Tupinambá

Tupinambá, South American Indian peoples who spoke Tupian languages and inhabited the eastern coast of Brazil from Ceará in the north to Porto Alegre in the south. The various groups bore such names as Potiguara, Caeté, Tupinambá, Tupinikin, and Guaraní but are known collectively as Tupinambá.

The Tupinambá lived in unusually large patrilineal villages that numbered from 400 to 1,600 persons. They supplemented farming with ocean fishing. Cassava and corn (maize) were among their staple foods. Not much is known of their social organization.

Warfare among the Tupinambá groups was constant, and indeed their religious and social values centred upon warfare and, it was alleged, on cannibalism. Ordinary Tupinambá social relations, on the other hand, were marked by gentleness and cooperation. The Tupinambá believed in demons and also in a great many ghosts who haunted dark places and often caused harm. They had shamans who communicated with spirits and were able to cure sickness. See also Tupian.