Wuyjuyu

The Munduruku, who call themselves Wuyjuyu, “our people”, are a Tupi-speaking people of the Brazilian Amazon whose homeland is the Tapajós river valley. Their familiar name was given them by their enemies the Parintintin and means “red ants”, after their habit of attacking in great swarms; colonists called them head-cutters, for they dried and shrank enemy heads as ritual trophies.

When recorded contact with the Portuguese began in the second half of the 1700s, the Munduruku dominated the Tapajós and drove the Mura of Madeira to seek shelter with the colonists. The Portuguese switched to alliance: in 1788 the Munduruku all but destroyed the Mura.

After 1803 the Munduruku lived at peace with the Brazilians, supplying food and rubber while keeping broad autonomy. The revolt that swept Pará from 1835 brought persecution again, and many communities withdrew deeper into their territory.