Yawalapiti

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The Yawalapiti (also Jaulapiti, Yaulapiti, Iaualapiti) are an indigenous group of people who live in the central Brazilian region of Alto Xingu in the Brazilian part of the Amazon basin , in the Parque Indígena do Xingu , in Mato Grosso .

Surname

Today, Yawalapiti is the name of the ethnic group and translated means village of the tucu palms .

history

The first contact of the Yawalapiti with non-indigenous people took place in 1887 when the German ethnologist Karl von den Steinen met the population group on an expedition. At that time, the Yawalapiti were on the upper reaches of the Tuatuari River , but dissolved these settlements in the 1930s and moved near the Culuene and Batovi rivers after being attacked by the Manitsawá or Trumai . During the fighting, Tatîwãlu, the village chief, was killed and his brother Waripirá and his cross cousin Yanumaka took over the leadership of the remaining Yawalapiti. Yanumaka went up the Tuatari and Waripirá led his group into the headwaters of the Culuene. Yanumaka's group then founded the village of Yakunipi, which still exists today. Due to the population growth, the Yawalapiti of Yakunipi soon founded other villages in the region, such as Puía ( lake ) and the largest village Ukú-píti ( Village of Arrows ), an abandoned Mehinako settlement .

In the mid-1940s, the Yawalapiti got into a serious crisis and the tribe split into the villages of the Kuikuro, Mehinako and Kamaiurá. When the explorers Cláudio , Orlando and Leonardo Villas Bôas met the Yawalapiti, they had rebuilt their villages. Puía was also rebuilt between 1948 and 1950, but abandoned in the early 1960s and Emakapúku was founded.

Population development

Location of the settlement area

In 1948 there were 28 Yawalapiti living in the area. After an outbreak of measles, 25 tribesmen were still alive in 1954. In 1963 the number rose to 41 people and in 1970 there were 65 Yawalapiti. In the following decades the population increased steadily due to the improved health care and the pacification of the indigenous peoples. In 2002 there were 208 members of the tribe, the last count in 2014 was 262 members of the tribe.

Today the Yawalapiti live in several villages in the confluence of the Rio Batovi with the Rio Culuene, a source of the Rio Xingu .

language

The Yawalapiti language (ISO 639-3: yaw) is one of the Arawak languages . It is believed that few people speak this language at the moment. Most Yawalapiti speak Kuikuro or Kamaiurá , which was taken over by marriage.

Everyday life

The Yawalapiti villages are built around a central square ( uikúka ), in the center of which there is a community house reserved for the men of the tribe. The dead of both sexes are also buried in the central square. The village is led by a chief.

The men are responsible for their gardens, which they maintain between the ages of 14 and 17. After clearing, mainly cassava is planted. The women produce a flour from the cassava root, which is stored in the center of the houses and serves as the basis for bread and porridge. Men and women are jointly responsible for fishing.

Known tribal members

  • Aritana Yawalapiti (1949–2020), leader of the Yawalapiti, representative of the Xingu Indians in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso and environmental activist

literature

  • Eduardo Viveiros de Castro: Indivíduo e sociedade no Alto Xingu: Os Yawalapiti. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro / Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 1977 (Master's thesis; digitized [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Yawalapiti , Instituto Socioambiental , accessed on August 6, 2020
  2. ^ Karl von den Steinen : Among the primitive peoples of Central Brazil . Berlin 1894, p. 111–115 ( deutschestextarchiv.de ).