Huka-Huka
Wrestling of the Upper Xingu, fought from the knees. Its main setting is the kuarup funerary festival, where not only individuals but villages compete.
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About Huka-Huka
Huka-huka is the wrestling of the Upper Xingu, that is of a group of indigenous peoples in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. It is not wrestled standing but from the knees, and that is its most striking feature. The organiser, usually a chief, calls two opponents by name into the middle of the ground. They approach one another on their knees, turning clockwise face to face until their eyes meet, then clinch and try to lift the opponent and put him on the ground. Whoever touches the ground with his back has lost. Both men and women wrestle. Huka-huka is not a separate sport standing apart from village life. Its main setting is the kuarup, also written quarup, the great funerary festival at which several villages gather to honour their notable dead; the wrestling is its central ceremonial contest, and in it not only individuals but villages measure themselves against one another. The name huka-huka imitates the sound the wrestlers make during a bout. In recent years the outside world has begun to take an interest: it has been introduced experimentally into the training of the military police of São Paulo state and is studied by practitioners of mixed martial arts. A direct connection with vale tudo or with modern MMA is, however, not documented; this is present-day interest, not a lineage. The dating to 1500 is likewise undocumented, and the reference to the Yawalapiti names one of several peoples who practise huka-huka.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.