Other Names: Boe
Area: central Mato Grosso, Brazil (Map), seven villages.
The traditional territory of Bororo occupation reached Bolivia to the West; the
Center-South of the State of Goiás to the East; the margins of the rivers that
form the Xingu River to the North; and, to the South, the vicinity of the
Miranda River (Ribeiro, 1970:77). It is estimated that the Bororo have been
living in this area for at least 7,000 years (Wüst & Vierter, 1982).
Population (year 1997): 1,024.
Language Root: Macro-Jê, Bororo
First Contact: early 1700's
Economy: Hunters and Gatherers
Today: Due to reduction in territory, they supplement their existence by farm labor and menial jobs.
Among the Bororo the political unit is the village (Boe Ewa), formed
by a group of houses built on a circle, with the men's house (Baito) at the
center. West of the Baito is the ceremonial court, called Bororo, where the
society's most important ceremonies are held. Even in the villages where the
houses are disposed in a linear way because of the influence of missionaries or
of government agents, the village circularity is considered the ideal
representation of the social space and of the cosmological universe. In
the complex Bororo social organization individuals are classified according to
their clan, their lineage and their residential group. Rituals are a
constant in Bororo life. The most important rites of passage (in which people
pass from one social category to another) are naming, initiation and funeral.
Text from © Instituto Socioambiental. You can
find their web site here:
http://www.socioambiental.org/e/
-------------------------------------
This Nation has shown an enormous ability to assimilate into the culture of
non-Indians without losing their traditions. From the depths of their cultural
complexities, intricacies of their accumulated wealth of environmental and
cosmological information useful to the non-Indian has produced the Encyclopedia
of the Bororo. Their language shows a rare richness for detail that has
resulted in an enormous three volume dictionary written by two Salesian priests,
Albisette and Ventureilli, who lived among the Bororo for more than a quarter
century.
The Bororo Indians of Brazil think that it
would be certain death to eat the new maize before it has been blessed by the
medicine-man. The ceremony of blessing it is as follows. The half-ripe husk is
washed and placed before the medicine-man, who by dancing and singing for
several hours, and by incessant smoking, works himself up into a state of
ecstasy, whereupon he bites into the husk, trembling in every limb and uttering
shrieks from time to time. A similar ceremony is performed whenever a large
animal or a large fish is killed. The Bororo are firmly persuaded that were any
man to touch unconsecrated maize or meat, before the ceremony had been
completed, he and his whole tribe would perish. (from Frazer,
Sir James George. 1922. The Golden Bough)
|
The poari is an idioglottal "clarinet" used by the Bororo Indians of southern Brazil. The
instrument's mouthpiece is a narrow cane reed whose upper end is closed
and whose lower end is open. The lower end of the reed is placed inside
a gourd, which functions as a resonator and is adorned with parrot
feathers. It's possible that the Bororo still play the poari in their
ceremonies. (Picture and text from the
American
Museum of Natural History.) |
 |
|
In
1791 the Portuguese scientist Araucho brought a bright headdress made of
bird feathers and a ritual stone ax which belonged to the Bororo Indians
from the South America. A long time ago this tribe occupied a great
territory called Matou-Grossou which now belongs to the Brazilian state,
and also adjoining regions of Southwestern Bolivia. Gradually the
western group of the Bororo tribe died out in the 19th century, while
the remains of the eastern group still dwell on their original
territory. Such headdresses were used by the Bororo Indians at spiritual
festivals; they helped to create images of mythological characters or
totems who had blood ties with the Bororos. The ritual stone ax was also
used for a multitude of purposes. (Picture and text from Peter
the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography.) |
 |
Additional Information
Bororo
- Culture summary of this Mato Grosso tribe from the Ethnographic Atlas.
The Jaguar
Frazer,
Sir James George. 1922. The Golden Bough - The Bororo Indians of Brazil think that it would be certain death to eat the
new maize before it has been blessed by the medicine-man.
Bororo
- SIL International
Bororo
vocabulary
Book
- Crocker, John Christopher, 1985. Vital Souls; Bororo Cosmology, Natural
Symbolism, and Shamanism. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. This is
an examination of the Bororo-speaking peoples of central Brazil and their
shamanistic practices. This work investigates the recurrent theme of shamanism
within Bororo life.
