Tupi

The Tupi were one of the main indigenous tribes living in Brazil when the Portuguese arrived.

They lived along the coastal regions of the Amazon, from the mouth of the river in the north to what is now Rio de Janeiro in the South.

The Tupi were primarily hunter-gatherers. They had no domestic animals or metal tools. The few crops they grew included manioc, gourd, pumpkin, broad beans, peanuts and cotton, which they used for hammocks.

The men hunted, while the women farmed and prepared food.

The Tupi lived in long wooden huts with thatched roofs that were built in clearings made by cutting down trees. The trees were allowed to grow again after a few years, when a settlement would be abandoned for a new one.

The soils that support giant rainforest trees will not normally support settled agriculture; therefore, the Tupi often moved from place to place.

The Tupi had no concept of personal possessions. What belonged to one of them belonged to everyone.

They did not have the same sense of personal privacy as Europeans. Each of their huts housed 200 to 300 people. Couples laying together had nothing to block them from the view of others.

Both men and women often washed themselves and combed their hair, which was unusual for the Europeans. The men shaved the tops of their heads. Their lower lips were pierced so that they could hold a seashell when they were boys and a jadeite stone upon reaching puberty.

Both sexes had elaborately painted bodies, often with pictures of birds. An adult male bore a scar for each enemy warrior he had killed in battle.

The Tupi used bows and arrows for hunting and fishing. Their arrows were made from a variety of mammals, fish and birds. An arrowhead may have been tipped with a stingray's tail or serrated with barbs.

Different Tupi tribes constantly warred with one another as part of a cult of ritual cannibalism.  A prisoner taken in war was treated as  a guest until it was time for him to be executed. The prisoner was then clubbed to death, his body torn open and its parts distibuted and eaten during a three-day feast.