Editing Brazil (section)

=== Pre-Cabraline era ===
{{Main|Pre-Columbian history of Brazil{{!}}Pre-Cabraline history of Brazil}}
{{See also|Indigenous peoples in Brazil|Marajoara culture}}
[[File:Pinturas Rupestres - Serra da Capivara I.jpg|thumb|right|[[Rock art]] at [[Serra da Capivara National Park]], one of the largest and oldest concentrations of prehistoric sites in the [[Americas]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=27 March 2014 |title=Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans' Arrival in the Americas |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html |url-access=limited |access-date=31 May 2014 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/world/americas/discoveries-challenge-beliefs-on-humans-arrival-in-the-americas.html |archive-date=1 January 2022}}{{cbignore}}</ref>]]

Some of the earliest human remains found in the [[Americas]], [[Luzia Woman]], were found in the area of [[Pedro Leopoldo]], [[Minas Gerais]] and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years.<ref name="LevineCrocitti1999">{{Cite book |last1=Robert M. Levine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R28K2JA9PM8C&pg=PA11 |title=The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics |last2=John J. Crocitti |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8223-2290-0 |pages=11– |access-date=12 December 2012 |archive-date=29 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129182919/https://books.google.com/books?id=R28K2JA9PM8C&pg=PA11#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>
The earliest [[pottery]] ever found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the [[Amazon basin]] of Brazil and [[Radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dated]] to over 8,000 years ago (6000 BC). The pottery was found near [[Santarém, Pará|Santarém]] and provides evidence that the region supported a complex prehistoric culture.<ref name="Eighth Millennium Pottery from a Prehistoric Shell Midden in the Brazilian Amazon">{{Cite journal |last1=Roosevelt |first1=Anna Curtenius |author1-link=Anna Curtenius Roosevelt |last2=Housley |first2=Rupert A. |last3=Imazio da Silveira |first3=Maura |last4=Maranca |first4=Silvia |last5=Johnson |first5=Richard Irwin |name-list-style=vanc |date=13 December 1991 |title=Eighth Millennium Pottery from a Prehistoric Shell Midden [sic] in the Brazilian Amazon |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.254.5038.1621 |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |language=en |volume=254 |issue=5038 |pages=1621–1624 |doi=10.1126/science.254.5038.1621 |pmid=17782213 |bibcode=1991Sci...254.1621R |s2cid=34969614 |issn=0036-8075 |access-date=4 July 2023 |archive-date=16 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231016114734/https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.254.5038.1621 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Marajoara culture]] flourished on [[Marajó]] in the Amazon delta from AD 400 to 1400, developing sophisticated pottery, [[social stratification]], large populations, [[mound building]], and complex social formations such as [[chiefdom]]s.<ref name="Mann">{{Cite book |last=Mann |first=Charles C. |url=https://archive.org/details/149100char/page/326 |title=1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus |publisher=Vintage Books |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4000-3205-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/149100char/page/326 326–33] |author-link=Charles C. Mann |orig-date=2005}}</ref>

Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levine |first=Robert M. |title=The History of Brazil |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-4039-6255-3 |page=32}}</ref> mostly semi-nomadic, who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. The population comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups (e.g., the [[Tupí people|Tupis]], [[Guaraní people|Guaranis]], [[Gê peoples|Gês]], and [[Arawak peoples|Arawaks]]). The Tupi people were subdivided into the [[Tupiniquim|Tupiniquins]] and [[Tupinambá people|Tupinambás]].{{sfnp|Levine|2003|p=31}}

Before the arrival of the Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs.<ref name="Fausto">{{Cite book |last=Fausto |first=Carlos |title=Os Índios antes do Brasil |year=2000 |isbn=978-85-7110-543-0 |editor-last=Zahar |editor-first=Jorge |pages=45–46, 55 |publisher=Jorge Zahar Editor |language=pt |trans-title=The Indians before Brazil}}</ref> These wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water, with [[Human cannibalism|cannibalistic]] rituals on [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]].<ref>Gomes, Mercio P. ''The Indians and Brazil'' University Press of Florida 2000 {{ISBN|0-8130-1720-3}} pp. 28–29</ref>{{sfnp|Fausto|2000|pp=78–80}} While heredity had some weight, leadership was a status more won over time than assigned in succession ceremonies and conventions.<ref name="Fausto" /> [[Slavery]] among the indigenous groups had a different meaning than it had for Europeans, since it originated from a diverse socioeconomic organization, in which asymmetries were translated into [[kinship]] relations.{{sfnp|Fausto|2000|p=50}}