TAPUYAN (GES), a large and important group of tribes of South American Indians, forming an independent linguistic stock. The name Tapuya under which this stock is usually known, is a Tupi (q.v.) word, meaning "enemy" or "stranger," and was ap plied by them to tribes of other affiliations as well. The stock has also been called Ges, which being less open to misunderstanding, is in many ways preferable. The area occupied by the Tapuyan (Ges) tribes covered a large part of the highlands of eastern Brazil, extending from the central part of the State of Maranhao south through Goyaz and Bahia to Sao Paulo and the borders of Matto Grosso. To the west, tribes of this stock are found as far as the Xingu river. At the time of the first European contacts they did not reach eastwards to the Atlantic coast, which was held by a thin strip of intrusive Tupi peoples. But at an earlier period Tapuyan tribes probably extended to the shore both in Bahia and Maranhao.
Physically the majority of the Tapuyan tribes appear to belong to the older long-headed stratum of the population. The Boto cudos (q.v.) resemble the prehistoric makers of the shell-heaps or sambaquis of the Brazilian coast, whereas the tribes more in the interior represent the type of the crania from the Lagoa Santa caves. The culture of these tribes was generally extremely simple.
They went as a rule entirely without clothing, and wore labrets and large wooden discs as ear-ornaments. They built only tem porary shelters of poles and leaves, depended mainly on hunting, fishing and wild jungle products for food and were often canni balistic. They had no pottery, textiles or canoes, and some tribes were said to be without the dog. The bow and club were their chief weapons. For the most part they lived in small local groups, with very simple social organization. The dead were buried in shallow graves, and not interred in burial urns as among the Tupian tribes. Very little is known of their religious beliefs or practices, and in general these tribes have been but superficially studied.
See C. F. P. von Martius, Beitriige zur Ethnographie and Sprachen kunde Amerika's (Leipzig, 1867) ; Maximilian, prince of Wied Neuwied, Reise nach Brasilien (Frankfurt, 1821) ; H. A. Coudreau, Voyage au Tacontins-Araguaya (Paris, 1897) ; F. Krause, In den Wildnissen Brasiliens (Leipzig, 1911). (R. B. D.) TAR: see NAVAL STORES ; COAL TAR ; CAMPHORS; GAS MANU FACTURE; TARS, Low TEMPERATURE.