The Matis people (also called Nutioy, Bimbos, Mikitbo, and Mushabo) are the indigenous people of Brazil. The Matis are commonly named the Jaguar people.
They live in two separate villages with a total population of roughly 290.
They live in the far west of Brazil, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Territory, an area covering 83,000 square kilometres (32,000 sq mi). They practice both hunting and agriculture.
The Matis tribe were first contacted by the Brazilian agency FUNAI during 1975-1976, although it was not until two years later in 1978 that FUNAI employees began.
The once semi-nomadic, moving their villages every few years or so when game ran low or the fields infertile, the Matis now live in just two villages. Waves of western diseases have devastated their population in the post-contact years.
Ritual & Adornment
Many Matis rituals are about having fun in the longhouse and many involve the representation of animals. During txawa tanek (peccary dance) participants paint themselves red with urucum (anatto juice) before dancing in a line and entering the longhouse imitating the guttural and haunting sounds of the txawa (collared peccary, an Amazonian forest pig), whilst the lead dancer bangs two peccary skulls together.
The ritual is designed to attract peccary to the hunters during the following day’s hunt.
Mapwa tanek is the capybara ritual, a boisterous affair performed by young men who cover their bodies in wet clay and then hop around making sounds and actions of the rodents. Capybara are renowned for being destructive and the ritual often gets out of control with young women often targeted for extra attention.
In the mariwin ritual two Matis emerge from the forest as the physical embodiment of ancestral spirits. A clay horn is used to summon them to the longhouse.
The bodies of the mariwin are painted black or yellow and they wear elaborate red clay masks and green ferns. The whips they carry are used to strike children who have misbehaved or are seen as lazy – Matis parents almost never chastise their children and this is the only corporal punishment children get.
Hunters wishing to increase their xo are also whipped along with pregnant women in order to strengthen their unborn child. Although belief in the mariwin has waned, those putting on the costume take it very seriously.
In other dances, men climb a pole in the longhouse and imitate a bird or mimic the behaviour of other animals and hunting scenes, much to the amusement of everyone.
After a baby is born special leaves are collected from the forest and placed upon the baby to protect the child against disease brought by animals. Matis are careful to avoid eye contact with the baby as this could bring harm.
The planting of corn traditionally had ceremonies associated with it. As well as being used to increase a hunter’s xo, poces leaves are hung over the entrance to the longhouse and all the men force their way in past the leaves and a guard of Matis women.
Tattooing was once a major festival with huge cultural significance, but many teenagers are not now tattooed, despite many professing a desire for it. This is a major ceremony during which mariwin spirits appear and sing. Initiates are required to hunt all day and participate in rituals all night
Frog Poison
Kampo (frog poison known as Sapo in Portuguese) is seen as a curative and purgative, an ordeal that you must go through to become fit, strong, and alert. Kampo comes from the monkey frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor).
The hapless creature is stretched over a fire and toxic excretions scraped from its back before it is released. Two marks are then burned onto the skin of the participant, the blister popped and the toxin (mixed with human saliva to activate it) applied.
Although not hallucinogenic, the psychological response is very intense and the physical response absolutely dramatic – it’s a total stomach purge.
Researchers claim that the anti-bacterial peptides of Kampo can be used to cure many diseases. The gene from the frog has already been added to a disease-resistant potato.
