{{short description|Person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry}} {{Other uses}} thumb|right|150px|Sculpture showing the birth of a caboclo
A '''caboclo''' ({{IPA|pt|kɐˈboklu}}) is a person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and European ancestry, or, less commonly, a culturally assimilated or detribalized person of full Amerindian descent. In Brazil, a ''caboclo'' generally refers to this specific type of ''mestiço''.
The term, also pronounced "caboco", is from Brazilian Portuguese, and perhaps ultimately from the Tupi ''kaa'boc'', meaning "the one who comes from the forest". A person of mixed Indigenous Brazilian and sub-Saharan black ancestry is known as a "''cafuzo''."
In the 1872 and 1890 censuses, 3.9% and 9.04% of the population self-identified as caboclos, respectively. Since then, caboclos are counted as pardos, along with mulattoes (mixed Black-White) and cafuzos (mixed Amerindian-Black).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://publicacoes.fcc.org.br/ojs/index.php/cp/article/view/1262/1266 |title= A classificação de "cor" nas pesquisas do IBGE|last=Araújo |first=Tereza Cristina N. |page= 14}}</ref>
A survey performed in Rio de Janeiro showed that 14% of Whites and 6% of Pardos reported Amerindian and White ancestry.<ref name=Telles>{{cite book|pages=[https://archive.org/details/raceinanotherame0000tell/page/81 81–84]|title=Race in Another America: the significance of skin color in Brazil|url=https://archive.org/details/raceinanotherame0000tell|url-access=registration|author=Edward Eric Telles|chapter=Racial Classification|year=2004|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-11866-3}}</ref>
According to some estimations, caboclos would be around 12% of Brazilian population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/105/10503808.pdf |title=Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI|last=Lizcano |first=Francisco |page= 225|publisher= Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, UAEM }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=La etapa ibérica en el pasado de la mundialización/globalización 1492-1825 |url=http://www.geografia.fflch.usp.br/publicacoes/Geousp/Geousp13/Geousp13_Intercambio_Maurel.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090604052317/http://www.geografia.fflch.usp.br/publicacoes/Geousp/Geousp13/Geousp13_Intercambio_Maurel.htm |archive-date=2009-06-04 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=geografia.fflch.usp.br}}</ref>
==Etymology== The term ''caboclo'' (which in the Amazon Basin and in Candomblé is usually pronounced without the ''l'', as ''caboco'') is said to come from the Tupi word ''kari'boka'',{{Citation needed|date=October 2012}} meaning "deriving from the white". Its primary meaning is ''mestizo'', "a person of part Amerindian and part European descent." But it may also be used to refer to any Indigenous Brazilian who is assimilated.<ref>Wafer, James William. ''The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomblé''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991, p. 55.</ref> The term Indian should not be confused with people originating from India in South Asia.
The king of Portugal, Joseph I, encouraged marriages between European colonists and Indians in the 18th century; this enabled the European men to settle into families, and resulted in the birth of the first ''caboclo'' children. Similarly, in the 19th century during the time of rubber soldiers, the government kidnapped young, primarily white and ''mestiço'' Brazilian men from Northeastern Brazil and transported them into the Amazonian interior to harvest rubber. The men were never granted permission to leave, and married local native women, fathering more generations of mestiços {{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}.
The ''caboclo'' populations in the Amazon region of Brazil are noted as voracious eaters of the ''açaí'' palm fruit, which is basic to the traditional diet of the natives. In one study, ''açaí'' palm was described as the most important plant species because the fruit makes up such a major component of diet (up to 42% of the total food intake by weight) and is economically valuable in the region (Murrieta et al., 1999).
The term ''caboclo'' is also used as the term for a spirit of Indigenous origin (an ancestor or a spirit of nature) in the Afro-Brazilian religions Candomblé and Umbanda. In these religions, they are considered different from the Orishas but are nonetheless revered.
==Days celebrating racial groups in Brazil== *In Brazil, the "Day of the Caboclo" (''Dia do Caboclo''), observed annually on June 24, in celebration of the contributions and identity of the original caboclos and their descendants. This date is an official public holiday in the State of Amazonas. *"Mixed Race Day" (''Dia do Mestiço'') is observed annually on June 27, three days after the Day of the Caboclo, in celebration of all mixed-race Brazilians, including the caboclos. The date is an official public holiday in three Brazilian states. *"Indigenous Peoples Day" (''Dia dos Povos Indígenas''), observed annually on April 19, recognizes and honours the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
==See also== *Mameluco *Race and ethnicity in Brazil
==References== ===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Books=== * Adams, C., Murrieta, R., & Neves, W. A. (2006). ''Sociedades caboclas amazônicas: modernidade e invisibilidade'' (1a ed.). Sâo Paulo: Annablume. {{ISBN|85-7419-644-4}} and {{ISBN|978-85-7419-644-2}} * Nugent, S. (1993). ''Amazonian Caboclo Society: An Essay on Invisibility and Peasant Economy''. Providence, RI: Berg. {{ISBN|0-85496-756-7}}
===Journal articles=== * Murrieta, R. S. S., Dufour, D. L., & Siqueira, A. D. (1999). "Food consumption and subsistence in three Caboclo populations on Marajo Island, Amazonia, Brazil," ''Human Ecology, 27''(3), 455–475.
==External links== *[http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/13/news/brazil.php Brazil 'rubber soldiers' fight for recognition] {{Archive url|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113220829/http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/13/news/brazil.php|date=2006-11-13}} {{Ancestry and ethnicity in Brazil}}{{Skin colors}}{{Multiethnicity}} Category:Multiracial affairs in Brazil Category:Métis Category:Race in Brazil Category:Traditional peoples in Brazil