The Urarina are an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
of the
Peruvian Amazon Basin
Peruvian Amazonia ( es, Amazonía del Perú) is the area of the Amazon rainforest included within the country of Peru, from east of the Andes to the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises 60% of the country ...
(
Loreto) who inhabit the valleys of the
Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
and historical sources, they have resided in the
Chambira Basin
The Chambira River is a major tributary of the Marañón River, and has been the traditional territory of the Urarina peoples for at least the past 350 years, if not longer. Located in the Amazon jungle of Peru, otherwise known as the Selva, the C ...
of contemporary northeastern
Peru for centuries. The Urarina refer to themselves as ''Kachá'' (lit. "person"), while
ethnologists
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...
know them by the
ethnonym Urarina.
The local
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
term for the Urarina is ''Shimaku'', which is considered by the Urarina to be pejorative, as it is a Quechua term meaning "unreliable". The ethnonym "Urarina" may be from
Quechua
Quechua may refer to:
*Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru
*Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language
**So ...
--''uray'' meaning below, and ''rina'' referring to ''runa'', or ''people''. Urarina is rendered in Quechua as ''uray-runa'' or ''people from below'' or ''down stream people''.
Society and culture
Urarina
society and
culture have been given little attention in the burgeoning
ethnographic literature of the region, and only sporadic references in the encyclopedic genre of
Peruvian Amazonia
Peruvian Amazonia ( es, Amazonía del Perú) is the area of the Amazon rainforest included within the country of Peru, from east of the Andes to the borders with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia. This region comprises 60% of the country an ...
. Accounts of the Urarina peoples are limited to the data reported by Castillo, by the German
ethnologist
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...
G. Tessmann in his ''Die Indianer Nordost-Peru'', and to the observations of
missionaries and contemporary adventure seekers.
The Urarina are a
semi-mobile
Semimobile is an ethnological term for a practice noted among a number of Indigenous Peoples of the Upper Amazon, such as the Urarina. This symbiotic form of indigenous production, exchange and consumption articulates among nomadic patterns of resi ...
hunting and horticultural society whose population is estimated to be around 2,000. Urarina settlements are composed of multiple
longhouse groups, located on high ground (''restingas'') or embankments along the flood-free margins of the
Chambira Basin
The Chambira River is a major tributary of the Marañón River, and has been the traditional territory of the Urarina peoples for at least the past 350 years, if not longer. Located in the Amazon jungle of Peru, otherwise known as the Selva, the C ...
's many rivers and streams. The embankments are bounded by low-lying territories (''tahuampa '' and ''bajiales'') that are susceptible to flooding during the annual rainy season (roughly November–May).
Urarina local politics are characterized by a mercurial balance of power between
deme
In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states. Demes as simple subdivisions of land in the countryside seem to have existed in the 6th century BC and ear ...
s united through
affinal ties and episodic
political alliances,
exchange
Exchange may refer to:
Physics
*Gas exchange is the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Places United States
* Exchange, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* ...
relations, and disputation. Surrounded by the
Jivaroan, and the
Tupi–Guarani-speaking
Cocama-Cocamilla indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
s of the
upper Amazon, the Urarina have an elaborate
animist
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, hum ...
ic
cosmological
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
system. It is based on
ayahuasca
AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' ( Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' desce ...
shamanism, which is based in part on the profoundly
ritualized consumption of ''
Brugmansia suaveolens''.
The Urarina customarily practice
brideservice
Bride service has traditionally been portrayed in the anthropological literature as the service rendered by the bridegroom to a bride's family as a bride price or part of one (see dowry). Bride service and bride wealth models frame anthropologic ...
,
uxorilocal
In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Thus, the female offspring of a mother remain l ...
patterns of post-
nuptial residence,
debt peonage
Debt bondage, also known as debt slavery, bonded labour, or peonage, is the pledge of a person's services as security for the repayment for a debt or other obligation. Where the terms of the repayment are not clearly or reasonably stated, the per ...
and sororal
polygyny. While men are esteemed for their hunting prowess and shamanic skills, Urarina women are likewise recognized for their craftsmanship: the women are consummate producers of
woven palm-fiber bast mats,
hammocks, and net-bags.
Language
Documentation of the
Urarina language
Urarina is an isolated language spoken in Peru, specifically in the Loreto Region of Northwest Peru, by the Urarina people. There are around 3,000 speakers in Urarinas District (along the Chambira River). It uses a Latin script. It is also k ...
, which has been classified as a
language isolate or
unclassified language
An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established. Languages can be unclassified for a variety of reasons, mostly due to a lack of reliable data but sometimes due to the confounding inf ...
by
Terrence Kaufman
Terrence Kaufman (1937 – March 3, 2022) was an American linguist specializing in documentation of unwritten languages, lexicography, Mesoamerican historical linguistics and language contact phenomena. He was an emeritus professor of linguisti ...
(1990) is now under-way. Linguistic work among the Urarina was first pioneered by
SIL International.
Mythology
The Urarina have a
deluge
A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood.
The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the Biblical book of Genesis.
Deluge may also refer to:
History
*Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Com ...
-myth, in which a man saved himself from the deluge while climbing a cudí (amasiza,
Erythrina
''Erythrina'' is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to in height. The generic na ...
elei) tree; the man's wife was transformed into a termites' nest clinging to that tree, while their two sons became birds. Afterwards that man acquired a wife, a different woman, one who had at first summoned successively a pit viper, a spider, and a giant biting ant in an unsuccessful attempt to evade him.
In another Urarina deluge-myth, a deluge was produced, on the occasion of a
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...
-beer festival, by the urination by the daughter of the
ayahuasca
AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' ( Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' desce ...
-god, "giving rise to the
chthonic world of spirits".
The Urarina continue to tell elaborate
myths and stories about the
violence that they experience from outsiders, which historically has included forced-labor
conscription
Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
,
rape,
disease,
concubinage
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubina ...
, and abusive treatment at the hands of outsiders. Portions of the
Bible were first published in Urarina in 1973; however, the complete Bible is not published.
Survival
Despite challenges to their ongoing cultural survival, including
ecocide
Ecocide is human impact on the environment causing mass destruction to that environment.
Ten nations have codified ecocide as a crime. Activities that might constitute ecocide in these nations include substantially damaging or destroying ecos ...
, inadequate health-care, and
cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from ...
, the Urarina have both been inspired by and resisted the violence of the
colonial and
postcolonial encounters in Amazonia, particularly during the
Alberto Fujimori
Alberto Kenya Fujimori Inomoto ( or ; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian politician, professor and former engineer who was President of Peru from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000. Frequently described as a dictator,
*
*
*
*
*
*
he remains a ...
regime.
Indigenous rights
Contemporary
indigenous resistance has involved
intercultural education projects, as well as Urarina political
mobilization.
[Jackson, Jean E and Kay B.Warren. "Indigenous Movements in Latin America, 1992-2004: Controversies, Ironies, New Directions." ''Annual Review of Anthropology'' 2005, Vol. 34 Issue 1, p549-573, 25p
(http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.anthro.34.081804.120529 Brief online review and paid full access)]
See also
*
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (incomplete) Urarina versio
from the ''Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos''
Notes
References
Bartholomew Dean : "The Poetics of Creation : Urarina Cosmogony and Historical Consciousness". In :- ''LATIN AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES JOURNAL'', Vol. 10 (1994)
External links
* Defensoría del Pueblo, Per
* Language Museu
DGH in the Peruvian Amazonsby Jonathan Harris
{{authority control
Indigenous peoples in Peru
Indigenous languages of the South American Northern Foothills
Upper Amazon
Shamanism of the Americas