Caboclo

Sculpture showing the birth of a caboclo

A caboclo (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɐˈboklu]) is a person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry, or, less commonly, a culturally assimilated or detribalized person of full Amerindian descent. In Brazil, a caboclo generally refers to this specific type of mestiço.

The term, also pronounced "caboco", is from Brazilian Portuguese, and perhaps ultimately from the Tupi kaa'boc, meaning "the one who comes from the forest". A person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and sub-Saharan black ancestry is known as a "cafuzo."

In the 1872 and 1890 censuses, 3.9% and 9.04% of the population self-identified as caboclos, respectively. Since then, caboclos are counted as pardos, along with mulattoes (mixed Black-White) and cafuzos (mixed Amerindian-Black).[1]

A survey performed in Rio de Janeiro showed that 14% of Whites and 6% of Pardos reported Amerindian and White ancestry.[2]

According to some estimations, caboclos would be around 12% of Brazilian population.[3][4]

  1. ^ Araújo, Tereza Cristina N. "A classificação de "cor" nas pesquisas do IBGE". p. 14.
  2. ^ Edward Eric Telles (2004). "Racial Classification". Race in Another America: the significance of skin color in Brazil. Princeton University Press. pp. 81–84. ISBN 0-691-11866-3.
  3. ^ Lizcano, Francisco. "Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI" (PDF). Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, UAEM. p. 225.
  4. ^ "La etapa ibérica en el pasado de la mundialización/globalización 1492-1825". geografia.fflch.usp.br. Archived from the original on 2009-06-04. Retrieved 2024-04-10.