The Sirionó are an indigenous people of Bolivia. They primarily live in the forested northern and eastern parts of

Beni is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI). She was initially best known fo ...

and northwestern Santa Cruz departments of

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

."Sirionó."
''Encyclopædia Britannica.'' Retrieved 25 Nov 2013. They live between the San Martín, Negro Rivers, and the

Machado River Machado is a surname of Portuguese origin meaning the word "axe" or "hatchet" dating back to approximately 2nd century Europe. It is commonly found in Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Latin America, and India (Southern Tamil Nadu and Southern Kerala) d ...

.Olson 337

Name

"Sirionó" comes from a neighboring language, in which ''síri'' means " tucum palm". Their autonym is Miá, meaning "the people." They are also known as the Chori, Ñiose, Qurungua, Tirinié, or Yande people. The Sirionós are tall and strong, although thin, due to the continuous movement and hardships of wildlife. "Their strength is extraordinary because Herzog tells us that they shoot arrows up to 80 meters with their bows, while the Guarayos could not shoot the same weapons more than 30 meters away." Their complexion is dark, although somewhat lighter than that of the Guarayos, probably because of their life in the shade of the trees. Some are said to have almost white skin, brown hair and light eyes. Its aspect is rather Arauco than Guarani.

Language

The

Sirionó language Sirionó (Mbia Cheë; also written as Mbya, Siriono) is a Tupian (Tupi–Guarani, Subgroup II) language spoken by about 400 Sirionó people (50 are monolingual) and 120 Yuqui in eastern Bolivia (eastern Beni and northwestern Santa Cruz de ...

is a

Guarayú language Guarayu is a Tupian language of Bolivia that is spoken by the Guarayo people The Guarayos are an indigenous group living in their ancestral land in eastern Bolivia. They are located north of the department of Santa Cruz. The current population ...

of the Tupí-Guaraní language family, written in the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...

. The language is taught in primary schools. A

whistled language Whistled languages use whistling to emulate speech and facilitate communication. A whistled language is a system of whistled communication which allows fluent whistlers to transmit and comprehend a potentially unlimited number of messages over ...

has been observed among Sirionós."Sirionó."
''Ethnologue.'' Retrieved 25 Nov 2013.

History

Sirionó people originated in the

Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato ...

and moved north in the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

. First contact with Spaniards was in the 1690s. Later Jesuits tried to missionize them and convince them to lead sedentary lives. Sirionó people died from diseases introduced by Europeans, and by the dawn of the 20th century, only 500 survived. They lived either in remote forests or worked as ranch or farm hands.

Culture

Sirionó traditionally were semi-nomadic and fished, hunted, gathered wild plants, and farmed. They cultivated

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato ('' Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable. The young ...

es, and sweet

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 ...

. They brewed beer from maize. Traditional Sirionó houses were often only temporary structures with wooden supports and palm leaf roofs that could house up to 120 people at a time. Families were

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

and matrilocal, that is, young married couples would live in the wife's community.

Notes

References

* Olson, James Stuart
''The Indians of Central and South America: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary.''
Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Siriono People Indigenous peoples in Bolivia Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Beni Department Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia)