Boraro Tribe

998 Words4 Pages

The Bororo tribe, which translates to “Village Court”, is made up of indigenous people from Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. The tribe makes up about eight villages and has around 1,600 members. They are known for being able to assimilate into surrounding cultures while also keeping their traditions. The Bororo tribe used to cover a large area, however, due to Westerners, the tribe has decreased immensely. The tribe is no longer made up of hunter-gathers; now the Bororo rely on farming and unskilled jobs. The majority of the tribe speaks Portuguese. A small portion, about thirty percent, of the tribe members can still speak their native language, Bororo Proper. The language is so rare and detailed that two priests have written a three volume dictionary. …show more content…

It seems so crazy to me that an entire tribe could die just because a single member of the tribe eats unconsecrated maize or meat. I am a pretty impatient person, most days I get annoyed while waiting for food to cook. I cannot imagine having to wait for a medicine man to bless my food and then having to wait for it to cook. I do not really know how common medicine men are, but it does not seem like there would be enough of them to go around and bless everyone’s food. This particular belief just does not seem practical. If one member of the tribe got angry, all it would take is one bite of meat or maize and the entire tribe could be wiped out. That would be very quick and simple revenge. The entire tribe basically just has to hope that one person will not ruin it for …show more content…

A lot of tribes are rich with traditions and ceremonies. They all have specific beliefs and superstitions. However, I find the Bororo tribe particularly interesting, as do a lot of other people. The Bororo tribe has had a documentary filmed about them. In 1930, a search party was sent out to find a missing explorer, Percy Fawcett. The party stumbled across the Bororo tribe. The search party filmed the daily activities of the Bororo people. The documentary is a 32 minute silent film. The documentary is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Studies Film Archives. It shows a ceremonial dance and Bororo men experiencing sympathetic labor pains. A famous anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, found the Bororo tribe very intriguing. He explained their mythology in his book “The Raw and the