Maranhense people

Maranhense people
Povo Maranhense
Maranhense man in a traditional Bumba Meu Boi costume, Guimarães, Maranhão
Total population
c. 5 million (2022)
Languages
Portuguese language, Costa Norte and Central Northeastern dialects
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic, sizeable Protestant minority
Related ethnic groups
Sertanejos, Baianos, Bragantinos, Caboclos, Matutos, Portuguese, Amerindians, Bantus, Wolofs, Fulanis and Serer

The Maranhenses (Natively: [mɐɾɐ̃ˈɲẽsi]) are a Brazilian ethnocultural group distributed across the central, northern and eastern mesoregions of the state of Maranhão, as well as parts of northwestern Piauí; they are speakers of the Costa Norte dialect of Portuguese, with a minority in the south of their region speaking the Central Northeastern dialect.[1][2][3][4][5]

Area inhabited by the Maranhense people (red) over a map of northeastern Brazil.

History

In the early 17th century the Kingdom of France attempted to colonize the bay of São Marcos region, founding the city of São Luís. This colonization attempt was initially successful, as the French were able to erect a decently sized town and export hundreds of ethnic French settlers to the colony, however, the Portugal was eventually able to take the region from France, bringing ethnic Portuguese settlers into São Luís.[6][7]

The Portuguese began to utilize the lands of Maranhão for the extraction of the "drogas do sertão", with the gathering of spices, nuts and fruits such as Brazil nut, guarana, copaiba, babaçu and urucum, as opposed to the wood extraction economy of southern Bahia, the sugarcane farming of the eastern northeast and the animal husbandry of the caatinga. As such, the adaptation of the European settlers to the new lifestyle and tropical climate of the region and their mixing with local indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans led to a formation of the Maranhense culture.[6][8]

Differently from the rest of the Brazilian territory, which brought African slaves mostly from the Congo and the Gulf of Guinea, the slave ships that docked in the ports of São Luís and Alcântara mostly came from the Senegambia region, bringing slaves that had different languages, cultures and religions from the ones in the Bantu and Volta-Niger areas. The most common ethnicities of these enslaved Africans included peoples such as the Wolofs, Fulanis, Serer, Mandinkas, Jolas and Soninkes.[9][10][11]

Culture

Maranhenses from the São Marcos bay area.

Maranhense culture is mostly influenced by Portuguese and African traditions and customs, with lesser but present influences of French and Indigenous sources. Traditional festivities, dances and music of the Maranhense people include the Bumba Meu Boi, Tambor de Crioula dance, Cacuriá dance, Brazilian Reggae music, Tambor de Mina, Festa do Divino Esprírito Santo, Carnaval de Passarela, festejo de São Marçal, festa da Juçara, among others.[12]

Traditional dishes and sweets include Arroz de Cuxá, Juçara, several crab-based dishes, shrimp-based dishes, Espécie, Bacuri, Buriti and Babaçu.[13][4] Most Maranhenses are deeply Catholic, with followers of the religion numbering 65 to 75% of the population, while Protestants are 20 to 25%, irreligious people 5 to 10% and followers of Afro-Brazilian religions are less than 1%, as of 2022.[14]

Maranhenses are the Brazilian ethnocultural group with the highest proportion of Quilombolas, people descended from escaped slaves that formed Quilombo villages and settlements in isolated parts of the countryside in order to avoid recapture by their old masters. As of 2022, 4% of the population of Maranhão were Quilombolas.[14][15]

Bumba-Meu-Boi dancers being blessed by a Catholic priest in the municipality of Pindaré-Mirim, 2024.

Genetics

According to the 2022 Brazilian census 65 to 75% of the population of the Maranhense territory self-identified as pardo, 15 to 20% as white and 10 to 15% as black.[14] The vast majority of Maranhenses are mixed to some degree, with varying rates of European, African or Amerindian ancestry. A 2019 systematic scoping review of 51 studies analyzed the autosomal DNA composition of Brazilians from several states and cities and put the average ancestral component of people from the city of São Luís as 42% European, 19% African and 39% Amerindian.[16]

Notable Maranhenses

References

  1. ↑ O povo brasileiro: a formação e o sentido do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Global Editora. 2021-09-13. ISBN 978-85-260-2225-6.
  2. ↑ Carvalho, Joelson Gonçalves de (2017-01-01). "Camponês e campesinato: contribuições teóricas de uma evidência empírica no Brasil". Pedro & João Editores.
  3. ↑ Silva, Carlos Benedito Rodrigues da (2020-10-05). Ritmos da identidade mestiçagens e sincretismos na cultura do Maranhão (in Brazilian Portuguese). Editora Dialética. ISBN 978-65-5877-117-3.
  4. 1 2 A cultura maranhense e sua culinária típica (in Brazilian Portuguese). Uema. 2021-09-16. ISBN 978-85-86036-96-5.
  5. ↑ Barros, Antonio Evaldo Almeida (2010-10-11). "O PROCESSO DE FORMAÇÃO DE "IDENTIDADE MARANHENSE" EM MEADOS DO SÉCULO XX". Revista TOMO (17): 183–231. doi:10.21669/tomo.v0i17.513. ISSN 2318-9010.
  6. 1 2 Silva, David Costa da (2025-12-03). História Do Maranhão: Colônia, Império E República (in Brazilian Portuguese). FLORIANO, PI: David Costa Da Silva Silva. ISBN 978-65-01-83514-3.
  7. ↑ Cardoso, Alírio (2011). "A conquista do Maranhão e as disputas atlânticas na geopolítica da União Ibérica (1596-1626)". Revista Brasileira de História (in Portuguese). 31: 317–338. doi:10.1590/S0102-01882011000100016. ISSN 0102-0188.
  8. ↑ Viveiros, Jerônimo de (1954). História do Comércio do Maranhão 1612 - 1895 (in Portuguese). São Luís: Associação comercial do Maranhão.
  9. ↑ Barroso Junior, Reinaldo dos Santos (2023-10-03). Nas rotas do Atlântico Equatorial: tráfico de escravos rizicultores da Alta-Guiné para o Maranhão (1770-1800) (in Brazilian Portuguese). São Luís, MA: Uema. ISBN 978-85-8227-378-4.
  10. ↑ Chambouleyron, Rafael (2006). "Escravos do Atlântico equatorial: tráfico negreiro para o Estado do Maranhão e Pará (século XVII e início do século XVIII)". Revista Brasileira de História (in Portuguese). 26: 79–114. doi:10.1590/S0102-01882006000200005. ISSN 0102-0188.
  11. ↑ Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo (2005-09-19). Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links. University of North Carolina Press. doi:10.5149/9780807876862_hall.8. ISBN 978-0-8078-2973-8.
  12. ↑ "Cultura e Festas Populares". wticifes2023 (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-06-23.
  13. ↑ Martins, Nivaldo (2017-10-25). "As 10 melhores comidas típicas do Maranhão | Dicas de Gastronomia". Buenas Dicas • Seu blog de viagem (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-06-23.
  14. 1 2 3 "Mapas | Panorama do Censo Demográfico 2022". Mapas | Panorama do Censo Demográfico 2022. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
  15. ↑ "População quilombola é de 1,3 milhão, indica recorte inédito do censo". Serviços e Informações do Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2025-12-11. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
  16. ↑ Souza, Aracele Maria de; Resende, Sarah Stela; Sousa, Taís Nóbrega de; Brito, Cristiana Ferreira Alves de (2019). "A systematic scoping review of the genetic ancestry of the Brazilian population". Genetics and Molecular Biology. 42 (3): 495–508. doi:10.1590/1678-4685-GMB-2018-0076. ISSN 1415-4757. PMC 6905439. PMID 31188926.
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