FIG. 173.—Bororo woman (unclassified tribe of Matto Grosso).
(Phot. Ehrenreich.)
The Eastern or Guarani Tupis, formerly so numerous in the Brazilian provinces of São Paulo and the Rio Grande do Sul, are reduced at the present time to a few families; on the other hand, they still form the bulk of the population of Paraguay, and the territory of Missiones in the Argentine Republic. The Guarani of Paraguay, “tamed” in the commanderies by the Jesuits, have intermingled their blood with that of the Spaniards, and adopted their mode of life. However, there still remain in the depths of the forest some tribes who have kept intact their type and manners. Among the more interesting of these we must note the Cainguas or Kaigguas[671] of south-east Paraguay and Missiones (Argentine), scattered in little groups, obeying one cacique or chief. They are short (1 m. 60), mesocephalic (mean ceph. ind. of 12 men, 80.4), of bronzed complexion; their hair is lank or wavy, often reddish in the children; the nose is straight, the cheek-bones are prominent. From ten to twenty thousand Cainguas are estimated to be in Paraguay alone. Extremely fond of dancing and music, they like drawing as well, and possess as a rule a quick understanding. They are husbandmen, going almost naked, obtain fire by friction, are acquainted with weaving and pottery, have barbed and sometimes blunt-pointed arrows.[672] Other tribes, the Jacunda, the Pacajas, the Tacunas, keep to the lower valley of the Xingu. The Mauhés, stationed between this latter river and the Madeira, are at the extreme limit of the expansion towards the west of the pure Tupis. On turning again towards the south we come across the Apiacas of Tapajos (who must not be confounded with the similarly named tribe of the Carib family), the Camayuras of the upper Xingu, the Chiquitos and the Chiriguanos of Bolivia, now Hispanified.
The migrations of the Tupis from the south to the north, conjectured in D’Orbigny’s day, have now been absolutely demonstrated. Paraguay and the east of Bolivia were the starting-points of these migrations. The exodus of the Tupis took place at first towards the coast, then along the seaboard to the mouth of the Para, and thence further northward into French Guiana, where some Tupi tribes are still to be found, the Emerillons of the valley of the Saï, a left tributary of the Inini, the Ovampis of the upper Oyapoc, etc. The Aramichaux (Fig. [172]), who were believed to be extinct, and who dwell between the Uaqui and the Arua,[673] seem to be also of the Tupi stock. Another stream of migration may be traced straight towards the north-east; it passes through the upper basin of the Xingu, to terminate eastward of the Tocantins (the tribe of the Guajajaza). An isolated Tupi group exists far to the north-west of the territory occupied by the bulk of this family. It consists of the Omaguas and the Cocomas, half-civilised tribes of the upper valley of the Maranon (Peru), to the eastward of the Jivaros. Individuals with wavy or frizzy[674] hair are not rare among these hybrid peoples.
The family of the Western Tupis, whose linguistic affinities are less clear, comprises, provisionally, the Mundrucus, or Mundurukus, of the middle Tapajoz, the Yurunas of the lower Xingu, the Anetö of the upper course of this river, etc.
Physically, the Tupis differ but little from the Caribs; those of the north, the Mauhés and the Mundurukus for example, studied by Barboza Rodriguez, are 1 m. 58 and 1 m. 60 in stature, whilst the Kamayuras and the Anetö of the upper Xingu are taller (1 m. 62 on an average); the cephalic index of the latter is 79 (Ehrenreich). The Guarani should be, according to D’Orbigny, more than 1 m. 66 in height.[675] But the anthropological study of the Tupis is still to be made.
If we consider the accounts of the different dialects of the four great linguistic families which we have just described: Carib, Arawak, Ges, and Tupi, we are bound to admit the following hypothesis as to the migrations of the peoples belonging to these families. There have been two movements, centrifugal and centripetal. From the centre of the continent the Tupis have spread radially in all directions, and the Caribs towards the north-east, reaching as far as the Antilles. On the other hand, towards this centre converge the migrations of the Arawaks arriving from the north, perhaps from Columbia and the Antilles, and the migrations of the Ges coming from the east. Did the centrifugal movement of the Tupis and the Caribs and the centripetal movement of the Arawaks and the Ges take place simultaneously or in some order of succession? We have not sufficient information as yet to solve this problem, but the first supposition appears to be more probable, for we still see in our own day both movements going on simultaneously.
IV. The Pampeans and the Fuegians.—That portion of the American continent situated beyond the 30th degree of S. lat., between the Andes, the Atlantic, and the Strait of Magellan, is a vast plain which passes imperceptibly from the rich pasturage of Chaco to the monotonous Pampas, and from the latter to the bare plateaux of Patagonia.
