Amanaye

The Amanayé are an indigenous ethnic group which live in the Brazilian state of Pará, near the municipality of São Domingos do Capim. They are also known as Amanaié, Amanajé and Araradeua. As of 2001 there were 192 members in the tribe.

Amanayé is the actual name used by this indigenous group to refer to themselves. The name means "association of people", and in some sources the name is spelled Manajo and Amanajo. Part of them are referred to with the name Ararandeuara, because they live near an igarapé (a sort of water course) which carries the same name.

Language

The Amanayé language belongs to the Tupi-Guarani family, classified by Aryon Rodrigues (1984) together with the Anambé and Turiwara languages. Nowadays the Amanayé don't use their original language anymore, because of extended contact with white and black brazilians from the region of the Capim river. The oldest, and some of the youngest, members of the tribe still use some words from their native language in everyday speech, mixing them with Portuguese.

Location

Current information on this group is vague. Indigenist Elimilton Correia de Alencar was sent to the city of Santana do Capim/Paragominas, in the state of Pará, in October 1990 to try to find the Amanayé Indians, who hadn't been contacted since the 1940s.

The most recent record of their presence was made in 1984 by the Sucam (Superintendence of the Campaign for Public Health), which registered the existence of four families near Barreirinha, on the right bank of the Capim River. There Alencar found the Amanayé in 1990.

These indigenous people inhabit the Upper Capim River, between two water courses, Ararandeua and Surubiju. A reservation for them was created in 1945, but they however live out of it.

Lifestyle

Amanayé families are nuclear, and the woman takes care of the home, while the man is in charge of external matters. Each house is distant from another, and they're surrounded by their respective roças (planting fields). The houses are made of wattle and daub, with or without plaster.

Many Amanayé women get married when they are between the age of 15 and 18, and bear their first child around that age. Nursing lasts about one year, and after the second month the newborn starts being fed with carimã (fine manioc meal) and croeira.

The village of the Saraua reservation is made up of six houses where 72 people in 12 families live; two other families live and work at the Fazenda Tabatinga, past the boundaries of the reservation. The village has a school, administered by the government of Ipixuna do Pará.

External links

• Amanaye on socioambiental.org, in English