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Hands Around the World |
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Indian Cultures from Around the World
Huitoto Indians
The Huitoto (we-toe-toe),
also spelled Witoto, Indians live deep in the Peruvian Amazon along the Ampiyacu River which is a
tributary of the Amazon. Historically enemies with the Bora (Bore-uh) Indians,
they have in recent times become close allies with adjoining villages and
frequent intermarriage. They are artistically talented tribes, making masks,
dolls, rattles, and blowguns. Many of their crafts are made of bark cloth
decorated with vegetable dyes. The bark cloth is made of the inner bark of a fig
tree and is beaten until it is paper or cloth like. From the bark cloth
they make their clothing which consists of a short skirt for both men and women
in the Huitoto. The Huitoto women traditionally go bare breasted. Many now wear
Western clothing, using the traditional dress for ceremony only. The Bora tribe
dresses similarly, but the women wear a dress of bark cloth as opposed to just a
skirt. Both sexes in both tribes wear necklaces, feathers and sometimes white
body paint or red body paint made of onoto or urucu which is a pod that
crushes to a reddish paste.
For some pictures, click on the
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then click the top-left
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Photos property of Hands Around the World.
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| Victor, the chief of the Huitoto and his wife and daughter. |
Gabriel, the Huitoto shaman famous for his knowledge of medicinal plants.
Clothing from pounded tree bark
Huitoto jewelry
Additional Information
Ethnologue: Colombia
Click here
to visit our Native American Indian
market for baskets, pottery, and other
hand made crafts
 Index
Hands Around the World
111 E. Main, Jonesborough, Tennessee 37659
Phone: (423) 753-8177 Fax: (423) 913-2489
E-mail: handsaroundtheworld@earthlink.net
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