Haliti

Haliti is the self-designation of the Arawakan-speaking peoples commonly called Paresí, in the plateau country of Mato Grosso. The word can mean people or human beings. Their communities formed a network of related groups across the plateau, linked by language and social relationships. Kazíniti, Wáimare and other names distinguished parts of this social and linguistic landscape, which extended across headwater country between the Paraguay and Amazon drainage systems.

The earliest colonial references to Paresí country date from the last quarter of the seventeenth century. In the following decades Antônio Pires de Campos ascended the Sepotuba and reached a plateau he called the kingdom of the Parecis. His own observations described numerous inhabitants and decentralized political organization. Farther north he encountered people he named Mahibarez, similar in customs but differing in parts of their language. Slave-raiding followed these encounters. During the expansion of the Cuiabá mines, nearby Paresí villages were treated as sources of enslaved labour and food. The mining frontier thus drew on established communities while subjecting their inhabitants to capture, displacement and growing colonial demands.