Waika
The Waika , Portuguese Uaicás , are an indigenous people in the extreme south of Venezuela in the border area with Brazil and belong to the large group of the Yanomami Indians . They speak a Yanomam language , called Yanomámi or Waiká (around 9,000 speakers).
Alexander von Humboldt
Alexander von Humboldt had already met these Indians around 1800 on his South America expedition, and he was familiar with their designation as Waika (in the Spanish spelling of the time, Guaica ).
Settlements
The Waika settlement area is located on the upper reaches of the Orinoco River (Alto Orinoco) in the area of the Guiana Shield, one of the oldest rock formations on earth. The best known is the Auyan Tepui plateau with the highest waterfall on earth, the Salto Ángel .
The Waika live in round villages called Shaponos (Shabano, Xabono), a settlement complex of circular houses around a central square in the otherwise unbroken green of the jungle. Wherever possible, they choose natural treeless islands in the jungle. Most of the time, however, they have to clear clearing to create their settlements. These have simple, inwardly open, pent roofs that are several meters high and almost reach down to the ground. They are covered with palm fronds and can withstand tropical downpours too. Actually, Shapono is the name given to the central free space in the settlement. This always remains free and serves as a playground for the children, but also as a meeting place and for the cultic dances of the settlement community. The round settlement is often surrounded by a palisade fence made of branches piled up in a disorderly manner. Usually there is only one entrance to the interior of the Shapono.
These round villages are inhabited by 30 to around 100 people. If the population rises above this, the village community divides and a new Shapono is created. Even in the event that the hunted prey becomes less and less or the yield of the plantings is exhausted, the whole village moves on and a new shapono is built. From the Shapono paths lead into the jungle to the hunting areas and the plantations. Since streams or swamp areas often have to be crossed, the Waika have developed ingenious bridge structures that are extremely stable and safe. They even span gorges with suspension bridges.
- The inside of a round house
The support beams of the pent roof create solid, albeit open living areas for every family in the interior of the round house, in which they hang their hamaca ( hammock ) and store their firewood and supplies. In the photos you can see her few possessions such as calabashes, various baskets to collect and carry as well as wood for cooking. The small, bowl-shaped baskets are very simply woven, without any pattern as in other tribes. In the large baskets the women carry bananas, yucca roots or firewood from the plantations to the shapono with headbands. The simple ceramic bowls are now often replaced by aluminum pots, which are gladly accepted. You can also often find modern cotton hammocks that are popular, but also have disadvantages. On the one hand, they represent a considerable additional ballast when moving and, on the other hand, they become unhygienic through long use. Since the Waika can weave a hamaca from natural fibers in a very short time , this traditional hammock is preferable to the modern one. Calabashes as storage containers for water are indispensable. The arrows leaning against a post and the strong bow are also of particular importance .
1) A family's cooking place in a shapono
2) Two older women with children
3) Visitors are offered a hammock
On photo 1 you can see the fireplace on the left and the wood supply behind. Making the fire is a man's job, while the women look after the firewood. The Waika ignite a fire through the frictional heat when two wooden sticks are whisked. It can get very cold at night and in the rainy periods. In addition, mosquitoes and other pests can be driven away by the smoke. In the middle are peeled plantains (Camburos) on leaves, which are not edible raw, but taste delicious when fried. On the right there is a supply of yucca roots and behind it is a large calabash.
Photo 2 shows a possibly sick child in the hamaca . Two older women are with him. They are obviously in poor health, which can often be seen in the elderly. This may be due to the hard work they had to do all their lives, but often also to diseases such as intestinal parasites or malaria. The basket in front of the seated woman is a typical carrying basket made of very fine wickerwork, while the hanging basket on the left is more simply woven.
In photo 3, a young Waika Indian who is festively decorated is lying in the hammock, while an older one stands next to it. They are visitors from another settlement and they have therefore adorned themselves with glued bird fluff. In the hamaca next to the visitor sits a young Waika woman with her child. She wears the typical jewelry rods in her lower lip. At the top of the picture you can see a supply of plantains.
Phenotype
The Waika are around 150 to 160 cm tall, which is particularly noticeable when meeting Western visitors. Their skin color is quite different and goes from dark to quite light brown. Her hair is always a deep black, her eyes a deep brown. Amazingly, even within a group, the various individuals differ greatly in appearance. Some of them have Western, European facial features and, if dressed accordingly, would hardly attract attention in a modern city. Others, on the other hand, have distinctly Asian facial features. It could be that the tribes that immigrated thousands of years ago are still manifesting themselves in their descendants today.
The Waika are undressed, but would feel naked without their thin hip cord and the magical cords over their upper body. The men tie their penis up to the foreskin with the hip cord, while the women wear a narrow, red-colored cloth in front of the pubic area. The hairstyle of men and women is characteristic. Both shave the skull to a kind of tonsure, but leave a thick fringe of hair. Most of the skulls of men and women have several long scars. They come from tests of courage or punishments. This can also lead to death, which can lead to further disputes.
The body can also be painted with the palm fruit color Onoto (Bixa orellana) for clothing . The black of coal is also used. The patterns are not applied arbitrarily, but according to traditional symbolic meaning. For example, points correspond to the spots of the jaguar and thus characterize its wearer in a certain way.
Young Waika in everyday life
Young Waika, festively decorated
Waika woman with carrying basket
Young Waika painted with jaguar symbols
On the occasion of visits to neighboring Shapono, the hair and body are adorned with glued bird fluff and feathers are also stuck in the earlobes. In many cases, a jewelry rod is also inserted into the nasal septum. The women also wear three thin jewelry sticks in their lower lip in everyday life.
A particularly noteworthy characteristic of the Waika is its exceptionally fine hearing. So they called “elicoptero” about ten minutes before Europeans noticed an approaching helicopter.
Social organization
The Waika are usually monogamous. As a rule, women give birth to a child no more than every three years, which can be explained by the often very difficult living conditions. In the case of twins, one of the two children is therefore killed or left to starve. The same is done with children who suffer from deformities. Raising them is traditionally seen by the group as a threat to their stability, because each individual has to make his or her contribution to nutrition and defense.
The women practice birth control with the help of certain plants. Breastfeeding the children for several years also supports this. However, they become independent very quickly, play on the ground with the dogs, climb around on the support bars of the roofs or practice hitting targets safely with children's bows. For the first three years the children sleep in the hamaca ( hammock ) on the mother's body. But men also look after their children in their free time.
There is a gender-specific division of labor . The men do the clearing work on the new plantations, provide fresh meat on the hunt and ensure protection from enemy attacks. The women work in the plantations, bring bananas or yucca roots (cassava) to the shaponos in their large baskets , prepare the food and look after the small children. However, as a visitor, one already has the impression that the women are actually always busy, while the men like to lie in the hamaca , especially after a successful hunt .
nutrition
The Waika are gatherers, hunters and farmers. They always set up plantations near their shapono, where they grow various types of bananas, especially the important platanos ( plantains ) and yucca. The yucca root is cassava, one type of which can be prepared immediately and is very tasty. Another type contains too much hydrogen cyanide, which has to be washed out. To do this, the cassava is grated on a chopping board and enriched with plenty of water. The resulting pulp is then filled into a braided tube about two meters long and about 15 cm thick, the tipiti , and squeezed out with it. This is hung on a branch and weighted down below. It is woven so ingeniously that it contracts the more it is weighed down below. The porridge loses water and most of the hydrocyanic acid, can be dried and stored for a long time as long-life flour. In the forest, the Waika also find the popular "Rascha" peach palm fruits (Guilielma Gasipaes), but also fat maggots or tarantulas that are roasted in the fire. The men hunt tapirs, monkeys, deer, wild cats, armadillos and snakes. However, the large animals have become very rare. Even a killed monkey is a sought-after prey.
The Waika have developed a particularly ingenious hunting technique for fishing . A stream rich in fish is dammed up at one point, a certain type of lianas is pounded soft and swung around in the dammed water, which then turns milky. The poison introduced in this way paralyzes the fish and after a short time they float up in the water. The women only need to collect the fish and stow them in their baskets. The poison, which is paralyzing for fish, is non-toxic for humans. Interestingly, Waika pets such as dogs, parrots or monkey cubs are taboo, so they are not consumed. It even happens that women suckle young monkeys.
- weapons
The most important is the approximately 1.5 meter long arch made of hard wood. It has a lot of pulling power and is difficult to tension for inexperienced users. These include arrows up to 2 meters long that are made of a light, reed-like reed and have tips with barbs made of hardwood or bone. Springs are attached to the rear for flight stabilization. The length of the arrows, which is unusual for forest dwellers, is astonishing. Ethnologists suspect that this is a tradition from ancient times. Perhaps this is only due to the good accuracy of these pipe arrows.
The blowpipe , which is up to 3 meters long , which is common with the Waika, is equally amazing . With it they shoot thin arrows approx. 20 cm long with a thick cotton plug on the back. The Waika carry the arrows in a braided quiver around the neck. They have astonishing penetrating power and penetrate even deep into wood at a distance of several meters. The Waika mainly hunt monkeys with poisoned arrows, which sometimes pull the arrows out of their own bodies. If they do not succeed in doing this, the paralyzing poison gradually sets in, they can no longer hold themselves in the trees and fall to the ground.
Culture
The Waika did not develop a font. Missionaries try to put their language into writing. There is also no number system . Words only exist for “one” and “two”. Amounts beyond this are referred to as “a lot”. However, stone carvings have been discovered in the Waika area, which could not be determined more precisely. Musical instruments have not been developed either. Songs and dances nonetheless play an important role in the life of the Waika. In them, tradition and mythology are passed on from generation to generation. This is how the shamans tell of the creation of the world and people.
- The drug Ebena
The use of hallucinogenic drugs is common among all South American Indians. Among the Waika it is Ebena , called Yopo by other tribes . The most important components are the beans of the acacia Piptadenia peregrina , which Alexander von Humboldt already described. There are also various tree barks. Only men use Ebena, the shamans, regularly in their ceremonies. When taking Ebena, two men sit across from each other and take turns blowing the powder into their noses using a pipe up to a meter long. After a while, there is a very strong secretion of the mucous membranes of the nose and mouth. Sometimes vomiting or fainting may occur. The shaman , who is very important in the Waika society, uses Ebena regularly to get in touch with the spirits. Traditionally, the Waika rarely use the drug. For the shaman, however, it is indispensable, especially in healing illnesses.
Encounter with civilization
Over the millennia, the Waika have developed their own values that have enabled them to survive in the jungle. Even if these often differ greatly from Western ideas, they made it possible for these people to live in harmony with the nature around them. The previously functioning structure is disrupted and often destroyed by contact with civilization. So this ancient culture is increasingly endangered today. Bringing gifts, for example, often poses a deadly danger as they transmit diseases to which the Waika are defenseless. The consequences are epidemics and the survivors flee deeper into the jungle. Acquaintance with alcohol, one of the scourges of primitive peoples, is just as dangerous. Often the Waika come into contact with illegal loggers and also illegal gold prospectors with alcohol and other seductions of civilization. The attractiveness of the products of civilization often proves to be irresistible. The responsible government agencies try to protect the Indians, but greed and corruption often destroy all government efforts. Regular health care and vaccinations improve the health of the Waika. It is also not uncommon for private individuals to do this at their own expense, for example by idealistic doctors.
literature
- Angelina Pollak-Eltz : Cultural change among the Waika in the Upper Orinoco. In: Anthropos. Volume 63/64, No. 3/4, Friborg 1969, pp. 457-472.
- Heinz Kindlimann: Born in the Stone Age - died in the present. Travel to the land of the Yanomami Indians. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2006, ISBN 978-3-280-06081-0 .
- Norbert Lehner: Right in the middle of the Yanomami. Sr. Maria Wachtler's mission in Venezuela. Don Bosco, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-7698-1547-4 .
- Adele Sinn: The writing of the Yanomami. A bilingual and intercultural school model. Institute for Languages and Literatures, Innsbruck 2006.
- Inga Steinforth-Goetz: Uriji jami! The Waika Indians in the primeval forests of the Upper Orinoco. Asociación Cultural Humboldt, Caracas 1970.
- Otto Zerries : Visit to the Waika (Yanoama) Indians of the Upper Orinoco. A reunion after twenty years (1974). In: Anthropos. Friborg 1978.
- Otto Zerries: Los Waika (Yanoama), indigenas del Alto Orinoco 1954–1974. In: Indiana. Volume 3, Ibero-American Institute, Berlin 1975, pp. 147–154 (Spanish; PDF file; 1.2 MB; 8 pages on iai.spk-berlin.de).
- Otto Zerries: Mahekodotedi: monograph of a village of the Waika Indians (Yanoama) on the Upper Orinoco (Venezuela). Renner, Munich 1974.
- Otto Zerries: Waika: The cultural-historical position of the Waika Indians of the Upper Orinoco in the context of the ethnology of South America. Renner, Munich 1964.
- Otto Zerries: Medicine men and belief in ghosts of the Waika Indians of the Upper Orinoco. In ethnological research. ... 1960.
- Otto Zerries: Culture in Transition: The Waika Indians of the Upper Orinoco. Predator or Planter? In the look around in science and technology. ... 1958.
- Otto Zerries: The Waika Indians' Lasha Festival. In: Looking around in science and technology. ... 1955.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Paul Lewis et al. a. (Ed.): Yanomámi: A language in Brazil. In: Ethnologue: Languages of the World . 2013, accessed April 14, 2014.
- ↑ Alexander von Humboldt: Journey into the equinox regions of the new continent. Volume 4. Stuttgart 1860, p. 85 .
- ↑ Otto Zerries: Visiting the Waika (Yanoama) Indians of the Upper Orinoco: A reunion after twenty years (1974). In: Anthropos. Vol. 73, H. 1./2. (1978), p. 181. ( JSTOR 40459230 ). Retrieved June 3, 2014.