Tearful salutation
practice common among various indigenous groups in the Americas
Tearful salutation or tearful greeting refers to a practice common among various indigenous groups in the Americas. Documented prominently among the Tupinambás, it involves a tearful ceremony when a foreigner or absent tribe member arrives in the village.
Distribution
The tearful salutation in South America was limited to the region east of the Andes. According to Alfred Métraux, it was the Tupi people who spread this custom. In relation to North America, the habit was widespread in the region between the headwaters of the Mississippi River and the coast of Texas, especially among the Kaddö group and the Sioux Indians. Georg Friederici reported finding evidence of the tearful salutation in Central America. Outside the American continent, it is observed in the Andaman Islands, Australia (in Queensland), and New Zealand.
Description
Among the Tupinambá people, the tearful salutation occurred when a foreigner or a tribe member absent for more than four days approached the host's dwelling. The guest would then lie down in a hammock; subsequently, the women of the dwelling gathered around, embracing him, placing their hands on his shoulders, neck, and knees, and covering his face with their hair. Squatting down, they would finally start to cry, sobbing and reciting speeches in rhymed prose.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tearful salutation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.