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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
Area: Xingu Indigenous Park, in Mato Grosso State, Brazil (Map). The Waura inhabit the area surrounding Piyulaga Lake, a name which may be translated as ‘place’ or ‘fishing camp,’ and which also supplies the name of the village. The lake is linked by a channel to the right shore of the lower Batovi river, in the western region of the basin formed by the affluents of the upper Xingu river, in the state of Mato Grosso.
Other Names: Wauja, Vaurá, Aurá
Population: 333 (in 2001)
Language Root: Waura, Aruak family, Maipure group
First Contact: 1884
Approximately 270 people (from a census by the author made in June 2001) reside in a single circular village (figure 2), with the typical Xinguano system of a central plaza and a house of flutes. Another 63 people live in other localities within the Xingu Indigenous Park (XIP). The residential units in Piyulaga are slowly breaking with the pattern – frequently cited in the Xinguano literature – involving the cohabitation of the various kin of an extended family and their affines. Of the 17 residences existing in October 2000, 12 were inhabited by one or two couples and their children, while only 5 residences were inhabited by extended families of kin and affines. The rules of uxorilocality (a rule by which the couple lives in the woman’s house after marriage) and virilocality (the couple lives in the man’s house after marriage) exist concomitantly, seemingly without one prevailing other the other.
Despite the process of technological change under way since 1884 – when Karl von den Steinen made contact with the Waura and relations with non-Indians became more systematic – many items of traditional material culture still remain in use, including those that could be easily substituted for plastic, glass or metallic items. But it is for symbolic – much more than functional – reasons, that traditional artifacts continue to perform a role in the reproduction of Waura culture.
Material culture is also responsible for the reproduction of Waura culture for the exterior, not only on the ‘White man’s’ market, but also within the Indigenous Park as a whole. For example, requests for bead waistbands with designs are made by the Kayapó of Jarina-Capoto, an area to the north of the Park. The artifacts of Waura material culture are highly appreciated and some of the most successful items on the market of Brazilian indigenous craftwork. Their very distinctive pottery is an emblem of their ethnicity. Today, pottery has an extraordinary weight in the economic sustenance of the acquisition of industrialized goods.
Next to ceramics, weaving is one of the most expressive graphic elements of Waura material culture. Their graphic system is built around the combination of five basic graphic elements: 1) triangles (rectangular and isosceles), 2) points, 3) circles, 4) quadrilaterals (lozenges, squares, rectangles and trapezoids) and 5) lines (straight and curved) (Coelho 1993 and Barcelos Neto 1996). As in any system of decorative art, it is the standardized combinations of basic elements that determines the formation of a motif. Waura design utilizes approximately 40 to 45 motifs in the decoration of material culture, excluding many others used especially in body painting. Despite this rich variety of graphical motifs, only 16 motifs are employed with any frequency, and, among these, the kulupienê motif (figure 3) has been designed with a very high frequency on all types of substrates since the first historical report on the Xinguanos in 1884. This motif has also been identified on pottery from the 12th century.
The Waura possess three main types of basket: mayapalu, mayaku and tirumakana. The first, with an open weave and without designs, is used to transport cargo and briefly store manioc; the latter two, with a closed weave, display a dazzling variety of graphic designs. All baskets are made exclusively by men. Their uses basically follow the principles of the sexual division of labor: the woven fishing basket is for male use while the domestic basket is for female use. The large-scale mayaku (60x50x20 cm) is fabricated in special contexts as payment for ritual services to the sponsors of mask and flute festivals. The large baskets – objects requiring a high degree of technical skill and experience – have a higher symbolic value than the smaller baskets, which are usually made by young apprentices and more recently have been made to supply the ‘tourist art’ market.
Text from © Instituto Socioambiental. You can find their web site here: http://www.socioambiental.org/e/
Additional Information
Waura - SIL International
Vocabulário uaurá/vaurá (Waura/Waurá)
BARCELOS NETO, Aristóteles / Arte, Estética e Cosmologia entre os Índios Waurá da Amazônia Meridional.
The Rankin Museum - photos
Coelho, Vera Penteado - 1983 Un Eclipse do Sol na Aldeia Waura. Journal de la Societe des Americanistes 69:149-67.
Schultz, Harald - 1965 Lendas Waura. Revista do Museu Paulista 16:21-149.
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