Most Kaiabi currently live in the area of the Xingu Indigenous Park. However, this is not their traditional territory: until approximately the 1940s, they occupied an extensive swathe between the Arinos, Peixes, and Teles Pires rivers, in the Tapajós basin, west of the Xingu River. But, despite the vigorous resistance put up by the Indians, that region was occupied by rubber companies and then divided into farms. This made the Kaiabi move and split up. Most live inside the park and a further two groups occupy indigenous lands in the Mato Grosso and Paraná states. Once relocated, the population almost doubled and today there are more than 2 thousand individuals, distributed between twelve villages. Nowadays they are campaigning for their self-denomination—Kawaiweté.
The Kaiabi language is from the Tupi-Guarani family and is similar to that of the Kamayurá, the Asurini of the Xingu, and the Apiaká. For the Kaiabi, the cosmos is divided into several overlapping layers, inhabited by supernatural beings of different types: there are the dangerous animal chiefs, anyang and mama'é, which steal men’s souls; the cultural heroes (demiurges) who taught the Kaiabi everything they know today; and the Ma'it, the great shamans of the sky. All these beings inhabit the myths and narratives through which the Kaiabi comprehend the universe and act within it.
The Kaiabi have a very well developed and diversified material culture. Their most characteristic and distinctive production is basket work, especially a type of sieve that, woven with aruma cane, forms designs that represent figures from their cosmology and mythology. Besides the sieves, they produce clubs with woven handles, tucum and inajá palm ornaments, cotton fabric for hammocks and slings, and wooden stools. These stools have the same designs as the sieves. Kaiabi stools differ themselves from others carved by peoples of the Xingu for their straight, geometric lines. They are made by men, from very durable woods, such as cedar, itaúba or canela, for use by everyone; in the past, however, only shamans and chiefs could use them.
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