Kankuamo
The Kankuamo or Atanque are an indigenous people of Colombia who live or lived on the south-eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the north of the department of César. 1
Indigenous groups of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Four indigenous groups live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Kogi in the northwest , the Wiwa in the northeast , the Ika in the southwest and the Kankuamo in the southeast. 1 All of them are collectively referred to as Arhuaco and form a group within the Chibcha speakers. Earlier at the time of the Spanish conquest the Tairona Indians still lived in the north of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta , it is assumed that the Tairona and the Arhuaco groups are related, but this is not certain.
language
The Kankuamo spoke the Kankuamo language of the Arhuaco group of the Chibcha language family. This is closely related to the Ika language 2 , but is no longer spoken today 3 . The Kankuamo are mostly considered together with the Ika.
Clothing and settlement
Like all groups of the Arhuako, the Kankuamo stand out because of their appearance. Men and women had and still have long hair. The Kankuamo and all other Arhuako groups are marked for their particular form of clothing; the women wear two overlapping shawls and the men wear a poncho-like top and shorts and a hat made of agave fibers. Braided belts are also known. The women wear necklaces as jewelry. The men almost always have woven bags with them. The clothing is white to natural in color. They used to wear braided sandals on their feet, later sandals made from the rubber of car tires. They are stately apparitions. The nature of their villages or individual settlements is characterized by the conical roof huts up to 10 meters in diameter, the walls of which are made of stones and the roofs of straw. The floor plans of the houses are mostly round, but almost square houses can also be found. An Arhuaco family owns several houses, they change their place of residence sporadically in order to be able to cultivate different plants in different altitudes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. There are men's and women's shelters in the individual settlements of the families. But there are also villages where the Arhuako meet for their festivals. There are also very large men's houses in them for certain cult activities. And temple buildings high up in the mountains are also known.
Craft
Spinning cotton with spindles.
Weaving on looms for clothes and blankets.
Knotting hammocks (but also slept on the floor), hats, nets, bags, carrying straps and ropes made of agave fibers.
Braiding of belts, baskets.
Pottery of vessels (jugs), other vessels are made from calabashes / pumpkins.
Carving of wooden benches.
Bamboo flutes, rattles and drums are known as musical instruments.
Construction of bridges.
economy
The Kankuamo economy is based on agriculture. The main products are corn, sweet manioc (yuca) , plantains , potatoes, yams , fique , aracacha , beans, pumpkins, fruit bananas and various other fruits, cocoa, coca, cotton and xanthosoma. Livestock farming is also known, today it is chickens, pigs and cattle. Hunting and fishing are of little importance. Collecting is just as important, including collecting honey from wild bees.
society
As higher positions within society there are chiefs of the villages and the priests in the men's houses in the villages and in the temples on the mountains. Male descendants derive their lineages from their male ancestors, female descendants from their mothers. There are male groups of sound (marsupial, puma, jaguar, eagle) and female (armadillo, deer, peccary, snake), here a mutual system prevails, that is, the male animal feeds on the female animal and that is exactly how marriage is allowed, marsupial + armadillo , Puma + deer etc ..
Spiritual life
The main deity is a mother goddess. They consider the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the mountain range on which they live, to be sacred. During the festivities in the temples there are dances by mask dancers and priests and dancers wear jewelry made of gold, gilded copper, beautifully carved wood and finely chiselled stone. Some of this jewelry dates back to pre-Columbian times.
literature
- Ernst Kausen: The Language Families of the World Part 2 Africa - Indo-Pacific - Australia - America. Buske Verlag, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 9783875486568 . P. 958 b 966 Chibcha languages 3
- Brockhaus: Peoples of the World. Brockhaus Verlag, Wiesbaden 1974, Volume 5 South America pp. 168 b 173 Die Kogi.
- Erich Wustmann: On the way to see dwarf Indians in Colombia. Neumann Verlag, Radebeul 1973, travel description pp. 73 to 123 Stay of the author with the Arhuaco and Schild. the observational life and thinking of the indigenous people.
- Steward / Faron: Handbook of South American Indians. Cooper Square Publishers, New York 1963, Volume 2 The Andean Civilizations from p. 865 WZ Park Tribes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.