Balotipone

The Balotipone, known in the sources as the Umutina and once nicknamed the Bearded Ones for wearing sparse beards as a mark of pride, are a people of the right bank of the Paraguay River in Mato Grosso. Their Umotina language belonged to the Bororoan branch of the Macro-Ge family.

They were farmers above all, growing maize and manioc in village gardens, fishing with bow and arrow and supplementing their diet by hunting and gathering honey, fruit and herbs.

Their society was monogamous, parents arranged their daughters' marriages, and the wedding pair painted their whole bodies with red urucu dye. Through the 1800s they kept their riverine territory closed to outsiders by force, long after many neighbouring peoples had been subdued.