Ge

Ge, also spelled Gê, South American Indian peoples who speak languages of the Macro-Ge group. They inhabit eastern and southern Brazil and part of northern Paraguay. The Ge peoples include the Northwestern Ge (Timbira, Northern and Southern Kayapó, and Suyá), the Central Ge (Xavante, Xerente, and Akroá), the Jeikó, the Kamakan, and the Southern Ge, or Kaingang (Guayaná, Coroado, and others). The Ge were originally hunters and gatherers who became semisedentary farmers, although most groups retained hunting and gathering as their primary source of food. Their number probably does not exceed 10,000.

The Ge social organization is unique among South American Indians in its complexity. Every village is divided into moieties (dual groupings), clans, and associations according to age, sex, and occupation. These are found in various forms and combinations in different places. Participation in almost all aspects of life—games, ceremonies, warfare, settlement patterns, marriage, handicrafts, names, friendships—is governed by the individual’s relationships and associations. The diversity among Ge peoples makes for further complexity. Some groups are matrilineal (descent being reckoned in the female line), others patrilineal; some are exogamous (marriage being restricted to individuals outside one’s clan, moiety, etc.), others endogamous; some are matrilocal (the married couple residing with the female’s family), others patrilocal. The infusion of social structure into every aspect of Ge life results in a decentralization of authority, since collective activities tend to be performed by those groups most capable of or best suited for their realization.

The Ge peoples share certain general beliefs about the universe and practice similar forms of magic, although there are many specific differences. Their major deities are the sun and the moon. They have shamans to cure sickness; they believe in spirits inhabiting natural phenomena; and they conduct elaborate ceremonies in which the different divisions and groups play particular roles.

Their manufactures have been influenced by modern technology, such as the use of metal tools. Neither men nor women wear any dress except body ornamentation and elaborate painting.