Indigenous peoples in Brazil

Indigenous peoples in Brazil (povos indígenas in Portuguese) comprise a large number of distict ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500. Like Christopher Columbus, who thought he had reached the East Indies, the first Portuguese explorers called them índios (Indians), a name that is still used today in Brazil.

Related Topics:
Indigenous peoples - Brazil - Portuguese - Ethnic groups - Europe - 1500 - Christopher Columbus - East Indies - Portuguese

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Indigenous peoples in Brazil were traditionally mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. Many of the groups which existed in 1500 died out as a consequence of the European settlement, and many were assimilated into the Brazilian population. The indigenous population has declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated 5–6 million to just 100,000 in 1950. Only a few tribes still survive in their original culture in remote areas of the Amazon Rainforest. However, changes in government policies over the past 50 years have managed to afford some protection to the remaining indigenous peoples, and the population has risen again to some 300,000 (1997), grouped into some 200 tribes.

Related Topics:
Nomadic - Hunting - Fishing - Agriculture - Population - 1950 - Amazon Rainforest - 1997

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Brazilian Indians made substantial and pervasive contributions to the country's material and cultural development—such as the domestication of cassava, which is still a major staple food in rural areas of the country.

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