South-american indians believe all animals once have been human and are therefore related. In what is today Brazil's coast, most populations used to have antropophagical practices. Alberto Mussa notes that, although most tribes hunted and ate monkeys and apes among other animals, some of them were known to avoid monkeys due to their similarity with humans.

Sources:

Eduardo Viveiros de Castro - Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism (http://clst307.wikispaces.com/file/view/perspectivism.pdf)

Alberto Mussa - A primeira história do mundo (World's first story, not yet translated into english, i believe)

FYI, there have been a few related posts; you might be interested in some of the previous replies

• Did people living in regions with apes, chimps etc. make any sort of mythological connection between themselves and primates?

• How long have black African people been caricatured as apes and monkeys? Do these portrayals predate Darwin's theory of human evolution? featuring /u/Parnasse

• What is the first reference we have about the similarities between humans and apes? includes links to a half-dozen more posts