The Kalapalo are an indigenous people of Brazil. They are one of seventeen tribal groups who inhabit the Xingu National Park in the Upper Xingu River region of the state of Mato Grosso. They speak the Amonap language, a Cariban language, and one of four spoken languages in the area. They have a population of 569 as of 2010. The Kalapalo were the first Xingu tribe to be contacted by the Villas-Bôas brothers in 1945. Before the arrival of the Villas Boas, the people had sporadic contact with Europeans. The name 'Kalapalo' was given to this group by white settlers in the late 19th century. The Cariban dialect of the Kalapalos shows that they have not always lived in the Upper Xingu. The Kalapalo speak a dialect of a language that belongs to the southern branch of the Guyana Carib language family and their closest linguistic relatives are Ye'kuana or Makiritare in southern Venezuela and Hixkaryana language, spoken in the Nhamundá area in Brazil and Guyana.

Village life among the Kalapalo – one of the Karib-speaking groups in the Upper Xingu region – varies according to the seasons. During the dry season, which lasts from May to September, food is abundant and public rituals take place, which usually involve a great deal of music and the participation of members from other villages. During the rainy season, food becomes scarce and village relations are confined to those between households and relatives. In the multiethnic context of the Indigenous Park of the Xingu, the Kalapalo have played a prominent role in actively patrolling its borders, preventing the invasion of neighboring cattle ranchers. The Kalapalo and three other Upper Xingu groups – the Kuikuro, Matipu, and Nahukuá – speak dialects of a language belonging to the Southern Guiana branch of the Karib language family. Their closest linguistic relatives are the Yekuana (Makiritare) and the Hixkaryana, the former found in southern Venezuela and northern Roraima (Brazil), the latter in northern Pará (Brazil).

The Kalapalo, who numbered 110 in 1968 and perhaps more than 200 in the early 1990s, speak a Carib language and live in the village of Aifa (meaning "finished") in the upper Xingu Basin of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Their village is located within the Indian reservation known as Xingu National Park. They moved to the park in order to have fewer contacts with outsiders and to receive medical assistance at the government-run Leonardo Villas Boas Indian Post there. The Kalapalo are now known to Carib speakers as "Aifa otomo" (People of Aifa). Their aboriginal homeland is three days' travel by canoe downriver and remains of considerable symbolic importance to the Kalapalo. The region is a remote and rugged area, and the neighboring Shavante and Kayapó discouraged outside intrusion. Thus, the Kalapalo went uncontacted until perhaps the early twentieth century (the date of first contact is not known with certainty). Contact has had negative consequences: the Kalapalo became the targets of slave raiders, victims of a measles epidemic, and, finally, reluctant inhabitants of the reservation. The Kalapalo subsist mainly by fishing in rivers and lakes and raising bitter manioc, piquí fruit, and maize. They also grow peppers, beans, and sweet manioc and produce salt from a variety of the water hyacinth. They hunt little and eat little flesh, believing that hunting is aggressive behavior, and thus improper. For this reason, they have made the hunting of many animals taboo.

The Kalapalo are one of the sixteen Brazilian indigenous tribes who inhabit the Xingu National Park in the Upper Xingu river region of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. They are also one of the four peoples speaking Cariban languages in the area. They have a population of 569 (in 2010). The Kalapalo are a generally peaceful group. The Kalapalo were the first Xingu tribe to be contacted by the Villas-Bôas brothers, in 1945. Before the arrival of the Villas Boas, the people had sporadic contact with the white man, so that the name Kalapalo was given to this group by white settlers in the late 19th century. The Cariban dialect of the Kalapalos shows that they have not always lived in the Upper Xingu. The Kalapalo speak a dialect of a language that belongs to the southern branch of the Guyana Carib language family and their closest linguistic relatives are Ye’kuana or Makiritare in southern Venezuela and Hixkaryana language, spoken in the Nhamundá area in Brazil and Guyana.

The Kalapalo were the first Xingu tribe to be contacted by the Villas-Bôas brothers, in 1945. Before the arrival of the Villas Boas, the people had sporadic contact with Europeans; therefore, the name Kalapalo was given to this group by white settlers in the late 19th century. The Cariban dialect of the Kalapalos shows that they have not always lived in the Upper Xingu. The Kalapalo speak a dialect of a language that belongs to the southern branch of the Guyana Carib language family and their closest linguistic relatives are Ye'kuana or Makiritare in southern Venezuela and Hixkaryana language, spoken in the Nhamundá area in Brazil and Guyana. The Kalapalos and these tribes also share certain oral legends which describe their encounters with the white man and Christian rituals. This oral tradition suggests that the Kalapalos encountered explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett and may have been the last to see his expedition alive. These stories suggest that the Caribs of the Xingu region left the Caribbean area after being in contact with Spaniards, possibly to escape from them after experiencing violent contact, some time in the second half of the 18th century. Among the Cariban-speaking Indians, the tribe is known as Aifa Otomo, or "those who live in a ripe area."

The Kalapalo Indians of Central Brazil are one of a few surviving indigenous cultures that is uniquely protected by a national reserve in lowland South America. Through no effort of there own, they have been isolated artificially from Brazilian social and economic influences that reach almost every other Indian tribe in Brazil. This unusual situation has made it possible for the Kalapalos culture to be undisturbed by the outside world and the surrounding tribes. Much of Kalapalo life is run through a central concept or an ideal of behavior, called ifutisu. This is an infinite ideological concept that is represented in many ways in social life and ideal organization among the Kalapalo. The area in which the Kalapalo live is in the northeastern Mato Grosso state called Upper Xingu Basin. There are four unintelligible languages by groups in this region. This makes the Upper Xingu Basin linguistically diverse, but with many of the groups still sharing the same social and ideological features. It is very difficult to trace back the origins of Kalapalo life because of the integration of the many different and culturally diverse groups in the Upper Xingu Basin. So, many of systems of kinship classification, marriage practices, ceremonial organizations, status allocation, and religious beliefs are consistent with cultural rules and social practices and not with the original system. Many of the modern local groups can only reconstruct their own history which is in limited detail, these systems cant be isolated completely from the existing society. The two most important social units in Upper Xingu society are the village and the household groups.

The Kalapalo Indians of Central Brazil are one of a few surviving indigenous cultures that is uniquely protected by a national reserve in lowland South America. Through no effort of there own, they have been isolated artificially from Brazilian social and economic influences that reach almost every other Indian tribe in Brazil. This unusual situation has made it possible for the Kalapalo's culture to be undisturbed by the outside world and the surrounding tribes. Much of Kalapalo life is run through a central concept or an ideal of behavior, called ifutisu. This is an infinite ideological concept that is represented in many ways in social life and ideal organization among the Kalapalo. The area in which the Kalapalo live is in the northeastern Mato Grosso state called Upper Xingu Basin. There are four unintelligible languages by groups in this region. This makes the Upper Xingu Basin linguistically diverse, but with many of the groups still sharing the same social and ideological features. It is very difficult to trace back the origins of Kalapalo life because of the integration of the many different and culturally diverse groups in the Upper Xingu Basin. So, many of systems of kinship classification, marriage practices, ceremonial organizations, status allocation, and religious beliefs are consistent with cultural rules and social practices and not with the original system. Many of the modern local groups can only reconstruct their own history which is in limited detail, these systems can't be isolated completely from the existing society.