Jabebiracica

Jabebiracica was one of the most prominent Tupinambá tabas in Guanabara. Located at the bay's main port, it was so frequently visited by the Normans (peoples from the north of France) that they already called it "Pepin," a reference to the captain of a ship that had once landed there in the 1540s.

Image description: The image is a black-and-white illustration depicting an old map. The spatial layout begins on the left, where we see a series of mountains covered with trees. Moving toward the right, we find several flat areas and densely wooded areas. At the center, there is a large structure that appears to be a fortress or castle, with towers and walls. On the right, there are more areas of vegetation and some open areas. Throughout the map, there are several handwritten inscriptions, but they are not clearly legible. The map is surrounded by a decorative border.

The proximity between the Tupinambás and the truchements (Frenchmen who lived in the villages and served as interpreters for other Frenchmen) and their mixed-race descendants led José de Anchieta to describe the place, in O auto de São Lourenço, as "the village of sin":

E a tapera do pecado, a de Jabebiracica, não existe. E lado a lado a nação dos derrotados no fundo do rio fica. Os franceses, seus amigos, inutilmente trouxeram armas. Por nós combateram Lourenço, jamais vencido, e São Sebastião flecheiro.

It was also in Jabebiracica, according to the account of the French traveler Jean de Léry, where the trails and paths to other tabas in the interior began and ended. In narrating his time living among the Tupinambás, Léry refers to Jabebiracica as an overpopulated and important village, which was “two leagues” from Fort Coligny, on what is now the Ilha de Villegagnon. There was also a land connection between Jabebiracica and the Karióca village, and this route would become the first great street of the “city” — the “path to Gebiracica.”

In Portuguese sources from after the 1567 battles — which finally expelled the French from Guanabara Bay —, besides the form Jabebiracica, used here as the one that best conveys the original Old Tupi pronunciation, other references were used: Gebiracica, Jabebirassiqua, Yabiricica, Jabiracica, Jaburacica, Ibiracica, Ibibuasiqua, Yabibirasiqua, Jeribiracica, Jabibirasiqua and Obiracica. All of these forms refer to the same place belonging to this Tupinambá community. In Jean de Léry's account, the name of the village is transcribed with difficulty, appearing under several spellings: Jaburaci, Josy-yrasik, Joeyrasik, Yaboraci and Iaver-ur assic.

The one who deciphered the meaning of this name of a Tupinambá village in Guanabara was the tupinologist and historian Frederico Edelweiss, professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). In a pioneering study on the old names of Rio de Janeiro's villages published in 1967, Edelweiss states that the word "corresponds to iabebyr-acyca, which translates as docked; cut; truncated stingray." The tupinologist's hypothesis is that the name must have referred to one of the many species of stingrays found along our coast.

Image description: Black-and-white engraving of a ray, seen from above against a light background. The body forms a flattened disc, and the head ends in an elongated triangular snout, facing right, where a small eye can be seen. The pectoral fins spread out to the sides, and the skin is rendered with a stippled texture, with a row of small spines running along the back. The tail is long and curves to the left, with two dorsal fins and a forked caudal fin at the tip. In the upper left corner, the number "1100" is printed.

Esteemed by the Tupinambás, stingrays were very useful. Warriors used their stinger to craft destructive, piercing arrows. The name may therefore be a reference to the proliferation of stingrays that inhabited the bottom of the then-cove located in front of the community, or it may even allude to a leader, since villages were also known by Europeans by the name of their most important morubixaba.

The person who helped map out the location of Jabebiracica was one of its most illustrious indigenous residents: Arariboia. José de Anchieta knew of the importance of this taba for the Guanabara Tupinambás, as well as for the maracajás (the derogatory way the Tupinambás referred to the Temiminós). In 1568, the year after the decisive victories of Uruçumirim and Paranapucu, Arariboia and his people occupied this much-coveted village. According to Father Simão de Vasconcellos, there the maracajás rejoiced over "the relics of the defeated tamoyos."

From then on, this location began to be indicated on maps and documents as “Aldeia de Martinho” (“Martinho's Village”), a reference to Martim, Arariboia's Christian name. On this map, it can be noted that the presence of the original taba persists in the name of the river that serves the locality: “Ibuburacica”. Another historical source of this circumstance is found in the map by French spy Jacques de Vau de Claye, from 1579, in which he writes the toponym Ararone in the same location previously occupied by the village of Jabebiracica.

Image description: This is a photograph of a historic building. On the left side, we see a staircase with a white balustrade. In the background, there is a large building with a classical façade, featuring columns and evenly spaced windows. On the right, there is a statue of a man in front of the building's main entrance. The image is in color and has no visible text.

As far as we can tell, according to the many sources consulted, this village existed at the foot of Babilônia Hill, in the area stretching from the São Francisco Xavier church to the Colégio Militar, in what is now the Tijuca neighborhood, with the Trapicheiros River serving as the water source for the Tupinambá Jabebiracica.