Introduction: The lack of hearing data about the Brazilian Guarani Indians elicited the conduction of this study, which investigated the possible influence of life style on the auditory level in individuals older than 40 years of age in this population. Objective: To verify and to compare the auditory thresholds in the frequencies from 0.25 kHz to 8 kHz, between Guarani Indians and non Indians subjects. Methods: The groups are composed of 20 subjects of São Sebastião village, 24 of Ubatuba village and 24 non Indians, all with age equal or above 40 years. Initially a questionnaire was applied, aiming to characterize the population. After that, visual inspection of the external ear canal was performed and then, the pure tone audiometry. The data were analyzed and compared in relation to the side, gender and group variables. Results: There was no difference between the ages and the auditory thresholds of the right and left ears in the three groups. There was a trend toward lower thresholds in the females in the three groups. There was a difference between the São Sebastião and Ubatuba subjects, as well as between Ubatuba and not Indians subjects. The Ubatuba group had the lower auditory thresholds, probably due to their particular environment and customs. Conclusions: Guarani Indians with an isolated life stile demonstrated lower hearing thresholds in comparison with more civilized Indians and with matched non-Indians subjects.