TUPIAN STOCK, or The most widespread and important linguistic stock of South America. When the Portuguese took possession of Brazil the Tupfan tribes held the greater portion of the territory from the Rio de la Plata (Paraguay or ParanS) on the south to the Amazon on the north, and extended an unknown distance in some places even to the eastern slope of the Andes. The two prin cipal tribes were the Tupf (q.v.), about the mouth of the Amazon, and the Guarani (q.v.), on the Lower Paraguay. Of the numerous other cognate tribes, the most important were the Chir ignano, Guarayo, Mundurueu ( q.v. ) . Mu ra (q.v.), and Omagua (q.v.). Many of the eastern tribes were gathered into missions by the Jesuits at an early period, the Guarani missions in par ticular at one time containing more than 300,000 Indians; but through the raids of the slave hunters and the subsequent expulsion of the Jesuits, the missions were finally broken up, the more civilized Indians remaining to be incorpo rated with the Spanish settlements. while others retired far into the unexplored western wilder ness. in general culture the Tupfan tribes as
a rule were superior to the other aborigines of Brazil, though much inferior to the Quichua of Peru. They practiced agriculture to some ex tent, raising corn. manioc. and tobacco, and were expert stone-workers, hammock-weavers, and makers of pottery. They kept monkeys and pec caries for food, but their main dependence was upon hunting and fishing. Their houses were light structures, usually communal. and most of them went entirely naked. With the exception of the Omagua, who had acquired considerable of the Quichua culture, they had no metals. The Tupfan languages have been extensively culti vated, the Guarani having been adopted by the Jesuits for use in all the missions of the Para guay, while the Turf, in its corrupted form, is still the trade medium throughout the Amazon region. Consult: Adam, Materiaux pour servir l'etablissement d'une grammaire comparee des dialectes de la famine Tupi (Paris, 1S96).