Area: Rio Negro - Amazonas, Brazil (Map).
The principal river which cuts through this region is the Negro, tributary of
the Amazon which, before it enters Brazil, is called the Guainía and separates
Colombia from Venezuela. In its upper course, it receives the waters of the
Içana and Uaupés (called the Vaupés in Colombia) on the right bank. The Rio
Negro basin also includes the Apapóris River and its tributaries, an almost
entirely Colombian tributary of the Caquetá, since it flows into the latter
after passing along a small portion of the border with Brazil. From then on
down, the Caquetá is known as the Japurá.
Other names: Desano, Boleka, Dessana, Kotedia, Kusibi, Oregu, Wina
Population (year 1999): 960
Language Root: Tukano
First Contact: unknown
Economy: Hunting
Today: Dominated by various religious missions
The building of longhouses is a custom shared among the different indigenous
societies of the Upper and Middle Rio Negro. Traditionally, the longhouse was
divided into various side compartments, each one occupied by a nuclear family.
The general rule was that the chief of the local descent group lived in the
compartment nearest the wall of the back of the house, to the left side of
whoever entered the back door, and his younger brothers, as they married,
occupied contiguous compartments, from the back to the front of the house. The
unmarried men, already initiated, had to leave the compartment of their parents
and hang their hammocks from the center beam in the middle of the house towards
the front. Finally, the aggregated inhabitants who were living in the house
provisionally or on an exceptional basis, and visitors, had to remain in the
front part of the house.
The Rio Negro is the largest blackwater river of the world. Specialists
characterize these waters as being extremely acidic and poor in nutrients. The
soils that they drain are usually greatly impoverished by leaching. This poverty
in nutrients has an effect on the lives of the fish which, in order to sustain
themselves, obtain a greater part of their food from organic matter found
principally on the banks of the rivers (various types of insects, fruits,
flowers, leaves and seeds). The opposite occurs on the whitewater rivers, which
are rich in nutrients, as is the case of the Amazon and Solimões. These
conditions of the riverine environment have also had an influence on the
composition of the species of fish. Although there are several species of larger
size, such as the pirarucu, the rivers of the Rio Negro basin are characterized
by a large number of smaller species, each with a small number of
representatives. The great variety of types of cultivation of manioc among these
populations is particularly notable, making the region a pole of high
agro-biodiversity.
For ecological, sociological and symbolic reasons, there exist in the region
specializations in artwork (specialized production of certain artifacts for
inter-community trade) that define a formalized network of inter-community
trade. The Tukano are known for their wooden benches or stools, the Desana and
the Baniwa for their baskets, the latter also for their manioc scrapers, the
Kubeo for their funeral masks, the Wanana (some say) for their manioc squeezers,
the Maku for their panpipes, curare and carrying baskets. In the case of the
artifacts made from arumã, there are also specialists. On the Tiquié River, the
Tuyuka and Bará are outstanding canoe-makers, which is a high priority item for
all families and which has a high trade value.
Text from © Instituto Socioambiental. You can
find their web site here:
http://www.socioambiental.org/e/
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"Sons of the Wind" are how the Desana refer to themselves. They have an extensive
expressed idea of Man and the Universe that goes beyond our limited
understanding of Indigenous people. They reach a complexity equal to Zen, using
an environmental and cultural language of God and the cosmos. They believe that
they were created in a sense by the Tucano God the Father.
Additional Information
Spira Solaris and the Three Parts of the Wisdom - ... all three should be
found linked in the astronomical traditions of the Desana Indians of
equatorial South America along with the constellation of Orion is ...
Hako
5 - Indians and Sex - ... eat honey, a "male" food.
Olfactics
- ... a. Colombian Desana Indians believe
each tribe emits a distinct odor often linked to their way of life.
Excerpt from: "Amazonian Cosmos" by Gerlado Reichel-Dolmatoff - religion is
the interpretation of visions induced by the use of hallucinogenic drugs.
Body
Signs: - ... discussion of the Desana is based
on G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, Amazonian Cosmos: The Sexual and Religious Symbolism of the Tukano
Indians
Cosmology
of the Amazon and Rainforest Ecology - ... Gerardo
Reichel-Domatoff has written extensively about the beliefs and rituals of the
Tukano (Desana) Indians of the Amazon rainforest.
Desana
vocabulary
