Hands Around the World

Indian Cultures from Around the World

Yekuana Indians

Location: Brazil (northwest of the state of Roraima) and Venezuela. The Ye´kuana population in Brazil in the year 2000 was around 430 people, divided amongst three communities located on the banks of the Auaris and Uraricoera rivers, in the northwest of the state of Roraima, on the border with Venezuela. Most of this ethnic group lives in Venezuelan territory, where its population is upwards of 4,800 people (Rodriguez and Sarmiento, 2000). The Ye’kuana community of Auaris is the largest in Brazil, with around 330 people (in the year 2000). Besides Auaris, there is a small community on the upper Auaris River known as Pedra Branca, about ten hours away by boat and trail, and a third community on the Uraricoera River, known as Waikas. The last mentioned has been in existence since the 1980s and has about 80 people. In contrast with Auaris, this is a region which is abundant in fish and game.

Other Names: Maiongong, Maquiritare, So'to, Yecuana

Population: 430 (in Brazil, in 2000) and 4,800 (in Venezuela, in the year 2000)

Language: Carib language family

 

The following description of the Ye´kuana village is taken from the text by the anthropologist Nelly Arvello-Jimenez (1983), who researched among the group in Venezuela:

A clearing in the middle of the forest indicates the presence of a village. This area is made up by zones arranged in concentric circles, with the communal house – or maloca - at the center, which has a rounded base and cone-shaped roof. It has the capacity to provide shelter for about 60 people, and it is also divided into internal circular sections: a) annaca: where the communal meals are made, visits are received and festivals held; at night, it becomes a sleeping-room for the single young men; b) äsa: a space around the annaca divided into compartments the dividing walls of which do not reach the ceiling; each compartment shelters an extended family.

Surrounding the house there is a space called jöroro, used as a meeting place for the women and which can also be used for festivals, as an alternative to the annaca. Following the spatial organization of the village, there are the work houses, there being one per extended family. These are small houses, rectangular, with no walls, and with a roof of two slopes. There the women scrape manioc, cook, sew and make scrapers, and the men work on artwork, fix their hunting and fishing tools, etc.

Finally, surrounding the work houses there are small gardens – one for each extended family – where they cultivate tobacco, cotton, sugarcane and medicinal plants. These gardens mark the end of the clearing. At distances which can be crossed on foot, one can see other clearings that correspond to gardens.

Despite their insertion over the last few decades into urban centers like Boa Vista and all the modernity which has come to the villages – which includes electrical energy since the year 2000, TV, schools, industrialized medicine, among other things -, the Ye´kuana maintain their food traditions and their ways of producing this food. They are agriculturalists, gatherers and they hunt and fish, they still keep small domestic animals, especially dogs and birds. Their basic diet is fish soup, pepper and manioc bread.

In the Yanomami Indigenous Land, they, like their neighbors, the Sanuma, face game and fish scarcity. By contrast, they have large and bountiful gardens. Together with this production, clearly, there is a whole series of work activities, rituals that still organize time and space in Ye'kuana villages. Salaried professionals actively participate in this social and economic life, not only by contributing financially to their fathers-in-law and to the community, but also directly in community work activities, like the construction of houses or the clearing of new gardens.

They are excellent canoe-makers and navigators. In women’s work, manioc scrapers are highly valued. These products – canoes and manioc-scrapers – are the two main Ye'kuana specialties which are traded with other Carib groups and the Wapichana in Roraima, and there is a high demand for their manioc scrapers in the region. Similarly, there is a great demand from the NGOs and the FUNAI for Ye’kuana canoes in the health posts, schools and FUNAI posts in the indigenous area.

Text from © Instituto Socioambiental. You can find their web site here: http://www.socioambiental.org/e/

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Maria Louisa and her daughter. Maria Louisa is a master Yekuana basket weaver from the village of Nichare.

 

The Yekuana (Yeh-qua-nah) Indians are a very traditional tribe living along the riverbanks in the Amazon rain forest in Venezuela (Map). Some Yekuana go by the tribal name of Maquitare, which was the name given to them by the Spaniards. Traditional villages prefer the name Yekuana. The Yekuana are the tribe described by South Americans as "finished," meaning that they have an advanced culture. They are very intelligent and amicable. They are known as the best bongo makers, burning the center out of huge trees to make the dugout canoes not only for their own people, but other tribes in the area.

Yekuana making bowls from gourds. Unfinished basket on the table.

Yekuana - 2006

Yekuana in face paint and traditional dress - 2006

Yekuana - photos by Mary Lou Walbergh - 2006

German, chief of the Yekuana village of Nichare - 2006

These eating utensils are made of calabash gourds very finely smoothed

and coated on the inside with a water resistant covering.

	Lg. Calabash bowl, approx. from 6 1/2" to 7 1/2" in diameter.
	Sm. Calabash bowl, approx. from 4 1/2" to 5 1/2" in diameter.
	Calabash scooper, approx. 6 " x 4 3/4.

Their basket making also is very advanced, reminiscent of the Cherokee's basketry. They weave intricate geometric designs and animals into their baskets and use a variety of natural dyes to create color and contrast. They have a legend similar to Pandora's box in which the Indians steal a box from a huge ferocious monkey. When the box is opened, they find many drawings of animals which are the origin of the animal designs used in their basketry. There is evidence that the Yekuana flat serving baskets, made by men, are the "cosmograms" of their universe, not only models of the flat hemisphere of the dome of the heavens, but also circular fields filled with complex designs representing atmospheric elements and animal symbols associated with various aspects of the world. In addition, baskets are associated with the respective sexes by their actual form and fabrication technology: straight, twill-weave decorated baskets are male, curved, wicker-weave baskets are female; and each stage of the life cycle is marked by a reciprocal exchange of baskets between the sexes.

 

Yekuana Wuwas (Wiwa) - Wuwas are the vase or bell shaped baskets made by the women of the tribe. They use natural dyes creating wonderfully intricate designs. The shape of the basket follows the general shape of a woman's body. This design was first used in burden baskets which were curved to fit snugly into the small of the woman's back. The women still make utilitarian burden baskets, but the wuwa has evolved into a more artistic basket used in the home as containers while retaining the basic burden basket shape.

14" x 14"	9 1/2" x 9 1/2"
10" x 11" with decorative seed strap	9 1/2" x 10" by Marciela

 

Yekuana Round Baskets - Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe. They are very sturdy with a wonderfully symmetrical shape. They are used as containers in the home and are decorated with geometrical and animal symbols.

7" x 6" by Patricia	12" x 9" by Marciela
12" x 11 1/2" by Julia	10" x 10 1/2" by Juanita Castro

15 1/2" x 10 1/4" by Kamawa- Sumi	6"x 5 1/4" by Elisa
	10 1/2" x 11"

Yekuana Men's Baskets or "Wajas"

Flat or tray baskets are made by the men of the Yekuana tribe. Men must design a "family crest" and produce a number of baskets and present them to the woman that they are interested in. Before marriage they must show that they are capable of producing various baskets that a woman will need to use in running a house hold. Next to the monkey, the sleeping and leaping frog rank among the most popular basket [patterns.

Frog Motif 12" in diameter

15" in diameter	18 1/4" in diameter by Leco
15" in diameter by Justino	14 1/4" in diameter
9" in diameter	15 1/2" in diameter
16 1/2" in diameter	16 1/4" in diameter by Raphael
13 1/2" in diameter	18 1/4" in diameter by Leco

The box basket is also made by the Yekuana men. These are difficult to weave and rarely for sale. This box basket is made by German, the chief of the Yekuana village of  Nichare.

9" x 7" x 4 1/2"

The Yekuana Indians are among the most artistically talented of the Amazon rainforest. This is reflected in their sculpture as well as their basketry. Although some Yekuana have lost some of their traditional skills, the Yekuana of the Caura river still create their wood carvings as generations before them did.

Monkey measures 17 1/2" long and 9" tall with red and black seeds for eyes.

This large and unusual Yekuana mask is made of a large gourd or calabash. The nose is made of pounded bark cloth from the inner bark of the palm tree. A headdress is beaded with seeds and continues across the back. There is also a strip of fiber in the back as a means of hanging the mask. It measures 15" tall x 10" wide.

This mask is hand carved of hard wood by the German, chief of the Yekuana village of Nichare. Superb craftsmanship in the traditional Yekuana style, it measures 11" tall x 9" wide.

The men also carve benches and ritual weapons. The ritual weapons were once used in warfare but now are used only for ceremonies. They are carved from wadimaichu wood and smoothed with a rough leaf that works like sand paper. They are often further decorated with basket-like weavings on the handle or perhaps colorful feathers. Benches and sculptures are carved into likenesses of jungle animals, with the jaguar is often used since it is the symbol of the seat of power. The "thinker" which symbolizes God is another design often used, especially in shamanic items such as ceremonial rattles.

These blowguns are hand made by the Yekuana Indians. They are traditionally made to hunt birds and small mammals, particularly tree dwelling mammals such as sloths or monkeys. These are especially nice traditional blowguns, the darts themselves are works of art. Blowguns approximately 42 1/2" long.

These exceptionally nice quivers are are used with the largest full length blowguns. The darts themselves are works of art, the darts are approximately 16 1/2" long. The end of the dart is balance with Kapok fiber that is attached by a finely woven piece of fiber - really beautifully detailed work!

These clubs for ritual use were hand carved from one piece of wood by the Yekuana Indians. During dance ceremonies, men carry these miniature copies of the former large battle clubs made of hard palm wood. They are finely carved, finished, and decorated with a hand woven cover.

37" long.
46" tall.	43" tall.

	This huge weapon, seven feet tall, was hand-carved from one piece of wood. Red and black seeds are imbedded in the handle for added decoration.
	This sacred Shaman's rattle is made from a gourd with a hand carved handle. The handle shows back-to-back figurines which represent a great mythical medicine man and his wife who also had shamanistic power. The handle is carved from the heart of the Brazil wood tree. 14" long with a 4" wide handle.
	This is a very traditional sculpture.
	Anteater with seed eyes by Darwin, grandson of the chief of Nichare village. 11 1/2" long.

Among the Yekuana, the shaman's seat are always carved in the shape of animals.

The Jaguar sculpture is a very traditional art form and a sacred symbol of power for the Yekuana Indians. The sculpture is rubbed with a black paste made of charcoal, then the spots are gouged back out to make the light spots. This is a very collectible art form that is on the verge of extinction. 22" long by Simon Caura.

The Yekuana Indians create beautifully complex beadwork.

The necklaces below are hand beaded and also trimmed with native seeds.

Necklace length 14", beaded pendant portion 1 1/4" x 2".	Necklace length 18",  beaded pendant portion 5" x 2".

Necklace of seeds, beads, and tapir teeth. Necklace length 14", teetu  pendant portion 2" x 3".

Feather crown made of parrot feathers.

Additional Information

Information sources

Maquiritari vocabulary

Orinoco Online

Yekuana

Kanarakuni - Amazonair

Aprendo poesía

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