Among the Fulni-ô, interethnic unions are proportionally important in terms of sheer numbers. Based on data found in the Indigenous Post, between 1940 and 1970 there were 173 of these unions in the village.

One of the mandatory pre-requisites for someone to participate in the Ouricuri ritual is to have at least one Fulni-ô parent. In addition, there is another requirement: to have attended the ritual since early age. Those who do not lose the right to participate in it later and thus is no longer considered a Fulni-ô. Therefore all the offspring of interethnic marriages who take part in the ritual identify themselves as Fulni-ô and are recognized as such (in most cases) by the “whites” or “civilized”.

In what regards to the offspring of interethnic unions who do not attend the ritual, we can say that some of them identify themselves as Indians and demand to be considered as such, which the Fulni-ô do not agree with. In general, even the offspring of interethnic unions who do not attend the ritual maintain close relations with the Fulni-ô, and live in the Indigenous Lands or often in the village of the Indigenous Post proper. But the offspring of interethnic unions face problems because, as one older Fulni-ô put it, they are “between two nations”: on the one hand, the Indians discriminate them by calling them grogojó (a variety of gourd); on the other, the “civilized” deny them the status of Indians while at the same time to not accept them entirely as part of the “white” community.

But although neither society fully accepts interethnic marriages, they continue to take place. In any case, when a young man wishes to marry a “civilized” woman, the older Fulni-ô try to dissuade him. The “civilized” do not have much sympathy for that type of union either.