Ye'kuana

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Ye'kuana Girls (January 2007)
Approximate distribution area of ​​the Ye'kuana in Venezuela

The Ye'kuana (also called Yequana, Yekuana ), with other names, are a South American indigenous tribe who are settled in the tropical rainforest in the area of ​​the Orinoco and Río Caura rivers on the border between Venezuela and Brazil . In Venezuela they are mostly called Maquiritari (Makiritare) and in Brazil as Maiongong (Mayongong) . Culturally they belong to the Orinoco Parima culture and their language to the language family of the South Caribbean languages .

Surname

The Ye'kuana refer to themselves as So'to ('people', 'person'), the name Ye'kuana is mostly given as 'canoe people' or 'people of canoes' or even as 'people of the river bend'.

The Jesuit priest Manuel Román first reported about the Ye'kuana in 1744 , who mentions their excellent navigational skills and was the first to coin the name Maquiritari (Makiritare) , which is still mostly used in Venezuela to denote the Ye'kuana . As is so often the case in ethnology , this name is not a proper name of the Ye'kuana, but an ethnonym (foreign name) of the Arawak-speaking Indian leaders of the Jesuit. Maquiritari (Makiritare) is derived from the terms Makidi and ari of the neighboring Arawak tribes - and means about 'people of the rivers' or 'canoe people'.

In 1883 Robert Hermann Schomburgk traveled through British Guiana with the help of the North Caribbean-speaking Pemón and Macushi (Makushi) . He also met the Ye'kuana and called them the name given to them by the Pemón: Maiongong (Mayongong) , for the meaning of which there are two explanations. It is generally believed that the term refers to the traditional haircut (totuma) of the Ye'kuana, translatable as the 'round heads', because both men and women wear their hair as a round pot cut. Secondly, the Catholic missionaries Cesáreo de Armellada and Gutiérrez Salazar claim that the name Maiongong (Mayongong) means: 'Those who live in their garden (conucos)'. Although the Ye'kuana do not live in their gardens, there is a special meaning between body cult and gardening for them.

Another name with which the Pemón and other neighboring Carib-speaking tribes referred to the Ye'kuana is, according to de Armellada: Pawana or Pabanoton - 'Those who sell (trade)', and thus designates the industrious trade relations over long stretches that the Ye'kuana, thanks to their great art of canoeing and mastery of the rivers to their neighboring tribes.

The anthropologist Theodor Koch-Grünberg was the first to mention the name Ye'kuana on his journey from the Roraima to the Orinoco in 1912 . The name Yekuana is derived from ye ('tree trunk'), ku ('water') and ana ('trunk', 'people') and means roughly: 'people of the tree trunk in the water' or 'water people'.

All the names given to them only reflect that they were and are famous as excellent boaters, great traders, as well as for their large wooden canoes.

General

In 2001 there were around 6,250 Ye'kuana members in Venezuela, in the states of Bolívar and Amazonas , and around 430 in the Brazilian state of Roraima .

The culture and way of life of the Ye'kuana Indians were especially the subject of observation and investigation by the American author Jean Liedloff and the starting point for her well-known book In Search of Lost Happiness: Against the Destruction of Our Fortune Ability in Early Childhood .

history

Intertribal conflicts

Originally, the tribes of the Arutani-Sapé (Awake (Arutani) and Kariana (Sapé)) and Parukoto lived along and north of the Río Uraricoera (also: Rio Uraricuera ), and the Ye'kuana, who were advancing northward, slowly acquired the trade monopoly by commissioning slave hunts and robbery wrested from the colonial powers. However, the Ye'kuana fell ill with previously unknown diseases ( malaria , tuberculosis , measles , influenza , whooping cough ) , as did the neighboring indigenous Caribs and Arawak whom they had previously fought through close contact with the local white population during the 19th century. so that many of these strains died out or were severely decimated by repeated epidemics.

Soon, however, the Ye'kuana had to defend themselves against the Yanomami tribal groups also advancing north . However, they and the various neighboring tribal groups of the Caribs and Arawak - decimated and demoralized by repeated epidemics and epidemics - were soon no longer able to successfully resist the attacks of the Yanomami advancing into their area, so that they soon became their area occupied and the Ye'kuana initially retreated deep into the mountains and forests to the north.

In the early to mid-1930s, however, the Ye'kuana had reorganized themselves and armed with rifles and targeted the Sanema (northern Yanomami tribal group) and Yanam / Ninam (eastern and southeastern Yanomami tribal group) who lived along the Río Uraricoera and Río Caura ) back. Had other tribes been displaced and dispersed by the Yanomami, or had joined the Yanam / Ninam and Sanema and adopted their Yanomam language and culture, the Ye'kuana were largely able to maintain their position. Some Sanema-Yanomami even became dependent on the Ye'kuana in order to gain access to the coveted trade contacts. Despite recurring attacks by the Yanam / Ninam-Yanomami, they now used their old river trade routes again.

Todays situation

Today the Ye'kuana live peacefully with the Sanema in neighboring villages along the Río Auaris and Río Uraricoera. In the Auris region in Brazil, 1,435 Sanema live in 29 settlements and the Ye'kuana live in two settlements (Auaris and Pedra Branca). Another 295 live in the Waicá mission (also: Waikas, Uaicás , here together with Waika (Guaica or Yanomam)) on the Río Uraricoera in the north of the Yanomami territory and in other communities just outside the reserve in the state of Roraima, Brazil.

Today the Ye'kuana are characterized by a high level of organization and a self-confidence that is unique among the tribes of Venezuela. Of all the Carib-speaking tribes in Venezuela, few have managed to maintain their cultural identity as much as the Ye'kuana.

Culture and way of life

The Ye'kuana live in circular communal houses ( Atta or ëttë ) with conical roofs made of palm leaves. The establishment of an atta is a spiritual activity for the Ye'kuana in which they re-establish the great cosmic home of the Creator.

economy

In the Caribbean cultures, basket weaving is traditionally the domain of men. In fact, however, the Ye'kuana women always braided; however, their technique, material and products differ from those of men. While they have always woven splendid basket plates (waja) with ornate ornaments, in the past women only made simple, ornamentless, but robust carrier baskets (wïwa) for the transport of wood and cassava bulbs. Today, in some places, the relationship between the sexes with regard to the art of braiding is different: the men devote themselves to better-paid activities such as building boats, cultivating coffee, or they work as teachers in the civil service. As a result, many have lost the knowledge of braiding, which is mandatory for Ye'kuana men. Some women, on the other hand, have started making baskets for sale themselves. They copy the traditional patterns of the flat baskets and transfer them to their carrier baskets. Since these baskets are only intended for sale, the creative weavers were able to develop new shapes and new patterns, free of the restrictions imposed by tradition.

Creation myth of the Ye'kuana

The people are reported to have been made from the fingers of his left hand by Wanádi. He first made a man out of the index finger. And a woman out of the thumb.

Festivals of the Ye'kuana

The Ye'kuana traditionally celebrate various major festivals: the “Festival of the New Garden” is celebrated annually in February or March; In addition, the construction of a new round house (ëttë) is regularly accompanied by a ceremony. These festivals serve to conjure up the fertility of animals, plants and the community and to banish evil spirits. The dancers and musicians dress in chains, palm leaf cloaks, special headdresses and clattering arm rattles; the pierced ears are adorned with feather bandages. The ansa jewelry, the carved “holy bat”, is also worn at these major appearances. The lord of the animals , who generally stands for fertility and well-being, is invited to take part in the festival with dance, music and chants. A special festival is held when men return from their trade trips, which can last up to two years. The travelers are ritually cleansed and reintegrated into the group.

literature

  • David. M. Guss: To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rainforest , University of California Press, 1990
  • de Armellada, Cesáreo & Gutiérrez Salazar, M .: Diccionario pemón-castellano-castellano-pemón. ISBN 978-980-244-512-7 , 305 p. 4th edition. Publishing house Hermanos Menores Capuchinos. UCAB 2007.

Web links

Commons : Ye'kuana people  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. other names of the Ye'kuana: Maquiritari (Maquiritare, Makiritare), Maiongong (Mayongong), So'to (Venezuela and Brazil), as well as Decuana, Yecuana and Cun (only in Venezuela) and Pawana (only in Brazil)
  2. Yequana Resources ( Memento of July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ Ye'kuana - Our World
  4. Baskets ( Memento of July 11, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ^ Ethnic groups in Venezuela - 2001 Census
  6. Ye'kuana in the Encyclopedia of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil ( Memento of July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ John D. Early, John F. Peters: The Xilixana Yanomami of the Amazon: History, Social Structure, and Population Dynamics, University Press of Florida (June 2000), ISBN 978-0-8130-1762-4
  8. ^ Yanomami groups in Roraima, Brazil ( Memento from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. Instituto Socioambiental - The Ye'kuana, population and location
  10. ^ The Atta ( Memento from June 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  11. Press kit "Orinoco-Parima" (2000, page 19) ( Memento of March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  12. Press kit "Orinoco-Parima" (2000, page 22) ( Memento of March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  13. Press kit "Orinoco-Parima" (2000, page 20) ( Memento of March 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )