Caboclo

Caboclo, a Brazilian term originally applied to Amerindians. It was later expanded to refer to people of mixed Amerindian and European origin, and now commonly refers to the non-Indian people and culture of the Amazon region. The term is often used to distinguish the caboclos as "traditional" rural Amazonian inhabitants, as opposed to migrants and other newcomers—although the forebears of present-day Amazonian caboclos were also migrants, many of whom came during the rubber booms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The caboclo way of life and adaptation to the Amazon forest are similar to those of the Amerindian population. Scientists now study caboclo communities to learn more about the complex ecology of the rain forest. The present-day rubber tappers, Brazilnut gatherers, and other riverine populations involved in newly established Amazonian extractive reserves can all be considered caboclos.

The term caboclo is often used pejoratively and, depending on the context, can means someone of a lower class, a person of indigenous heritage, a "hick" or a "bumpkin." Similar southern Brazilian terms include jeca and caipira. In Afro-Brazilian religions such as Candomblé and Umbanda, the caboclo is a deity in the pantheon, represented as an Indian.

See alsoRace and Ethnicity .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emilio F. Moran, "The Adaptative System of the Amazonian Caboclo," in Man in the Amazon, edited by Charles Wagley (1974).

Charles Wagley, Amazon Town (1976).

Eugene Philip Parker, ed., The Amazon Caboclo: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (1985).

Additional Bibliography

Fraxe, Therezinha J. P. Homens anfíbios: Etnografia de um campesinato das agues. São Paulo, SP, Brasil: Annablume, 2006.

Nugent, Stephen. Amazonian Caboclo Society: An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy. Providence: Berg, 1993.

Pace, Richard. "The Amazon Cabolco: What's in a Name?" Luso-Brazilian Review. 34:2 (Winter 1997): 39-55.

Stephens, Thomas M. Dictionary of Latin American Racial and Ethnic Terminology. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1989.

                                         Judith Lisansky