Harald Schultz

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9 — A Carajá Indian with a parrot

"Parrots are the most frequent and favorite pets among Indians. Occasionally they are taken out of their nests when they are still devoid of feathers and raised by Indian women with great affection and devotion. Later these domesticated birds and other animals from the forests live perfectly free among their human friends. The birds sleep in the hut or on the roof, or spend nights in the nearby forests. When a domesticated bird or mammal finds a mate, it may return to its real home in the forest for a short time, or permanently. The Umutinas keep tamed birds, because they believe that one of the human souls is embodied in certain animal species after death. Among the Umutinas these soul-carrying birds are a part of the household. They receive plentiful food and they are never given away or sold. When such a bird dies it is buried and given the same kind of funeral, though smaller, as that prescribed for human beings. Nothing can better illustrate the relationship between man and animal among the Indians than this usage.

The Carajá wears a wooden plug in his perforated lower lip; on his cheeks are two painted scar tattoos, his tribal mark. The bands he wears on his forearms are made of red dyed crocheted cotton. These are characteristic of the Carajá and their neighbors the Tapirapé."

Schultz, Harald. 1962. Hombu: Indian life in the Brazilian jungle. New York: The Macmillan Company.

[haraldschultz]

119-126 Toys made from burnt clay

"All human beings give toys to their children. The Carajá women of the Araguaya River make clay dolls for their youngsters. In former times they were preponderantly simple human shapes – a body without arms, wide hips, and spindly legs and feet. The children play with them by sticking them in the soft, white, omnipresent sand on the great sandbanks where the Carajás live in the summer. But the few whites who occasionally visited the domain of the Carajás found these gaily painted clay figurines beautiful and exotic, and soon they began to be traded. The Indian women then proceeded to fire these breakable figurines, in order to make them more durable. They also began to create new shapes.

In the course of some decades, they have gone through various phases of artistic creation. They have made by turns figurines which were reflections of their tribal myths, likenesses from their dreams, and embodiment of their ideas. There were all kinds of expressions of human pain and joy. But besides that, they have always used clay to make for the children and curious whites representations of the animal world of their native region. These figurines are primitive, some of them are lumpy, but all have the characteristics appropriate to the animal species being portrayed, despite their imperfections of form and decoration.

119 Jaguar

120 Armadillo

121 Jaguar made of wax with straw ornaments

122 Toad

123 Heron

124 Bittern

125 Gray heron"

Schultz, Harald. 1962. Hombu: Indian life in the Brazilian jungle. New York: The Macmillan Company.

[haraldschultz]

23 — Among the Crahó Indians the woman carries most of the load on marches

"Mats for sitting and sleeping, calabashes, cooking utensils, and foodstuffs must be carried on the back. The man must keep his hands free for the purpose of defending his family and for hunting, but if it becomes necessary, he helps with the load. The woman's carrying girdle rests on the top of her head, not on her forehead. It is not easy to give the probable weight of such a burden; it may reach sixty pounds or even more.

The woman in this picture is an elderly Crahó Indian. She is dressed in a waistcloth. It is made preferably from red cotton material, seven feet long, and is simply wrapped around the body with the ends tucked in.

The little dog is her pet. Later it may develop into a capable sporting dog for the hunting of deer, wild boar, tapirs, pacas, or anteaters. Most Indian dogs are useless curs, but some tribes train their dogs patiently and devotedly and make excellent hunting dogs out of them. When it happens that a good hunting dog of the Crahó, in the pursuit of a deer, falls down a precipice and is killed, loud death laments can be heard in the hut of its owner. It is as if a human being had died."

Schultz, Harald. 1962. Hombu: Indian life in the Brazilian jungle. New York: The Macmillan Company.

[haraldschultz]

Hombu

The rapid economic development of South America, especially Brazil, has had its influence on the primitive inhabitants, such as the Suyá tribe in Central Brazil and the Caiapó in the wide plains of the middle Xingu River. These people, until recently unapproachable because of their unfriendly attitude, have been affected by the changes in their tribal regions, and have emerged and entered into friendly relations with the whites.

Other Indian tribes, whose names have not until now been known, are being discovered in the far corners of the primeval forests. The day is not distant when the last blank places in the immense, unexplored primeval forests of the Amazon will be filled in on the map.

At the behest of the Brazilian Government the author journeyed every year for two decades to little-known, as well as little visited Indians, some without any previous contact with the outside world. In addition to his scientific exploration of Indian life, he set out from the beginning to use his camera to capture a lifelike picture of his primitive friends.

He spent many months with certain Indian tribes. All the photographs in this book are genuine proof of real Indian life. None is staged.

HOMBU in the Crahó Indian language means 'Look here!' With this illustrated volume the author will attempt to bring to the reader that which is human in the Indian, that incomprehensible comprehensible that unites all mankind all over the world because it is present in all of us.

Hombu!

Harald Schultz May, 1962