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Hands Around the World |
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Hands Around the World |
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Indian Cultures from Around the World
Location: Amazonas. 4 villages (Map)
Alternative Names: Paumarí, Palmari
Auto-Denomination: Pamoari
Language Classification: Arawá
Population: 870 (in 2000)
The present territory of the Paumari is situated exclusively in the middle Purus River basin with its tributaries like the Ituxi, Sepatini and Tapauá Rivers, in Amazonas State. The Paumari are notorious for their aquatic orientation, which becomes apparent by their traditionally preferred habitats: alluvial flood plains (várzeas), rivers and lakes. The predominant forms of vegetation in these habitats are dense ombrophylous alluvial forests of the plateaus and the periodically inundated floodplains. Establishing permanent settlements on the terra firme is a recent phenomenon of externally influenced culture change. The favoured ecological zones for setting up villages are riverbanks, terra firme islands in the várzeas, and not inundated areas at the interface between the alluvial floodplains and the terra firme regionally known as "pé da terra firme" (foot of terra firme).
The annual cycle is marked by the great mobility of local groups and their seasonal dislocations between different zones of resource exploitation (terra firme and várzea, riverbanks and Brazil nut camps). It is determined by regional rainfalls and by corresponding water levels. Fishing in the rivers, streams (igarapés), seasonally flooded forests (igapós) and lakes is basis for self-supply. The Paumari fish throughout the year with diverse techniques and eat fish every day. Other aquatic animals preferred by them are turtles ("bichos de casco", that is, "shell animals"), which already became quite rare on the middle Purus. Fishing always was the most related activity and we do not know much about the exploitation of terra firme areas by the Paumari, especially since the above-mentioned authors did not tell us about what the Paumari did in the months with scarcity of fish. Agriculture is practiced both in the várzea and on the terra firme, being manioc the most cultivated plant.
Voyagers and other observers of the Nineteenth Century characterized the lacustrine dwellings of the rainy season as typical Paumari habitations, because they attracted more attention. These rafts with houses floated in the middle of the lakes with the aim to somehow protect oneself from insects like the "piuns" (very small, stinging and disagreeable insects). For this reason, these rafts were also called "floatings". Every village was composed by 8 to 15 houses with one or two families in each one. The fireplace was on land, but near the lakeside. Other smaller dry season dwellings many times were not perceived, as was the case of the simple semicircular shelters made of palm leaves on the sandy riverbanks.
Contrary to the image of fluvial nomadism, Steere also spoke about permanent villages occupied in the rainy season where there were kept living turtles in pens made of stakes.
Nowadays, the "floatings" represent a minority kind of Paumari habitation. It is still possible to find "floatings" on the Lake Marahă and the Tapauá River. The major part of the Paumari, however, lives at least some part of the year in regional type houses, which means more exposure to everyday "plagues" as the "piuns" and gadflies.
Text from © Instituto Socioambiental. You can find their web site here: http://www.socioambiental.org/e/
Additional Information
Paumari Indians - basic data
Vocabulário paumari (Paumari/Paumarí)
PAUMARÍ: a language of Brazil
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