Find your way: Indigenous peoples in Brazil> Who, where, how many> Encyclopedia > Pirahã >
DEMOGRAPHY   
Print

DEMOGRAPHY

::01

T
he current Pirahã population is approximately 360 people. During both the 1920s and the 1970s, the estimated number was 90. In 1985, the date of the first census, FUNAI ("Fundação Nacional do Índio - National Indian Foundation, governmental agency)  counted 141 people, registering an equal distribution between the sexes (cf. Levinho, 1986). In the dry season, this population is spread out in small groups along the Maici and a long stretch of the Marmelos river, concentrating their activities on the harvesting of Brazil-nuts in the locations where the product is exploitable.

Two large Pirahã populational groups divide the territory. A group of approximately 120 individuals inhabits the region formed by the Marmelos and the shores of the Maici, as far as a place named Cuatá. Another grouping, composed of 100 people, lives about two days boat journey away from this place (Cuatá), occupying at least four sites as far as the Transamazonian.

According to the Pirahã, until the 1960s, these groups lived together at sites close to the Maici’s mouth. The alleged motives behind the separation of the groups and the movement inland of a large number of people to the region of the upper Maici, were conflicts provoked by the ‘theft’ of women, leading to two murders. As a result, the crisis defined a new configuration in the territory’s occupation.

01:: photo: Marco Antônio Gonçalves

Marco Antonio Gonçalves
marcoantonio@imagelink.com.br
IFCS/UFRJ
 
Untitled Document
Who, where, how many| How they live| Languages | Indigenous organizations| The Indians and us | Rights | Sources| e-mail
© Instituto Socioambiental.
Express written permission from the Instituto Socioambiental is required for the reproduction of any part of this site.
Reproduction of photos and illustrations is prohibited.