Nimuendajú, Curt (1883–1945)

Curt Nimuendajú (b. 17 April 1883); d. 10 December 1945), German-born immigrant who devoted his life to the study and defense of Brazil's indigenous peoples. Though not formally trained as an anthropologist, Nimuendajú is recognized for his prolific contributions to Brazilian ethnology and for his ability to immerse himself in indigenous cultures. Born Curt Unkel, he came to Brazil in 1903 at the age of twenty. Two years later he took up residence with the Apopocuva Guaraní, among whom he lived as an adopted member until 1908 and from whom he acquired the name Nimuendajú. His first significant ethnological publication (1914), dealing with Guaraní religion, resulted from these years.

Throughout his life, Nimuendajú lived among and visited numerous Brazilian indigenous groups. He received financing from foreign institutions such as the University of California at Berkeley and the Carnegie Institute through his collaboration with the American anthropologist Robert Lowie and from European museums for artifact collection. His collaboration with Lowie, initiated in the early 1930s, stimulated a period of intensive study of social organization among Gê groups and produced several scholarly publications, among them three monographs (The Eastern Timbira; The Apinayé; The Serente). He was also occasionally employed by the Indian Protection Service (SPI) where he left copious ethnographic documentation in field reports, and for whom, from 1921 to 1923, he led the team that established peaceful contact with the Parintintin of the Madeira River. In his later years, he received support from the Museu Goeldia (Belém) and the Museu Nacional (Rio de Janeiro). In Belém, a year before his death, Nimuendajú completed his monumental Ethnohistorical Map of Brazil and Adjacent Regions and the accompanying Guide. He died among the Tukuna Indians of the Solimões River.

See alsoIndigenous Peoples; Pacification.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Herbert Baldus, "Curt Nimuendajú," in Sociologia 8, no. 1 (1946): 46-52.

D. Maybury-Lewis, ed., Dialectical Societies: The Gê and Bororo of Central Brazil (1979), pp. ix-xiv; Mapa etno-histórico de Curt Nimuendajú (1981), pp. 13-21.

Darcy Ribeiro, Os índios e a civilização: A integração das populações indígenas no Brasil moderno (1982), pp. 164-175.

Additional Bibliography

Correa, Filho Virgílio, "Curt Nimuendaju, 1883–1945: Un homem que fez o seu própio lar." In Jangada Brasil no. 32 (2001): 1-3.

Nimuendajú, Curt. "The Eastern Timbira." Translated and edited by Robert Lowie. In American Archaeology and Ethnology, Volume 41. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1946.

Nimuendajú, Curt. The Tukuna. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1952.

                                      Laura Graham