Aparai

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The Aparai , also known as Apalai , are part of the indigenous population of Brazil who live in the Brazilian states of Amapá and Pará as well as in the neighboring countries of French Guiana and Suriname .

Life

The Aparai live in small village communities. Their lives today are heavily influenced by the outside world and missionaries, and traditions are declining. Life takes place in different dedicated huts organized as needed, i.e. H. for sleeping, making cassava cakes , cooking, wickerwork and more.

The Aparai are a very egalitarian society. Everyone is worth the same, even if women and men pursue their specific areas of activity. But when a man is no longer able to hunt, he becomes an artist, and when he can no longer do so, he takes care of the children or finds some other kind of purpose. Today the people are threatened. Gold miners invade and pollute the rivers with mercury and lumberjacks are increasingly destroying their habitat.

language

"The Aparai-Wajana (Wayana) in the north of Amazonia belong to the (northern) Caribs, who were once among the most widespread peoples of the New World."

- Catherina Rust : The Amazon Girl - My Childhood with the Aparai-Wajana Indians p. 343

Population development

The Aparai population has decreased significantly over the past 200 years. In 1993 the population of the Aparai in Brazil was given as 450 and in 2010 as 398. For 2011, 40 tribesmen were reported in French Guiana and 10 in Suriname, plus 514 further Aparai in Pará / Amapá in 2014 from Siasi / Sesai.

“While the botanist Jean Baptiste Le Blond estimated the population of the Aparai-Wajana at 4,000 in 1788, the geographer and South America researcher Henri Coudreau only had 1,500 inhabitants at the end of the 19th century, spread over 35 villages, in which around 25 to 30 Residents lived. At the beginning of the 20th century, the population had decreased even further. The cartographer and anthropologist Claudius Henricus De Goeje put the population of the Aparai-Wajana at a maximum of 1000; 600 of them lived in Brazil, 300 in Suriname and 100 in Guiana. […] According to estimates, around 1400 to 1600 Aparai-Wajana live today, scattered across three national borders in smaller groups. "

- Catherina Rust : The Amazon Girl - My Childhood with the Aparai-Wajana Indians p. 343

literature

  • Manfred Rauschert, "Materials on the Spiritual Culture of the East Caribbean Indian Tribes", Anthropos Institute, Vol. 62, H. 1./2. (1967), pp. 165-206
  • Stephanie-Thalia Dietrich, Master's thesis: Cultural preservation or revitalization ?, 2009

Web links

Commons : Aparai  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Aparai". Povos Indígenas no Brasil . (accessed on March 17, 2010)
  2. Margarete Kreuzer: The girl from the Amazon. In: archive.is. rbb Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, October 13, 2011, archived from the original on September 7, 2012 ; accessed on April 27, 2018 . Book review about Catharina Rust.
  3. Brazil portal: Aparai and Wayana
  4. Survival International interview with Catherina Rust.Retrieved August 14, 2013
  5. Interview of the Berliner Morgenpost with Catherina Rust Retrieved on August 14, 2013
  6. Information from Brazil in English: Povos Indígenas no Brasil