The Roots of Carnival? New Finds Suggest Seasonal Parties in Pre-Columbian Brazil

Brazil is famous for its Carnival season, an almost week-long party which unifies the country in a spirit of feasting, drinking, and of course dancing. This is traditionally held just before Lent, but a new study suggests it may have existed long before Christianity came to South America.

The research, announced by the University of York, reveals that the pre-colonial peoples in Brazil may have herd similar communal parties in the summer. They gathered to feast on migratory fish that were briefly in abundance in their seas, and shared alcoholic drinks.

The evidence for these parties comes from the shores of the Patos Lagoon in Brazil. Dotted around the shorelines here are earthen mounds known as “Cerritos” made by the prehistoric ancestors of the Charrua and Minuano, indigenous groups of the Pampean people who still live here.

It has long been theorized that these pre-Columbian peoples would have gathered around these Cerritos to celebrate in this fashion. The mounds were important as tombs, monuments and gathering places, and we already know from earlier studies that people would travel from diverse locations to visit this place, at certain times of the year.

Now the new study has confirmed what they were doing here. Pottery fragments containing residue shows they were using corn, tubers and palm to make alcohol. This is among the earlier evidence we have for alcohol production in the region.

Elsewhere the pottery was used in the handling and processing of fish. The species found here, such as the Whitemouth Croaker, are migratory and would have been abundant for one brief period during the year, and this abundance of a food source may have prompted the festival.

The relationship between the peoples who gathered here and the original builders of the mounds is uncertain. It is possible that these unusual structures were what made the location special, without understanding their original purpose.

But, in knowing that the peoples from the surrounding regions would travel great distances to feast on the fish, drink their corn drink and party with one another, who can certainly see the origins of the Brazilian Carnival.

Header Image: The modern-day Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, which may have Pre-Columbian roots. Source: Jeffrey Dunn / CC BY-SA 2.0.