Urarina

have also been called various names, including: Itukales; Ytucalis, Singacuchuscas; Cingacuchuscas; Aracuies; Aracuyes; Chimacus; and Chambiras (Grohs 1974:53 fn. 4; Velasco 1960: 267; Jouanen 1943, II: 471-2; Figueroa 1904: 163, 177)]

ociety and culture

Urarina society and culture have received exceptionally little attention in the burgeoning ethnographic literature of the region, and only sporadic references in the encyclopedic genre of Peruvian Amazonia. Accounts of the Urarina peoples are limited to the data reported by Castillo, [Castillo, 1958, 1961] by the racist information relayed by the German ethnologist G. Tessmann in his magnum opus "Die Indianer Nordost-Peru", [Tassmann, 1930, partial Spanish translation 1987] and to the erratic and idiosyncratic observations of missionaries and contemporary adventure seekers.

The Urarina are a culturally vibrant, semi-mobile hunting and horticultural society whose population is estimated to be around 2,000. [ [http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/StaffPages/olawsky.htm#photos Dr Knut Olawsky's photos] , es [http://www.peruecologico.com.pe/etnias_urarina.htm Peruecologico's Urarina factsheet] ] Urarina settlements are composed of multiple longhouse groups, located on high ground ("restingas") or embankments along the flood-free margins of the Chambira Basins 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 demes united through affinal ties and episodic political alliances, exchange relations and disputation. Surrounded by the Jivaroan, and the Tupi-Guarani speaking Cocama-Cocamilla indigenous peoples of the upper Amazon, the Urarina have an elaborate animistic cosmological system [Dean, Bartholomew. "The Poetics of Creation: Urarina Cosmology and Historical Consciousness." "Latin American Indian Literatures Journal" 1994 10:22-45] predicated on ayahuasca shamanism, which is based in part on the profoundly ritualized consumption of Brugmansia suaveolens.

The Urarina customarily practice brideservice, [Dean, Bartholomew. "Forbidden fruit: Infidelity, affinity and brideservice among the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia." "Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute" March 1995, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p87, 24p ] , [ [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/GUS/URARINA.HTM Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology] , citing Dean 1995] uxorilocal paterns of post-nuptial residence, 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. [Dean, Bartholomew. "Multiple Regimes of Value: Unequal Exchange and the Circulation of Urarina Palm-Fiber Wealth" "Museum Anthropology" February 1994, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 3-20 available online [http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/mua.1994.18.1.3?prevSearch=allfield%3A%28Dean%2C+Bartholomew%29 (paid subscription)] ] [ "Múltiples regímenes de valor: intercambio desigual y la circulación de bienes intercambiables de fibra de palmera entre los Urarina" "Amazonía peruana", Special edition: "Identidad y cultura", Lima, Published by the Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicacíon Práctica. 1995, p. 75-118 ]

Language

Documentation of the Urarina language, [http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=URA] SIL International Ethnologue data base, accessed 11 July 2006] or which has been classified as a language isolate or unclassified language by Terrence Kaufman (1990) has deemed [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_schemes_for_indigenous_languages_of_the_Americas#Kaufman_.281990.29] accessed 9 July 2006] is now under-way. [Olawsky, Knut (La Trobe University). "Urarina – Evidence for OVS Constituent Order." "Leiden Papers in Linguistics" 2.2, 43-68. [http://lucl.leidenuniv.nl/content_docs/workingpapers/22/olawsky.pdf available online] accessed 5 July 2006] ] Linguistic work among the Urarina was first pioneered by SIL International. [Manus, Ronald and Phyllis Manus. "Text and Concordance of words in Urarina" Datos Etno-Lingüísticos 65 series, SIL; 1979 [http://www.sil.org/americas/peru/html/pubs/del-65.zip available online] accessed 5 July 2006. ] The Urarina continue to tell elaborate myths and stories about the violence that they experience from outsiders, which historically has included forced-labor conscription, rape, disease, concubinage, and abusive treatment at the hands of outsiders. [In Anderson, Myrdene (ed.) "Cultural Shaping of Violence: Victimization, Escalation, Response." Purdue University Press;2004 ISBN 1-55753-373-3 Chapter 21 [http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=2443 reviewed online] accessed 5 July 2006] [ es Dean, Bartholomew."Intercambios ambivalentes en la amazonía: formación discursiva y la violencia del patronazgo." "Anthropológica". 1999, (17):85-115] Portions of the Bible were first published in Urarina in 1973, nevertheless the complete Bible is yet to be published. [Worldscriptures.org [http://www.worldscriptures.org/pages/urarina.html online Urarina data] accessed 5 July 2006]

Survival

Despite challenges to their on-going cultural survival, including ecocide, [ [http://www.geocities.com/s_ritadecastilla/contaminame/rijke.html Untitled ] ] inadequate health-care, [ Bartholomew Dean "et al.", 2000 “The Amazonian Peoples’ Resources Initiative: Promoting Reproductive Rights and Community Development in the Peruvian Amazon.” "Health and Human Rights: An International Journal" "Special Focus: Reproductive and Sexual Rights" François-Xavier Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University’s School of Public Health,Vol. 4, No. 2, ] [ http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/fxbcenter/V4N2.htm] accessed July 10 2006] and cultural appropriation, [Bartholomew Dean 2004 “digital vibes & radio waves in indigenous Peru” in "Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Legal Obstacles and Innovative Solutions". (ed.) Mary Riley, Contemporary Native American Communities Series, 27-53 New York: Altamira Press, A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. [http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0414/2003025783.html] accessed July 9 2006] the Urarina have both been inspired by and resisted the violence of the colonial and postcolonial encounters in Amazonia, particularly during the Alberto Fujimori dictatorship. [Dean, Bartholomew. "State Power and Indigenous Peoples in Peruvian Amazonia: A Lost Decade, 1990-2000." In "The Politics of Ethnicity Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States". Chapter 7, David Maybury-Lewis (ed.) Harvard University Press [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/MAYPOL.html?show=contents] ]

Indigenous rights

Contemporary indigenous resistance has involved intercultural education projects [ [http://www.ogmios.org/1110.htm Foundation for Endangered Languages] Cultural Survival's [http://www.cspubs.org/publications/csq/csq-article.cfm?id=1465 SPECIAL PROJECTS UPDATE: Amazonian People's Resources Initiative; Building Partnerships in Health, Education, and Social Justice October 31, 1997, Cultural Survival Quarterly, Issue 21.3] and IK Monitor 3(3)Research. [http://www.nuffic.nl/ciran/ikdm/3-3/communications/research.html] ] , [Dean, Bartholomew. "Language, Culture & Power: Intercultural Bilingual Education among the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia" "Practicing Anthropology" Special Issue: Reversing Language Shift in Indigenous America, Published by the Society for Applied Anthropology. 1999, 20(2):39-43. See online cite, Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education [http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ610360&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b800077e8] ] as well as Urarina political mobilization. [Dean, Bartholomew and Jerome M. Levi, Eds "At the Risk of Being Heard; Identity, Indigenous Rights, and Postcolonial States" University of Michigan Press;2003 ISBN 0-472-09736-9 (Chapter 7: Dean, Bartholomew. "At the Margins of Power: Gender Hierarchy and the Politics of Ethnic Mobilization among the Urarina") [http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=11605] ] [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 version [http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/ura.htm] from the "Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos"

Notes

External links

* Defensoría del Pueblo, Peru [http://www.iidh.ed.cr/comunidades/ombudsnet/docs/docsomb_ie/informe%20defensorial%20n47%20-%20peru.pdf]
* Language Museum [http://www.language-museum.com/u/urarina.php]
* [http://www.dghonline.org/nl4/peruvian.htm DGH in the Peruvian Amazons] by Jonathan Harris