Tapuia
Tapuia
Tapuia, a generic term used by Europeans in colonial Brazil to designate non-Tupi indigenous societies. In the sixteenth century the term applied mainly to Gê-speaking peoples living near the Atlantic coast, particularly the Aimoré south of Bahia, whose persistent opposition to colonial rule lent the Tapuia archetype negative overtones. Though often portrayed as a rude and barbarous people, Tapuia groups possessed an extraordinarily complex social organization and developed sophisticated political relations with the Europeans, particularly with the Dutch during their occupation of Pernambuco (1630–1654) and with the Portuguese during the Indian wars of the Northeast (1687–1720).
See alsoIndigenous Peoples; Pernambuco.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
John Hemming, Red Gold (1978), esp. chaps. 14 and 16, includes detailed discussions of Tapuia-Dutch and Tapuia-Portuguese relations during the seventeenth century. For anthropological treatment of Gê social organization, see David Maybury-Lewis, ed., Dialectical Societies (1979).
Manuela Carneiro Da Cunha, ed., História dos índios no Brasil (1992).
John M. Monteiro