Yudjá

The Yudjá are ancient inhabitants of the islands and peninsulas of the lower and middle Xingu. With the invasion of their territory after the foundation of Belém in 1615, they moved upriver and today live divided into two groups, one in the middle Xingu and the other in the Upper Xingu, in four villages in the northern section of the Xingu Indigenous Park. There are around 880 individuals today, In 1848, there were 2 thousand, but just 52 in 1916. In the 17th century, they were called the Juruna, which in the Língua Geral (“General Language”, a Tupi-based creole language widely used in the colonial era) means “black mouth,” referring to the dark tattoo they have around their mouths. Today, however, they call themselves the Yudjá, or “masters of the river”—a denomination they began using about ten years ago.

The Yudjá speak a language of the Tupi linguistic branch. Culturally they are closely related to peoples who speak the languages of the Tupi-Guarani family. In 1989 the Yudjá group from the middle Xingu had only one member able to communicate in Juruna.

Traditionally the Yudjá wore large discs as lip ornaments, in addition to ear discs. These customs are being abandoned, but the cosmological significance that underlies them is still alive, for the lip and ear discs serve as a reminder of the cultural importance attributed to hearing and speech. The ear was pierced for good hearing-understanding-knowledge, and the lip disc was associated with aggressiveness and belligerence, qualities related to masculine self-affirmation, oratory, and singing.

The Yudjá are excellent canoeists and brought the technique of making canoes from a single trunk to the Xingu. They have a rich artistic production, represented above all by weaving, stools, paddles, pottery, and painted heads. The pieces are decorated with the motifs used for body painting, almost always showing double spirals separated by straight or wavy parallel lines.

The stools are made by the men and painted by the women. In the past only the chiefs and shamans could sit on them, but today they are used by everyone in the village.