Apiacá people

Apiacá

Apiacá people, painted by Hércules Florence
Total population
850 (2014)
Regions with significant populations
Brazil ( Mato Grosso and  Pará)
Languages
Apiaká, Portuguese
Religion
traditional tribal religion

The Apiacá, or Apiaká, are an indigenous people of Brazil, who live in northern Mato Grosso, near the border of Pará. They speak an Apiacá language that is a subgroup part of the Tupi-Guarani languages, though many today speak Portuguese. Prior to the 19th century, the Apiacá were a warlike tribe with a heavily agricultural culture. Around the mid 19th century, their numbers began to decline. This decrease coincided with the contact of European settlers in Brazil. Though thought to be extinct, their numbers, today, are increasing. In 2001, there were only 192 Apiaká. As of 2009, there are a thousand Apiaká people.

The Apiaká language belongs to subgroup VI of the Tupi-Guarani languages. After coming into contact with the Neo-Brazilians, the Apiaca language changed with combined elements of the Lingua Geral, A Tupi-based trade jargon. Today, Portuguese or Munduruku are more widely spoken as opposed to the Apiaca language, though these people have always been known by the name "Apiaca." Today there are only four people aged over 50 who speak and understand the Apiaca language, one person speaks the language fully, another two possess less proficiency and the fourth has yet to be evaluated in close detail. Therefore, the language is at grave risk of becoming extinct.

All the Apiaca speak Portuguese and those married to members of the Munduruku and Kaiabi tribes speak their spouse’s language fluently or have the ability to understand them fully. Although the Munduruku and Kaiabi languages and idioms are spoken on a day-to-day basis in the Apiaca villages, they are, however, limited to domestic spaces and informal conversations. The language used in formal conversations is Portuguese, due to contact with the Neo-Brazilians and Portuguese settlers. Although they cannot impose their own language on the co-resident Munduruku and Kaiabi people, due to such a small number of them who actually speak the Apiaca language, the Apiaca manage to impede the languages of these peoples from becoming the official languages in their villages. This allows Portuguese to function as an instrument of resistance employed by the Apiaca to prevent their cultural absorption by the Munduruku and Kaiabi tribes.

Despite the linguistic proximity, the Apiaká do not allow Kaiabi to be taught in their villages’ schools, this stems from historically bad relations with this tribe, however, due to the better relationship the Apiaca have with the Munduruku people, they permit Munduruku teachers to give lessons in their own language. For many years the Apiaca have been attempting to revive their language through the schools in their villages but have so far been unsuccessful. In recent years there has been an initiative to create a book known as the "Apiaca Word" in order to catalog the language.