes a chapter to them. He is appalled by the development the tribe had taken 10 years later when Kalervo Oberg visited him.

literature

  • Kalervo Oberg: Indian tribes of northern Mato Grosso, Brazil . United States Government Printing Office, Washington 1953
  • Claude Lévi-Strauss: Sad Tropics, from the French by Eva Moldenhauer; Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt, 1978, ISBN 3-518-57206-7

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