The kamaiurá wisdom about body health

Abstract

Kamaiurá are a Tupi language people that, together with people of the linguistic families Aruak, Karib, Tupi and of the isolated language Trumai, inhabits High Xingu (MT). The cultural homogeneity among those peoples is evidenced in multiple aspects, such as shape and disposition of the villages, type of housing, alimentary habits, pubertary seclusion, paintings and corporal decorations, use of uluri by women, parties and ceremonies, such as Kwaryp. This common cultural pattern results of the long occupation of a same geographical area and of the frequency of interethnic marriages. The present work shows how the knowledge about body health is built from elements that compose the Kamaiurá world vision, in which observation, experimentation and mythology unite. The paper describes the cares given to the body and the cultural and spiritual rules regarding the different stages of the vital cycle.