Siona
The Siona (also known as Sioni , Pioje and Pioche-Sioni ) are a small indigenous people of the South American Indians of the cultural area " Andes- Eastern Ridge ", who live on both sides of the Putumayo River . They live with a total of around 500 people in the Putumayo department in Colombia and the Sucumbíos province in Ecuador . Their traditional territory extends along the rainforest rivers Putumayo in Colombia and Río Shushufindi and Aguarico in Ecuador; here in particular on the Cuyabeno tributary in a separate sector of the wildlife reserve of the same name . For a long time they have shared part of their residential areas with the Secoya , whose language ( West Tucano language family ) is only slightly different. The cultural traditions of the two peoples, however, show clear differences. Still, some have formed a joint group called the Siona-Secoya .
history
Centuries ago the ancestors of the Siona came from the east to the area of the Putumayo River, which they call the "River of the Wild Sugar Cane". Since the end of the 19th century, three successive developments have led to a decimation of the population and a reduction in its territory: first the rubber boom , then since 1963 oil production in Sucumbíos (which led to the oil disaster in the northern Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador ) and finally colonization for the illegal Cultivation of coca .
Substitution
The Siona live primarily from traditional agriculture , i.e. from the horticultural cultivation of tropical crops, supplemented by fishing and, to a lesser extent, by hunting and the gathering of wild fruits. The contact with global culture has changed a lot: While in the past manioc , bananas , pineapples and chonta were mainly grown, today corn and oranges are also included . Chickens and pigs are kept in the villages and, in addition to the blowpipe, rifles are used for hunting .
In addition, the growing nature tourism in the Cuyabeno reserve since the 1990s - from which the Siona benefit more than the other ethnic groups in the reserve due to its proximity to most tourist lodges - has led some families to turn away from the originally pure subsistence economy : By The market economy sale of bananas as well as in tourism of handicrafts or with the demonstration of traditional techniques some money is earned with which modern consumer needs are satisfied and modern technologies are introduced. Plastic canoes with outboard motors, hammocks, baskets and pots that have been bought have already largely displaced traditional dugout canoes, products made from palm fibers and home-made ceramics in some villages. Several young Siona are looking for happiness in the city.
Culture and religion
Traditional Siona attach particular importance to their appearance, which is particularly evident in their hairstyle, typical body painting and jewelry: They use earrings, bracelets and around 80 necklaces, including 32 Jaguar tusks. For people who have regular contact with the “outside world”, however, the Ecuadorian mainstream fashion is becoming increasingly popular.
In the 1960s, evangelical missionaries from the US Summer Institute of Linguistics lived among the Siona, so most of them at least "outwardly" adopted the Protestant faith. According to ongoing surveys by the evangelical-fundamentalist conversion network Joshua Project , almost 40% of the Siona still profess their orally transmitted faith . The unbroken importance of traditional religious ideas is evidenced by the existence of the medicine man called Curac , who still plays an important role in the life of the community. Through the ritual consumption of the herbal drug ayahuasca , he establishes contact with the five levels of the universe and their expressions: health, hunting, fishing, human life cycle, marriage and community security: they all depend on the relationships with the various spirits that inhabit these plains.
literature
- Blaz Telban: Siona in Grupos Étnicos de Colombia. Etnografía y Bibliografía , Cayambe 1988, Abya-Yala edition. Pp. 417-424.
- Alva Wheeler, Siona ; Aspectos de la Cultura Material de Grupos Étnicos de Colombia I, ILV, Lomalinda 1978, Editorial Townsend, pp. 161-178.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Keyword: Siona , in Ethnologue : Languages of the world, accessed on April 14, 2019.
- ↑ Heather Zeppel: `` Indigenous Ecotourism: Sustainable Development and Management '', Cabi, Oxfordshire (Great Britain) and Cambridge (USA) 2006, ISBN 978-1-84593-124-7 , pp. 72-74.
- ↑ Joshua Project: Ecuador and Colombia ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Siona), accessed April 14, 2019.
