The Aimoré (Aymore, Aimboré) are one of several South American peoples of eastern Brazil called Botocudo in Portuguese (from botoque, a plug), in allusion to the wooden disks or tembetás worn in their lips and ears. Some called themselves Nac-nanuk or Nac-poruk, meaning "sons of the soil".

The Brazilian chief who was presented to King Henry VIII in 1532 wore small bones hung from his cheeks and from the lower lip a semi-precious stone the size of a pea. These were the marks of great bravery. When the Portuguese adventurer Vasco Fernando Coutinho reached the east coast of Brazil in 1535, he erected a fort at the head of Espírito Santo Bay to defend himself against the Aimorés and other tribes.

Today, only a few tribes remain, almost all of them in rural villages and the indigenous territory. The last remnants of the Eastern Botocudo are the Krenak. In 2010, there were 350 Krenak living in the state of Minas Gerais.

</references>

Sources

  • P. M. A. Ehrenreich. "Ueber die Botocudos." Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 19: 49–82. 1887.
  • Charles C. Mann. 1491, Vintage Books, a division of Random House, New York, 2005. pg. 152–154.
  • A. Metraux. "The Botocudo." Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology 143: i, 531–540. 1946.
  • Hal Langfur, "The Forbidden Lands: Colonial Identity, Frontier Violence, and the Persistence of Brazil's Eastern Indians", 1750-1830 Hardcover July 28, 2006
  • Rudolph, Bruno. 1909. Wörterbuch der Botokudensprache. Hamburg: Fr. W. Thaden.