Rikbaktsa

The Rikbaktsa are a Macro-Ge-speaking people of the rainforest of northwestern Mato Grosso. Their self-name means the human beings. Neighboring Brazilians called them Canoeiros, the Canoe People, for their skill on the rivers, or Wooden Ears, after the wooden plugs that stretched their earlobes. Their traditional country covered a vast stretch of the Juruena River basin.

Scientific and commercial expeditions had passed along the basin's waterways since the 1600s without entering their forests. The Rikbaktsa kept their autonomous, decentralized life: slash-and-burn gardens beside hunting, fishing and gathering.

Boys passed into manhood through nose- and ear-piercing rites at the green maize and forest-clearing ceremonies. Their faith teaches reincarnation, with the virtuous returning as people or night monkeys, which they therefore never hunt.