[Brazil] European school circa 1900, after Johann Moritz Rug - Lot 165

[Brazil] European school circa 1900, after Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802 - 1858) [Brazil] European school circa 1900, after Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802 - 1858) Botocudos" Indian, also called "Aimoré", Southeast Brazil, after Plate 2 of "Botocudos", 1835 Oil on canvas 49.5 x 38 cm The Botocudos or Aimorés are the native inhabitants who lived in the region of today's Bahia, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states, mainly in the Jequitinhonha and Rio Doce valleys, in the nomenclature of the Portuguese settlers at the start of the colonization of Brazil. The name Botocudo can be traced back to Prince Maximilian Wied-Neuwied's notes on his expedition to Brazil, written in 1820. The Botocudo were nomadic, hunted and gathered, and wore virtually no clothing. Their diet consisted of what they gathered in the forest. All their utensils and tools were made of wood; their only weapons were spears made of sharp branches, bows and arrows. They lived in primitive huts made of leaves and bast, rarely reaching 1.5 m in height. The botocudo's most remarkable attribute was their tembeitera, cork- or disk-shaped wooden ornaments worn on the lower lip or earlobe. These ornaments were made from the very light-colored wood of the Chorisia ventricosa plant, which the Botocudo themselves called embur, hence the tribe's alternative name, aimboré. Today, lower lip decorations are worn almost exclusively by women, but were once common among men too. The tribe also wears ear jewelry, sometimes so large that the earlobes extend to the shoulders.