Cultures:

  Assurini
  Bakairi
  Bora
  Bororo
  Cofan
  Desana
  Guahibo
  Huichol
  Huitoto
  Juruna
  Kamayura
  Kampa
  Kanamari
  Karaja
  Kaxinawa
  Kayapo
  Maku
  Marubo
  Matis
  Mehinaku
  Nambiquara
  Parakana
  Paumari
  Penare
  Piapoco
  Piaroa
  Purepecha
  Quechua
  Satere
  Shipibo
  Shuar
  Tenharim
  Ticuna
  Tukano
  Uros
  Wai
  Waimiri
  Waroa
  Waura
  Wayana
  Xerente
  Yabarana
  Yagua
  Yanomamo
  Yekuana

Native American Indian Cultures - the Yekuana Indians

Hands Around the World

Shamen from the amazon live in huts.

Native American Indian Cultures - the Yekuana maquitare Indians Indian Cultures from Around the World Introduction to the the Yekuana maquitare Indians culture from south america amazon river basin.

 

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/

---------------------------------------------

 

Photos property of Hands Around the World. except as noted.

For some pictures, click on the blue-bordered thumbnail for a full-size picture,

then click the top-left BACK button to return.

 

Yekuana Indians

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 Indians
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.

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

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

 

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.

Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe. Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe.
7" x 6" by Patricia 12" x 9" by Marciela
Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe. Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe.
12" x 11 1/2" by Julia 10" x 10 1/2" by Juanita Castro
Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe. Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe.
Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe. Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe.
Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe. Round baskets are also made by the women of the Yekuana tribe.
baskets come from the Yekuana tribe Yekuana Women's Baskets or Wuwas
15 1/2" x 10 1/4" by Kamawa- Sumi 6"x 5 1/4" by Elisa
Yekuana Women's Baskets or Wuwas Yekuana Women's Baskets or Wuwas
  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.

Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas
Frog Motif 12" in diameter
Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas
15" in diameter 18 1/4" in diameter by Leco  
Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas
15" in diameter by Justino 14 1/4" in diameter  
Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas
9" in diameter 15 1/2" in diameter  
Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas
16 1/2" in diameter 16 1/4" in diameter by Raphael  
Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas Yekuana Men's Baskets or Wajas
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.

box basket
9" x 7" x 4 1/2"

 

Yekuana Indians

 

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.

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

 

Yekuana mask
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.
mask is hand carved of hard wood
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.

yekuana blowguns yekuana blowguns
yekuana blowguns yekuana blowguns

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!

yekuana quivers yekuana quivers yekuana quivers

 

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.

weapons weapons
weapons weapons
weapons

37" long.

weapons
weapons weapons
46" tall. 43" tall.

 

weapon spear 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.
sacred Shaman's rattle 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.
wood sculpture This is a very traditional sculpture.
Anteater Anteater with seed eyes by Darwin, grandson of the chief of Nichare village. 11 1/2" long.

 

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

 

Jaguar sculpture

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.

beaded pendant beaded pendant

Necklace length 14",

beaded pendant portion 1 1/4" x 2".

Necklace length 18",

 beaded pendant portion 5" x 2".

 

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

 

yekuana jewelry art

 

 

yekuana headress

Feather crown made of parrot feathers.

 

Additional Information

Information sources

Maquiritari vocabulary

Orinoco Online

Yekuana

Kanarakuni - Amazonair

Aprendo poesía

 

Click here to visit our Native American Indian

market for baskets, pottery, and other hand made crafts

 

native american indians Index mexico

 

rainforest Hands Around the World tribes

111 E. Main, Jonesborough, Tennessee 37659

Phone: (423) 753-8177   Fax: (423) 913-2489

E-mail: handsaroundtheworld@earthlink.net




Leave a Comment:
Name:

(Not a Spam Bot)

Comments:

ghstdtnee (4/26/2011)
Informative! Beautiful basketry

© Copyright 2012 Indian-Cultures.com - About/Contact