Yaruro people

Yaruro
Pumé
Total population
(5,400 (2010)[1])
Regions with significant populations
 Colombia,  Venezuela
Languages
Pumé, Spanish[2]
Religion
traditional tribal religion

Yaruro people (Pumé) are Circum-Caribbean tribe and indigenous people of Venezuela. They live in the savanna plains of Venezuela called the Llanos, located west of the Orinoco River.[3][4][5][6]

The Pumé people are divided into two subgroups: The River Pumé, living along major river drainages of the Orinoco River, and the more nomadic Savanna Pumé that reside on the Llanos.[6][7][8][9]

Name

The word "Yaruro" was employed by early Spanish explorers and colonists[10] to refer to the Pumé and is still commonly used in Venezuela. The term has been used by neighboring indigenous groups such as the Guahibo, Hiwi, and Chiricoa, who likely are the source of this name adopted by the Spanish. "Yaruro" probably derives from the verb "yoro" in the Pumé language, that means "to give".[11] The term "Yaruro" is pejorative, referring to requests for material goods or food from outsiders perceived as wealthy by the Pumé, and its meaning can be glossed in American English as the "Gimmees". The people refer to themselves as the Pumé (meaning "real human") which also serves as the name of their language. "Yaruro" has been replaced by "Pumé" in most anthropological literature and by some Venezuelan government use that is sensitive to indigenous issues. They have historically also been known by other names such as Llaruro, Yaruru, and Yuapín people.[2]

Culture

Language

The Pumé language is unclassified,[2][12][13] although it is considered a Macro-Chibchan language.[3][14][15] Some good linguistic research has been published on the Pumé language.[16][17][18] It is widely spoken by the Pumé people today, especially among Savanna Pumé who are primarily monolingual.[19] Most River Pumé populations have at least some members, primarily men, who are bilingual in Spanish and Pumé.[9] Portions of the Bible were translated into Pumé in 1999.[2]

Housing

The Savanna Pumé are a mobile group of hunter-gatherers who shift their primary residence during every dry and wet season.[6][7][8][20] They live in small brush shade structures during the dry season, and more robust structures thatched with palm leaves during the wet seasons.[8][21][22] In addition to these two major seasonal moves, the Pumé make temporary camps for fishing, raw material collection, and to stage the moves to their primary wet and dry season camps.[7][8][23] River Pumé were formerly slightly nomadic (although not as much as the Savanna Pumé), but currently are sedentary.[6][22][24] Many River Pumé now construct more hybrid forms of architecture combining traditional and Criollo-influenced materials and designs.[25]

Cuisine

The Savanna Pumé are primarily hunter-gatherers who subsist on distinctly different diets during each of the dry and wet seasons. The River Pumé are horticulturalist who also practice some fishing, hunting and wild plant collection.[6] Savanna Pumé men hunt primarily small terrestrial game during the dry season such as armadillos, tegu lizards, other small lizards, and rabbits.[7][20][26] Men very infrequently obtain larger game such as capybara, deer, anteaters, or caimans.[20][26] All hunting by Savanna Pumé is done with bows and arrows. Women collect several wild tubers, that are the main food during the wet season.[7][8][20][27][28] Both sexes also perform some garden work that brings in complementary manioc as a dietary supplement without reducing their foraging for wild plants.[28] Gardening is typical of swidden systems used by many tropical peoples throughout the world, however Savanna Pumé gardens are quite small compared with those of the River Pumé or other South American groups.[28] In the past, foraging for turtle eggs was reported[29] but is very uncommon today, possibly because of over-exploitation during the last 200 years.[3] Other past game animals such as hunting for manatees are recognized as potentially edible, but no recent reports of their consumption are reported by the Pumé. During the dry season, Pumé men fish using bows and arrows, hook and line, and fish poison.[6][8][20][30][31] The dry season also offers opportunities for bird hunting and capture of small numbers of turtles and tortoises.[6][7][20] Women, accompanied by some men, collect feral mangos in prodigious quantities during the dry season as well as a few other species of small fruits that are much less important.[20][32][33] River Pumé have less seasonal variation in their diet. They rely more on a diversity of cultivated crops, can fish year round in the major rivers, hunt and gather some foods, and may work in wage labor jobs for the local Criollos.[6][9][22][24][34] River Pumé successfully raise small numbers of chickens and pigs,[6] animals rarely husbanded by Savanna Pumé for more than a couple months before being consumed during periods of hunger[7]

Material culture

The main objects used for the carrying of items are tumpline baskets which has a strap that goes around a woman's forehead to allow the weight of the basket to be carried on her lower back where women are physically strongest. These baskets are woven completely from a single palm leaf.

The Pumé use digging sticks for various tasks, but they are mostly used for the digging of roots and wells. A digging stick is usually made from a heavy branch, but some digging sticks with metal tips have been procured through trade with outsiders.

The men use bows and arrows for hunting game as well as for harpooning fish.[23] These bows and arrows are much larger than those in the western world, the arrows always being approximately the same length as the man who owns them is tall.

Naming system

All Pumé people are given Christian names by the Venezuelan government for census purposes, but they do not use them amongst themselves. Instead, they refer to each other by kinship terms within their family groups, such as "sister" or "mother" depending on age and sometimes relation by blood or marriage.

Marriage

By the age of 15, most Savanna and River Pumé girls are married. Boys also marry young, but the early marriage of Pumé girls is particularly important as a demographic indicator of relatively rapid maturation in response to living in an environment with low food availability, high disease exposure, and potentially high risks of mortality.[9][19][35][36] Pumé girls work less than girls in comparable hunter-gatherer populations, allowing them to potentially spend more calories on growth rather than on foraging effort, and thus reach sexual maturity at a younger age. This may lengthen their reproductive lifespan, compensating for their shorter life expectancy and their high infant and later childhood mortality rates.[9][19][36] Although early marriage is the general practice for Pumé hunter-gatherers, there is no evidence of coercion of girls to marry or begin sexual relations before they feel ready.[37]

Marriage involves no formal ceremony, exchange of goods, or overt negotiations among adults. It simply consists of establishing co-habitation by the couple. There is some influence of parents on choice of marriage partners, but it is a very flexible system.

A small percentage of men have more than one wife, who are usually sisters (sororal polygyny).[37] Among both Savanna and River Pumé, infidelity is uncommon and is cause for divorce. Compared with many lowland South American indigenous groups, the Pumé have low rates of infidelity and divorce among both men and women.[37]

Religion and medicine

The Pumé engage in all-night dances called tohé for religious and social purposes in a cleared dirt plaza with a large pole in the center. The plaza is cleared of any and all debris by the children of the community. At tohé members of a village bring their sleeping gear outside to the dancing plaza to dance and sing throughout the night. Many Pumé take part in snorting a hallucinogenic plant referred to as nanú or tuipà (Anadenanthera peregrina).

The Pumé have little medicinal knowledge, and predominantly perform sucking cures on those that fall ill. It is a practice in which native peoples believe that a shaman or holy person can suck impurities out of the bodies of the ill.

See also Puana, a goddess in Yaruro mythology.

Outside pressures

The Pumé are given no land ownership rights of the lands that they occupy on the llanos and there are threats by surrounding Criollo ranchers looking to expand their lands.

They are also under threat of a national park being established on the llanos by the Venezuelan government. Such a park is a threat due to the fact that the Pumé have incorporated trade with outsiders and depend on many metal tools and clothing that they receive from these trades. If a national park were to be established they would be forced to convert to an entirely traditional lifestyle, causing them to be unable to use these goods.

Notes

  1. ↑ Greaves, Russell and Alissa Dill. "Pumé Staking a Claim in Venezuela: Pumé Project." Cultural Survival. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 14 Sept 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Pumé." Ethnologue. Retrieved 14 Sept 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 "Yaruro." Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 14 Sept 2013.
  4. ↑ Petrullo, Vincenzo (1939). "The Yaruros of the Capanaparo River, Venezuela". Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution) 123 (11): 161–290.
  5. ↑ Besnerais, Henry Le (1948). "Algunos aspectos del río Capanaparo y de sus indios Yaruros". Memoria de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Sall VIII (21): 9–20.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mitrani, Philippe (1988). "Los Pumé (Yaruro)". In Lizot, J. Los Aborígenes de Venezuela, Vol. III, Etnología Contemporánea II. Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales, Caracas.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gragson, Theodore L. (1989). Allocation of Time to Subsistence and Settlement in a Ciri Khonome Pumé Village of the Llanos of Apure, Venezuela. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Greaves, Russell D. (2015) [2006]. "Forager landscape use and residential organization". In Sellet, F.; Greaves, R. D.; Yu, P. L. Archaeology and Ethnoarchaeology of Mobility. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. pp. 127–152.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Kramer, Karen L.; Greaves, Russell D. (2007). "Changing patterns of infant mortality and fertility among Pumé foragers and horticulturalists". American Anthropologist 109 (4): 713–726. doi:10.1525/AA.2007.109.4.713.
  10. ↑ Gilij, Felipe Salvador (1965). Ensayo de Historia Americana, 3 volumes. Translated by A. Tovar. Biblioteca de La Academia Nacional de la Historia 72. Fuentes para la Historia Colonial de Venezuela, Caracas.
  11. ↑ Obregón Muñoz, Hugo; Díaz Pozo, Jorge; Jesús Peréz, Luis (1984). Lexico Yaruro-Español, Español-Yaruro. Corporación de Desarrollo de la Región de los Llanos, Gobernación del Estado Apure, COPIHER Maracay.
  12. ↑ Mosonyi, Esteban Emilio (1975). El Indígena Venezolano en Pos de su Liberación Definitiva. Universidad Central de Venezuela, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, División de Publicaciónes, Caracas.
  13. ↑ Obregón Muñoz, Hugo (1981). "La variabilidad de las lenguas indígenas venezolanas y algunos problemas de planificación lingüística". Antropologica 56: 3–24.
  14. ↑ Key, Mary Ritchie (1979). The Grouping of South American Indian Languages. Ars Linguistica 2. Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen.
  15. ↑ Loukotka, Cestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian Languages. Reference Series Vol. 7. University of California, Latin American Center, Los Angeles.
  16. ↑ Mosonyi, Esteban Emilio; Mosonyi, Jorge Carlos (2000). Manual de Lenguas Indigenas de Venezuela, Tomo II. Fundacion Bigott.
  17. ↑ Mosonyi, Esteban Emilio (1966). Morfología del verbo Yaruro. Universidad de Venezuela, Consejo de Desarrollo Científio y Humanístico, Caracas.
  18. ↑ Castillo, Cleto; Obregón Muñoz, Hugo; Díaz Pozo, Jorge (2003). Morfologia Yarura. Ministerio de Edcasion Cultura, y Deportes, Republica Bolivariana de Venezuela, Caracas.
  19. 1 2 3 Kramer, Karen L.; Greaves, Russell D. (2010). "Synchrony between growth and reproductive patterns in human females: early investment in growth among Pumé foragers". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 141 (2): 235–244. doi:10.1002/ajpa.21139.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Greaves, Russell D. (1997). Ethnoarchaeological investigation of subsistence mobility, resource targeting, and technological organization among Pumé foragers of Venezuela. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
  21. ↑ Gragson, Ted L. (1992). "The use of palms by the Pume Indians of southwestern Venezuela". Principes 36 (3): 133–142.
  22. 1 2 3 Besnerais, Henry Le (1948). "Algunos aspectos del río Capanaparo y de sus indios Yaruros". Memoria de la Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales La Salle VIII (21): 9–20.
  23. 1 2 Greaves, Russell D. (2007). "The ethnoarchaeology of hunting and collecting: Pumé foragers of Venezuela". Expedition 49 (1): 18–27.
  24. 1 2 Besnerais, Henry Le (1954). "Contribution à l’étude des Indiens Yaruro (Vénézuéla): quelques observations sur le territoire, l’habitat et la population". Journal de la Société des Américanistes. XLIII: 109–122.
  25. ↑ Barreto, Daisy (2007). Los Pume´ (Yaruro). In: Freire G, Tillett A, editors. Salud Indı´gena en Venezuela, vol II. Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela, Ministerio de Poder Popular para la Salud, Editorial Arte, Caracas. pp. 247–329.
  26. 1 2 Greaves, Russell D. (1997). Hunting and multifunctional use of bows and arrows: ethnoarchaeology of technological organization among Pumé hunters of Venezuela. In: Projectile Technology, edited by H. Knecht. Plenum Press, New York. pp. 287–320.
  27. ↑ Gragson, Ted L. (1997). "The use of underground plant organs and its use in relation to habitat selection among the Pumé Indians of Venezuela". Economic Botany 5 (14): 377–384.
  28. 1 2 3 Greaves, Russell D.; Kramer, Karen L. (2014). "Hunter-gatherer use of wild plants and domesticates: archaeological implications for mixed economies before agricultural intensification". Journal of Archaeological Science 41: 263–27. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.08.014.
  29. ↑ Chaffanjon, Jean (1889). L'Orenoque et le Caura: Relaction de Voyages executes en 1886 et 1887. Librarie Hachete et Cie., Paris.
  30. ↑ Gragson, Ted L. (1992). "Strategic procurement of fish by the Pumé: a South American "fishing culture"". Human Ecology 20 (1): 109–130.
  31. ↑ Gragson, Ted L. (1992). "Fishing the waters of Amazonia: native subsistence economies in a tropical rainforest". American Anthropologist 94 (3): 428–440.
  32. ↑ Hilton, Charles E.; Greaves, Russell D. (2004). "Age, sex, and resource transport in Venezuelan foragers". In Meldrum, D. Jeffrey; Hilton, Charles E. From Biped to Strider: The Emergence of Modern Human Walking, Running, and Resource Transport. New York: Kluwer. pp. 163–18. ISBN 0-306-47999-0.
  33. ↑ Hilton, Charles E.; Greaves, Russell D. (2008). "Seasonality and sex differences in travel distance and resource transport in Venezuelan foragers". Current Anthropology 49 (1): 144–153.
  34. ↑ Leeds, Anthony (1961). "The Yaruro incipient tropical forest horticulture: possibilities and limits". In Wilbert, J. The Evolution of Horticultural Systems in Native South America: Causes and Consequences. Antropológica Supplement No 2. Editorial Sucre, Caracas.
  35. ↑ Kramer, Karen L.; Greaves, Russell D.; Ellison, Peter T. (2009). "Early reproductive maturity among Pumé foragers: implications of a pooled energy model to fast life histories". American Journal of Human Biology 21 (4): 430–437. doi:10.1002/ajhb.20930.
  36. 1 2 Kramer, Karen L.; Greaves, Russell D. (2011). "Juvenile subsistence effort, activity levels, and growth patterns: middle childhood among Pumé foragers". Human Nature 22 (3): 303–326. doi:10.1007/s12110-011-9122-8.
  37. 1 2 3 Kramer, Karen L.; Greaves, Russell D. (2011). "Postmarital residence and bilateral kin associations among hunter-gatherers: Pumé foragers living in the best of both worlds". Human Nature 22 (1-2): 41–63. doi:10.1007/s12110-011-9115-7.

References

External links

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