BOTOCUDO

South American Indian people who lived in what is now the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. They spoke a language of the Macro-Ge group. Their culture was similar to that of other nomadic tribes of the forests and mountains of eastern Brazil. Hunting bands of from 50 to 200 members were led by men considered most powerful in the supernatural realm. The Botocudo believed that spirits inhabited the sky and interceded in human affairs through the mediation of shamans, persons to whom were granted extraordinary powers. Interband conflicts were common, but these were usually resolved by duels between pairs of opponents using long sticks. Resistance to white expansion met with a policy of ruthless extermination. The few remaining Botocudo are descendants of those who took to agriculture and came to terms with the colonial advance.