The Hodï or Jotï (from the Hodï word for "people") are a small group of

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

who live in the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The last census held in Venezuela, in 2011, registered 982 individuals identifying as Hodï; a 2016 estimate accounted a population of around 1200. They speak the

Hodï language The Hodï (Jodï, Jotí, Hoti) language, also known as Yuwana (Yoana), Waruwaru, or Chikano (Chicano), is a small unclassified language spoken by the Hodï people of Venezuela. Very little is known of it; its several hundred speakers are monoli ...

and are closely related to the Piaroa people, although linguistic connections between the two people groups have not reached consensus among scholars. They are also known by a number of exonyms as the Hoti, Chicano, Shikana, Yuana, Waruwarú, or Rua. The Hodï were one of the last indigenous peoples to make contact with non-indigenous settlers in Venezuela. Their presence in the Sierra de Maigualida area, between the Amazonas and Bolívar states, was first attested by European sources in 1913 through accounts from Ye'kuana people, who referred to the Hodï as ''Waruwadu''. The Hodï are primarily

hunter-gatherer A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...

s who follow seasonal nomadic patterns. The two largest settlements populated by Hodï have been established by Christian missionaries: San José de Kayamá (established by Catholic missionaries) and Caño Iguana (established by Evangelical missionaries). Some of the main crops in Hodï agriculture are plantain,

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although ...

, yam and

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

, among others. Overall, the Hodï grow over 67 plant species, of which 36 are used for food, 20 for ritualistic or medicinal purposes, and 11 for constructing artifacts.

References

Bibliography

* * * Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Indigenous peoples of the Guianas Indigenous peoples in Venezuela Uncontacted peoples in the Amazon {{SouthAm-ethno-group-stub