Aimoré people

Aimoré
Botocudo

Illustration of Botocudos, wearing tembeiteras or lower lip disks
Total population
(350 (2010))
Regions with significant populations
Brazil (Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, São Paulo)
Languages
Krenak
Religion
Animism

The Aimoré (Aymore, Aimboré) are one of several South American peoples of eastern Brazil called Botocudo in Portuguese (from botoque, a plug), in allusion to the wooden disks or tembetás worn in their lips and ears. Some called themselves Nac-nanuk or Nac-poruk, meaning "sons of the soil". The last Aimoré group to retain their language are the Krenak. The other peoples called Botocudo were the Xokleng and Xeta.

The Brazilian chief who was presented to King Henry VIII in 1532 wore small bones hung from his cheeks and from the lower lip a semi-precious stone the size of a pea. These were the marks of great bravery. When the Portuguese adventurer Vasco Fernando Coutinho reached the east coast of Brazil in 1535, he erected a fort at the head of Espírito Santo Bay to defend himself against the Aimorés and other tribes.

The tribe's original territory was in Espírito Santo, and reached inland to the headwaters of the Rio Grande (Belmonte) and Doce River on the eastern slopes of the Espinhaço Mountains. The Botocudos were gradually expelled by European colonists westward beyond the Serra dos Aimorés into Minas Gerais. It was in the latter district that at the close of the 18th century they came into collision with the Europeans, who were attracted there by the diamond fields.

At the end of the 19th century many Botocudo tribes still existed, numbering between 13,000 and 14,000 individuals. During the earlier frontier wars of 1790-1820, every effort was made to destroy them. Smallpox was deliberately spread among them; poisoned food was scattered in the forests; by such infamous means, the coast districts about Rio Doce and Belmonte were cleared, and one Portuguese commander boasted that he had either slain with his own hands or ordered to be butchered many hundreds of them.