page_title: Tupí people
section_title: Influence in Brazil
hierarchical_section_title: Tupí people / History / Influence in Brazil
caption_attribution_description: Brasília - The indigenous Chief ("cacique"), Tupinikim Jaguaretê, from the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo.
context_page_description: The Tupí people were an important ethnic group of indigenous peoples in Brazil. Scholars believe they first settled in the Amazon rainforest. Later, they started to move to the south and settled on the Atlantic coast.
context_section_description: Although most of the Tupí population died, a large population with Tupí-Portuguese ancestry occupied much of Brazilian territory. They continued the ancient Tupí traditions in several points of the country. Darcy Ribeiro wrote that the first Brazilians looked more like the Tupí than the Portuguese. The language that they spoke, called Nheengatu or Língua Geral, was based on Tupí.
  Eventually, Brazilian society started to lose its Tupi characteristics. Língua Geral was replaced by the Portuguese language. Indian ways of making things were replaced by European ones. Brazilian Portuguese absorbed many words from Tupi.
caption: A Tupiniquim chief (Cacique) in (Brasília, 2007).
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