Tupi people

Tupi
A Tupi woman A Tupi man
Albert Eckhout's painting of the Tupi
Total population
1,000,000 (historically), Potiguara 10,837, Tupinambá de Olivença 3,000, Tupiniquim 2,630, others extinct as tribes but blood ancestors to Pardo Brazilian population
Regions with significant populations
Central and Coastal Brazil
Languages
Tupi languages, later língua geral, much later Portuguese
Religion
Indigenous, later Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Guaraní tribes

The Tupi people, a subdivision of the Tupi-Guarani linguistic families, were one of the largest groups of indigenous peoples in Brazil before its colonization. Scholars believe that while they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, from about 2,900 years ago the Tupi started to migrate southward and gradually occupied the Atlantic coast of Southeast Brazil.[1]

Many Tupi people today are merged with the Guaraní people, forming the Tupi–Guarani languages. Guarani languages are linguistically different from the Tupian languages.[2]

  1. ^ "Saída dos tupi-guaranis da Amazônia pode ter ocorrido há 2.900 anos" [The departure of the Tupi-Guaranis from the Amazon may have occurred 2,900 years ago]. portalsorocabano.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). 2008-12-30. Archived from the original on 2011-10-07.
  2. ^ LaRosa, Michael; Mejia, German R. (2019). An Atlas and Survey of Latin American History (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781138089068.