2. Where their name came from
“Since the 19th century, the Indians who dominated the region between the Xingu and Bacajá
rivers - today known as Araweté , Arara, Parakanã ... - received the name Asurini ( Asonéri , in
the Juruna language), which means "red", according to the ethnographer Curt Nimuendajú
(1963c: 225). The right bank of the Xingu River has always been called "Land of Assuriní" by
the inhabitants of Altamira and other residents of the banks of that river, in its middle course
(Lukesch,1976:11 and Soares,1971b:3). The foreign chronicler Condreau (1977:37) also
mentions the Asurini as one of the groups that inhabited the Lower Xingu.”
Second Paragraph of:
https://pib.socioambiental.org/
pt/Povo:Asurini_do_Xingu
4. Population
information from the Asurini estimates made by anthropologist
Berta Ribeiro (1982) the tribe Had 150 people in 1930. Until the
year they were contacted (1971) many Asurini were killed in a fight
with the Kayapó or the Araweté when women and children were
also kidnapped.
5. Shamanism
Some of the Asurini, shamanistic rituals called "pajelança"are done a lot of
times. Alot of men do the shaman rituals and they are helped by assistants and
singers who also need to make the ritual porridge. "Pajelança'' has two types of
rituals: maraká (singing and dancing) and petymwo (massage and smudging),
which are done to get rid of the spirits which shamans meet as well and also to
get rid of the cause of sickness of body of the sick person and give him the
"medicine" ( muynga ) that they then get through the trance state (therapeutic
rituals). In the rituals, the "shaman" also gives the sick person and the kids in
the village the ynga , something like "forcefield". Maraká is also a ritual as forest
animals wild pigs and deer ( arapoá ).”
6. Relationship between the tribe and the river
The village was on the bank of the Igarapé
Ipiaçava, a tributary of the right side of the
bank of the Xingu. The farms, hunting,
fishing, and gathering areas are inbetween
the banks of the Xingu,
