Anajas

Anajás occupies the western part of Marajó Island, where the Anajás River and many tidal channels cut through flooded forest. The town itself is a small administrative centre within a huge municipality, but the surrounding landscape supplied fish, turtles, timber, fruit, and fertile ground for seasonal cultivation. Movement followed water rather than roads.

Marajó supported the Marajoara culture from roughly 400 to 1200. Its communities built earthen mounds above seasonal floods, produced elaborate painted ceramics, and combined agriculture with fishing and gathering. Later Aruã communities inherited the same riverine environment. Archaeological estimates suggest a large regional population before European contact.

The Portuguese reached the Amazon delta in the sixteenth century, bringing epidemics and mission settlement. Jesuit activity drew the Anajás people into colonial villages, while the place later called Mocoões remained part of the administration of Chaves and then Breves. Its history in this period belongs to indigenous and mission-era river communities rather than an established town.