In Tratado da Terra do Brasil (Treaty of the Land of Brazil), considered to be the first book of Brazil’s History, written in the fifteen seventies, the Portuguese writer Pero de Magalhães Gândavo already referred to the body paintings of indigenous Brazilians. But what the Portuguese understood as a way of indigenous people adorning themselves can have different meanings, according to the ethnic group.

In general, they represent creatures of nature, and the meanings associated with them differ for men and women. They also have unique graphics and names for festivals, rituals, and wars.

In the Munduruku tradition, the most common male paintings represent the ant and the tortoise. They are used to attract the forces of nature and ensure that the indigenous people have a good hunting and fishing. For war and confrontation, the Munduruku warriors paint their entire bodies in red, a color used only for extreme situations.

Beka says that the most common body paintings of the women refer to fish scales, in a direct reference to the Munduruku women’s mythology.

“This painting came from the women of ancient times, who made their passage to become fish. At that time, there was a disunity in the village, man against woman, so the women fell into the water.”

In Munduruku mythology, this event involves a conflict between a deserter son of the god Karosakaybu who, after being transformed into a tapir by his father, hypnotizes the women of the village to molest them. Discovered by the husbands, revenge results in the creature’s death. Bewitched, the women went to the place of their encounters with the animal and dived into the river, turning into fish. For this reason, the main design of the Munduruku women paintings represents the jacundá (or leléu) fish.