Vidal 2000 Kuwé Duwákalumi The Arawak Sacred Routes of migration, trade and resistance

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Kuwé Duwákalumi: The Arawak Sacred Routes of Migration, Trade, and Resistance Silvia M. Vidal, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas Abstract. Kuwé or Kúwai is a powerful cultural hero among the Arawak of the Northwest Amazon. This article analyzes Kuwé teachings and sacred routes as political, religious, migratory, and trade strategies of resistance. These routes were used by the Warekena and the Baré Indians to resist the colonial and postcolonial encroachment on their ancestral territories during the eighteenth century. This article analyzes Kuwé Duwákalumi, or Kuwé teachings and sacred routes, as political, religious, migratory, and trade strategies of resistance. During the eighteenth century these strategies were used by powerful In- dian warrior-shaman chiefs and their followers to evade or challenge the European colonial system. At this time the ancestors of the contempo- rary Warekena and Baré Indians were organized into different multiethnic confederacies, such as the Demanao, Madáwaka, Marabitana, Guaypu- navi, Umasevitauna, and Darivazauna. 1 The European documents describe these powerful Arawakan-speaking groups as associated with each other through trading networks, Indian rebellions, and sacred places. By the nineteenth century several Arawakan-and Tukanoan-speaking groups from the Northwest Amazon were active participants in different millenarian movements whose leaders and members were also using Kuwé routes as a strategy to survive the processes of exploitation and deprivation result- ing from the rubber boom (Hill and Wright ; Vidal and Zucchi ; Wright and Hill ). In the last three decades of the twentieth century, contemporary Warekena and Baré still traveled by Kuwé Duwákalumi to regain their economic, political, and cultural rights. Kuwé teachings and sacred routes are important aspects of the religion Ethnohistory :– (summer–fall ) Copyright © by the American Society for Ethnohistory.

Transcript of Vidal 2000 Kuwé Duwákalumi The Arawak Sacred Routes of migration, trade and resistance

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Kuwé Duwákalumi: The Arawak Sacred Routesof Migration, Trade, and Resistance

Silvia M. Vidal, Instituto Venezolano de

Investigaciones Científicas

Abstract. Kuwé or Kúwai is a powerful cultural hero among the Arawak of theNorthwest Amazon. This article analyzes Kuwé teachings and sacred routes aspolitical, religious, migratory, and trade strategies of resistance. These routes wereused by the Warekena and the Baré Indians to resist the colonial and postcolonialencroachment on their ancestral territories during the eighteenth century.

This article analyzes Kuwé Duwákalumi, or Kuwé teachings and sacredroutes, as political, religious, migratory, and trade strategies of resistance.During the eighteenth century these strategies were used by powerful In-dian warrior-shaman chiefs and their followers to evade or challenge theEuropean colonial system. At this time the ancestors of the contempo-rary Warekena and Baré Indians were organized into different multiethnicconfederacies, such as the Demanao, Madáwaka, Marabitana, Guaypu-navi, Umasevitauna, and Darivazauna.1 The European documents describethese powerful Arawakan-speaking groups as associated with each otherthrough trading networks, Indian rebellions, and sacred places. By thenineteenth century several Arawakan-and Tukanoan-speaking groups fromthe Northwest Amazon were active participants in different millenarianmovements whose leaders and members were also using Kuwé routes asa strategy to survive the processes of exploitation and deprivation result-ing from the rubber boom (Hill and Wright ; Vidal and Zucchi ;Wright and Hill ). In the last three decades of the twentieth century,contemporary Warekena and Baré still traveled by Kuwé Duwákalumi toregain their economic, political, and cultural rights.

Kuwé teachings and sacred routes are important aspects of the religion

Ethnohistory :– (summer–fall )Copyright © by the American Society for Ethnohistory.

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of Kuwé or Kúwai. This religious system embraces a hierarchical socio-political organization, a map (or imagery) of sacred routes and places,and a corpus of narratives that encompasses ritual, geographical, ecologi-cal, botanical, and zoological knowledge.2Kuwé has served the Arawakan-speaking peoples (more specifically, theWarekena and Baré) as a model ofand for society and their geopolitical and interethnic relations on whichthey have built their strategies of resistance. In short, Kuwé Duwákalumihave served as a means to participate in as well as to evade and challengethe colonial (and postcolonial) dominion.

As strategies of resistance, Kuwé Duwákalumi directly challenge twoimportant ideas of the European (Western) cultural tradition and knowl-edge: those of time (history) and space/place (geography/cartography). Tounderstand the strategies used by the Warekena and Baré forebears, I havethus oriented my analysis into two interconnected fields: () the confron-tation and dialogue among European and Indian ways of constructing andinterpreting the past, and () the imposition and institutionalization of Eu-ropean cartography on Amerindian geographical and geopolitical knowl-edge. I have also theoretically based this article on new anthropological in-terpretations of the role of culture, myth, history, and place/space (Asad; Bonfil Batalla; Cohn; Comaroff and Comaroff; Fried-man ; Gupta and Ferguson ; Hill ; Rosaldo ; Sahlins,; Turnerb;White;Whiteheada,;Wolf).3

Recent ethnological and ethnohistorical studies of native Northwest Ama-zon and other South American regions have also been considered (Arvelo-Jiménez and Biord Castillo ; Arvelo-Jiménez et al. ; Chernela; González Ñáñez ; Hill ; C. Hugh-Jones ; S. Hugh-Jones ; Jackson ; Morales and Arvelo-Jiménez ; Morey ;Reichel-Dolmatoff ; Roosevelt ; Whitehead , ; Wright).4 Finally, current ethnographical and historical findings obtainedfrom research conducted by someWarekena, Baniva, Kurripako, Baré, andYeral Indians (native ethnography) have also been considered.5

To analyze Kuwé Duwákalumi as an Indian mode of constructing thepast, I have adopted a ‘‘shamanic or shamanistic way’’ to reconstruct andinterpret Northwest Amazon history (Hill c). According to NicholasThomas and Caroline Humphrey (: ), the anthropological literatureon shamanism is heavily biased ‘‘toward curing, trance, and medical as-pects, toward characterization of what are supposedly general symbolsor ecstatic techniques, and toward the shaman as a singular ritual practi-tioner.’’ Thus, they propose to view shamans as political actors or media-tors of historically constituted social contradictions and resistances (ibid.:).To the Arawak shamans and other ritual specialists, Kuwé Duwákalúmi

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are not only strategies to confront unequal and hierarchical power relation-ships within colonial and postcolonial systems, but they are also a model ofindigenous ways for constructing and interpreting myth, history, culture,and place.

The shamanic way also constitutes a powerful model for theArawakan-speaking peoples for constructing and interpreting ethnic andpolitical identities. According to Jonathan D. Hill (c), the shamanicway is a mode of political history that forms part of the process of con-structing political communities. In the colonial and postcolonial processesthe confrontation between the shamanic and the national (official) pro-duction/construction of their own respective history created new arenas ofstruggles for Indian peoples to protect, create, or rebuild new cultural andpolitical spaces within the colonial and national states. Because the Indianswere not passive or mute victims in these processes, anthropologists andother social scientists need to change the concept of culture to one that in-cludes the idea that the Indian peoples have ‘‘no choice but to create newidentities . . . [or] resisting identities; that is, they have to struggle to re-assert their place in history (Hill c: ).

Since the s new anthropological interpretations have stronglyquestioned static, reductive, and essentialist portrayals of culture, history,myth, and society and have reconfigured these categories in ways far dif-ferent from Eurocentric conceptions. Alternative ways of theorizing thepast now seek to integrate archaeological and ethnological data andwrittenhistorical records with indigenous interpretive models of history. Further-more, myth and history are viewed as dynamic partners for the historicalinterpretation of Indians’ past or as modes of historical consciousness forindigenous peoples in their struggles with and survival within nation-states(Hill , ; Rosaldo ; Sahlins ; Turner a).6

The eighteenth century was a period in which the Spanish and Por-tuguese Crowns were devoted to systematic explorations of their colonialterritories as well as the demarcation and control of their overseas posses-sions. This process meant sending civil and military explorers to differentregions, elaborating maps and inventories of natural resources, expellingforeign intruders, and using Indian groups and territories as markers ofthe extension of their colonial sovereignties. During this century the Amer-indian cartography was replaced by the colonial geography that becameofficial; in this way the European space-territorial pattern was implanted.The alien pattern divided Amerindian South America into colonial statesand European municipalities, villages, and parishes. This colonial cartog-raphy and European pattern has been used since as a space-territorialand political model for the creation and delimitation of Latin American

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nation-states. In other words colonialism and postcolonialism represent,to the Indian populations of lowland South America, the compulsory dis-placement and substitution of their spatio-geographical and geopoliticalknowledge of their own interconnections by European spatial distributionsand hierarchies of power.

To the Arawak shamans and other ritual specialists, Kuwé Duwáka-lúmi represent their model of constructing and interpreting geography andplace.The anthropological literature on shamanism has also stressed the as-sociation between shaman’s techniques of ecstasy and mystical geography(Eliade : ). Similarly, other anthropological approaches have criti-cized the naturalized associations of culture, people, and place, especiallywithin hierarchical and unequal power relationships (Gupta and Ferguson); they have opened up alternative studies in search of nonimperialgeohistorical categories (Coronil). Jonathan Boyarin (: ), for ex-ample, mentions that social scientists’ ‘‘deliberations usually proceed as if‘culture’ and ‘society’ were played out within a Cartesian world.’’ This isthe result of the close genealogical connection that links Cartesian (‘‘ratio-nal’’) categories of space (and time) in the European cultural tradition; thisconnection means close relationships between mapping, boundary setting,inclusion, and exclusion of places and peoples (ibid.). In addition, AkhilGupta and James Ferguson (: ) suggest that the ‘‘presumption thatspaces are autonomous has enabled the power of topography successfullyto conceal the topography of power.’’

According to Walter Mignolo (: –, ), the move towardcolonization and reconfiguration of space (European cartography) in thecolonial process introduced a double perspective. It produced, on the onehand, the dissociation between a center determined ethnically and a cen-ter determined geometrically that complements the ethnic one; and, on theother hand, the assumption that the locus of observation (geometric cen-ter) does not disrupt or interfere with the locus of the enunciation (ethniccenter). Mignolo (ibid.: ) also suggests that ‘‘the power of the centerdoes not depend necessarily on the geometric rationalization but . . . [is]enacted around the power of the ethnic center.’’

Amerindian and Western geographical imaginaries and their confron-tations are central to the understanding of the historical processes in build-ing dominant global cartographies. For Michael J. Shapiro (: ix) theseconfrontations produce the institutionalization of the dominant colonial ornation-state geographical imaginary over Amerindian cartographic knowl-edge. This institutionalization includes the mapping of spatial and geo-graphical contexts within which dominant powers and strong politicaldecision makers calculated, made choices, and gave meanings to spatial

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distribution and economic exploitation of colonized peoples. This processalso ignores the important contribution of colonized peoples to Europeancartography of the Americas. In this sense this article represents an effortto reconstruct the Arawakan-speaking groups cartography as well as theirgeohistorical, geopolitical, and georeligious imaginaries and knowledge.

Current ethnographical and historical research conducted by someArawakan-speaking groups have strongly influenced my analysis of themyths and oral history of the contemporaryWarekena and Baré.Their find-ings and my analysis were combined with European written records to ex-amine Kuwé Duwákalumi. To contemporary Arawakan-speaking groups,these strategies were used by their ancestors to resist European and Euro-criollo encroachments on their lands.

Ethnographical Background of theContemporary Warekena and Baré

The contemporary Warekena and Baré inhabit several townships of theUpper Guainía–Negro region in the Venezuelan Amazon (Figure ). Thereare about six hundred Warekenas and two thousand Barés in Venezuela,but they are integrated into a macroregional sociopolitical system withsome other forty thousand Tukanoans, Makuans, and Arawaks living inVenezuela, Colombia, and Brazil. This system is characterized by extensivemultilingualism and exogamy (Wright ; Jackson ; Hill , ;Chernela ; Vidal ).

The Warekena and Baré groups have an internally hierarchical socio-political structure that is organized in several patrilineal, localized, andexogamic phratries, each consisting of two or more sibs ranked accord-ing to the birth order of the ancestral mythic brothers. The practice ofexogamy allows Arawakan-speaking groups and subgroups to associatewith each other and other societies. Hierarchy is not only the criterion bywhich to classify people and place them in a given status; it also influencesintra- and intergroups alliances and plays an important role in processesandmechanisms of ethnogenesis and social reproduction. Each phratry andsib are identified with a specific area within its group’s territory. Localizedphratries and sib exercise political and economic control over the rivers,sacred places, and natural resources of their territories. However, this terri-torial control can be negotiated through economic bargaining and politicalalliances among phratries and groups.

This sociopolitical structure is grounded on both an extensive net-work of political relations with other peoples and the shared Kuwé reli-gious system, which is divided into mythical cycles. Each cycle consists of

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Figure . Map of Territories and Townships of the Baré, Warekena, and Other Arawakan-Speaking Groups in the Venezuelan Amazon. Source: Vidal field notes , , .

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a corpus of narratives (stories, myths, chants, songs, prayers, advice, etc.),ritual knowledge, puberty rites, and festivals and comprises a wide varietyof ideological-symbolic and practical codes. These codes teach importantknowledge that has been associated with Kuwé or Kúwai and the Trick-ster Creator (Nápirríkuli or Nápiruli). In short, these codes have influencedand oriented Indian peoples’ strategies to face events and situations of theirritual and secular lives.

In this manner both the historical interpretation and the mythic repre-sentation of the world, natural beings, society, and humankind are closelyrelated to theWarekena and Baré’s system of ancient beliefs. Mythic narra-tives and oral history are thus two complementary genres that influence oneanother; through these methods people narrate, tell, and interprete theirhistorical processes of change.7 According to the Warekena and the Baré,Kuwé or Kúwai is the voice of the creation that opened up the world.8 Heis the monstrous, primordial human being (Hill : xvii), master of allvisible and invisible beings (Wright ), and capable of controlling thesky and the universe through his powerful knowledge. Most of all, how-ever, he came to this world to teach people all of his sacred ritual powers.These powers or Kuwé teachings are secretly learned by men during ini-tiation or puberty rites. Robin M.Wright (: ,) thus calls it ‘‘the cultof the sacred flutes and trumpets . . . representing the first ancestors of thephratries.’’

Kuwé’s cult is associated with a hierarchical political and religiousorganization known as secret male societies that represent ‘‘Kuwé andhis troops.’’ The society includes chiefs, masters (ritual specialist), war-riors, shamans, and servants. The relationship between secret male soci-eties and the idea of Kuwé and his troops is based on the associationthat the Arawakan-speaking groups established between the mythic orfirst ancestors (the inépe mikí náwi, such as Kuwé, Nápiruli, Purúnamínali,and Dzúli) and the living elders or pjénawji.9 The Kuwé religion is also alink to collective death and rebirth, world destruction and renewal. Hill(: ) states that ‘‘the cult of Kuwái and of the ancestor spirits hascontinued to serve the Wakuénai [another Arawak group] as a power re-source for negotiating interethnic relations along the lower Guainía Riverin Venezuela.’’

Myths and Oral History of theContemporary Warekena and Baré

TheWarekena and the Baré sharewith other Arawakan-speaking groups ofthe Northwest Amazon the Kuwé or Kúwai cult and some other important

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aspects of their mythologies and religious systems (Hill , , b;Hill andWright; Vidal,; Wright,; Wright and Hill).10 Yet there are also some differences that Wright (: ) has in-terpreted as variants of a single and complex tradition because they ‘‘differin ways that are more than a simply question of local context and detail.’’Despite the differences, the similarities are interpreted by the contempo-rary Warekena and Baré not only as evidence to prove the validity of theirancient oral traditions, but also of their shared origins. They consider thateach Arawakan-speaking group has kept an important and valuable partof this ancient knowledge that is continually used to reconstruct their his-tories and societies.

The mythohistorical and ritual narratives of the Warekena and theBaré can be separated into three cycles (or sets of narratives) that outline acomplex process of ethno- and cosmogenesis.11 Some of them are linguis-tically a mixture of Warekena and Baré languages; this speaks for theirclose historical and ritual relationships, which, according to their oral tra-ditions, began at an initiation festival celebrated by the two groups andother Indian peoples at the Casiquiare River. The first cycle of narrativesbegins at Hípana, an ancient community located in the Ayarí River and themythical place of the beginning of the world. Its principal characters areNápiruli, Amáruyawa (primordial woman), the first Kuwé, and a group ofhuman-animal beings. Nápiruli created the first world andwas entrusted toeliminate all of the dangerous animals and imperfections. This world wasdestroyed by a great inundation from which only Nápiruli, Amáruyawa,and some human-animal beings survived.

The second cycle narrates the expansion of the miniature world untilit reaches its natural size with mountains, rivers, and forests; the centralactors are Nápiruli, the three sons of Nápiruli, Amáruyawa, the secondKuwé, Káli, some human-animal beings, and the first ancestors. This cycleexplains the life and death of Kuwé, or the voice that opened up (expanded)the world. He taught agriculture (kalítani) and the sacred rituals of initia-tion to the first ancestors.12 At the end of the first ritual, Kuwé performedfor the first ancestors, then Nápiruli ‘‘killed’’ him in a great fire and Kuwéleft the world and went to ‘‘heaven.’’ From his ashes sprout the materialsfor making the sacred flutes and trumpets (his voice) played in initiationand other sacred rituals today. However, Amáruyawa and other womenstole the sacred instruments from the initiated men; and this act of Amáru-yawa and her troop of women set off a long chase (opening theworld again)from the Ayarí and Isana Rivers to different places in the Orinoco, Negro,and Amazon Basins. This long chase ended when Nápiruli and his men re-gained control over Kuwé’s instruments. According to the Warekena and

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the Baré, the ‘‘death’’ of Kuwé and the chase of women were two importanthistorical moments that changed forever the culture and society of theirancestors; after those events, the forebearers of contemporary Arawakan-speaking groups began gathering to celebrate initiation rituals.

The third cycle of narratives accounts for relationships among people,between people and their ancestors, and between human beings and power-ful spirits from other parts of the cosmos, as well as the connections amongdifferent regions of the cosmos. It narrates the human past of mythic an-cestors (Nápiruli, Amáruyawa), and the central characters are Purúnamí-nali (or the giver of names), Puméyawa, Kuámasi, and some other real andmythic forebears. This set of narratives mostly takes place inWarekena andBaré ancestral lands and is connected with some of their economic, migra-tory, commercial, political, and shamanic activities.

According to theWarekena and the Baré, the history of their ancestorscan be divided into three important phases or periods that reflect variousprocesses of unification of different peoples and of sociopolitical and reli-gious transformation. The first period occurred in the Isana River, whenthe world was created, and it is related to the first cycle of mythical narra-tives. The second phase deals with the transformation of rituals of initia-tion and the Kuwé cult in a religion that includes an organization of war-riors and secret male societies. It began during the time of the grandfathersDeré-deré(-náwi) and Benábena, when they introduced initiation rites foryoung girls. By Kuwé routes they traveled to different places, inviting rela-tives, in-laws, and friends to the ritual, and all the people met at Maracoa(now known as San Fernando de Atabapo, in the upper Orinoco). Later,in Capihuara and other places of the Casiquiare Basin, the forefathers per-formed an important initiation rite for the daughters of grandfather Siwali(an ancient chief or captain of the Warekena). There was a great concen-tration of different peoples there (ancestors of the Baré, the Warekena, theBaniva, and so on), led by Dépenabe, the master of the rite, and Dzúli asthe great shaman. After this event, many groups related to the Warekena,Baré, Baniva, and their in-laws and allies started to celebrate the initiationceremonies for men and the Kuwé religion began.

The third period began when the Kakáhau people murdered Pumé-yawa and her husband in the Aguachapita River, an affluent of the Casi-quiare; Puméyawa saw ‘‘their’’ Kuwé, and in this way she broke the sacredlaws of the religion. Before dying, however, she gave birth to Kuámasi (orKuámati in Baré), who was protected and raised by Inámalu and Inilíwiyupeoples. When he grew older, Kuámasi waged a war against the Kaká-hau, their allies and in-laws. He and his men killed Captain Ipíchipiméhliand most of the Kakáhau. Kuámasi’s victory generated a new process of

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sociopolitical reorganization, which started another generation of groupsor peoples.

In these oral histories the names of some of the mythical and historicalancestors of the Warekana and the Baré are intermingled, especially thoseof some warrior-chiefs of the eighteenth century, such as Cocui, Davipe,Cabi, Cayama, and Basimúnare, among others. It is interesting to high-light that in these narratives the ancestors are portrayed as people buildingand opening roads (Kuwé Duwákalumi), writing messages and teachingsin riverine stones (petroglyphs), and traveling by Kuwé routes.

Kuwé Sacred Routes and Travels

The Kuwé cult is associated with a map or imagery of sacred routes andplaces, which can be described as a symbolic infrastructure that connectsmeaningful landscapes and spiritual locations of this and other worlds (thatis, other regions or levels of the cosmos). Hill (b: –) explains:‘‘The use of spatial movements as metaphors for the social constructionof history is given its most complete elaboration in male and female ritu-als.’’ The map of sacred routes and places is part of Kuwé’s geographi-cal, ecological, botanical, and zoological teachings and knowledge. KuwéDuwákalumi literally means ‘‘where Kuwé passed by’’ and includes mythi-cal journeys (the powerful naming process of geographical places duringa shamanistic ritual or other religious festival) and a complex network ofroutes that connect different regions of South America.13These routes com-bine mobilization through land and water; that is, through rivers, creeks,lakes, and sea, as well as by roads, trails, and narrow paths through tropi-cal forests and savannas. These land routes link the headwaters of severalriver basins. It is this combination of using both land and water routes thatgave (and still gives) Arawakan-speaking groups ways to develop strate-gies of resistance. Kuwé routes (Figure ) also represent the location of andthe connection with sacred places related to the creation of the world, ofpeople, and of the social order as well as those related to the performanceof ceremonies of the Kuwé religion and shamanic rituals. The routes arelinked to sacred and secular strategic resources (i.e., gold, silver, stones)and to people and places, for sociopolitical, migratory, and commercialpurposes.

According to the Warekena and the Baré (and their affines), thereare at least eighteen main Kuwé routes (Figures and ). During his lifeKuwé and his troops ‘‘traveled’’ to all of these places; and after his deathother mythical ancestors and living elders continued traveling to the north,west, and east of the Amazon Basin. During the eighteenth century some

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Figure . Map of Kuwé Routes. Source: Vidal .

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Figure . Map of Sacred and Secular Places Related to Kuwé Routes. Source: Vidal ,.

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Figure . Main Kuwé Routes According to the Baré and Warekena Oral Traditions.

Arawakan-speaking powerful leaders and their groups were impersonat-ing Kuwé and his troops; they were traveling, migrating, trading, and bat-tling by using the Kuwé sacred routes. In his interpretations of Kúwai’sjourneys among the Arawakan Hohodene, Wright () concludes thatthese travels represent their notions of territoriality and collective iden-tity as well as their sense of cumulative historical knowledge, includingtheir experiences of contact, trading networks, and wars with other ethnicgroups. In short, the integration and relationship between the secret malesocieties and Kuwé teachings and knowledge constitutes a model of and

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for their societies and their geopolitical relations. The integration and rela-tionship between secret male societies and Kuwé Duwákalumi thus formthe sociopolitical and religious basis of the regional leadership of powerfulArawakan-speaking warrior-chiefs and groups.

Warekena and Baré Routes ofMigration, Trade, and Resistance

From the sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries the ancient forebears oftheWarekena and the Baré were part of the populations organized into theManoa macropolity and some others (also known as macroregional politi-cal and economic systems; see Vidal ) of the lower Negro River andother areas of the Northwest and Central Amazon regions.14 These macro-polities were multiethnic, multilingual, sociopolitical, and economic sys-tems that had an internal interethnic hierarchy led by a paramount chief(‘‘lord’’ or ‘‘king’’) and a powerful elite of secondary chiefs; leadership washereditary (Whitehead ; Vidal ). Early European documents ofthe great river basins of the Orinoco and Amazon refer to the existenceof extensive connections between groups (riverine and hinterland peoples)within and among different regions (Acuña ; Almesto ; Cuervo–; De la Cruz ; Federmann ; Simón ; Llanos Vargasand Pineda Camacho; Whitehead, a). Most of these connec-tions included regional trade systems.

European colonization of the Negro River basin began by the mid-seventeenth century. Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, and British colo-nial empires were competing among themselves andwith some Amerindianleader groups of local macropolities to take control over Indian popula-tions and regional trade systems of the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers. De-spite this, it seems that the powerful leadership of theManoa macropolititymanaged to last until the late s, when it began to lose its political andeconomic dominance over the region. During and war broke outbetween two important Indian factions of the lower Negro River (whichprobably included such groups as the Guaranacoacena, the Manacuru, theYumaguaris, and the Caburicena) because of the death of their paramountchief. In the Portuguese authorities began the practice of capturingthe children of important Indian chiefs to indoctrinate them in the Catholicreligion and to teach them the Yeral language. They also initiated the per-secution and enslavement of Amerindian shamans as an official strategy toeliminate idolatry (or native religion systems) and Indian rebellions (Beten-dorf : ). Soon after there were additional confrontations and con-flicts among the Manao, the Baré, the Cariaya, the Curanao, and other

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groups for the political and economic control of the middle Negro River(Ferreira : ; Ribeiro de Sampaio : ,).

By the end of the seventeenth century the Manoa and other macro-polities of the Negro, Orinoco, and Amazon Rivers were experiencingdynamic processes of transformation and disintegration. Internal socio-political contradictions and conflicts, the demographic decimation ofAmerindian populations (by disease, enslavement, and the like), and theEuropean colonization of the Negro River led to radical disruptions. Theseprocesses caused a new cooperation and mobilization of Indian groups,which became known by the early eighteenth century as the new socio-political formations called ‘‘multiethnic confederacies’’ (Vidal ). Thesemultiethnic confederacies, or ‘‘trading-military’’ modes of leadership andpolities (Whitehead: ), were flexible and varied in their ethnic mem-bership and were led by charismatic shaman-warrior chiefs. These power-ful chiefs based their political authority on their ability to build personalfollowings (kinfolks, in-laws, and allies), on their skills as regional trad-ers, especially of European goods, and on their shamanic knowledgeand power. Both European written records 15 and the oral history 16 ofArawakan-speaking groups allow the conclusion that these chiefs or ‘‘cap-tains’’ and their followings conducted big multiethnic ritual festivals re-lated to the Kuwé religion. These festivals included visits to sacred places,special and private houses for men, whipping and fastings ceremonies,and such musical performances as dancing, singing, and playing trumpets,flutes, and drums. Indeed, in Indian villages and mission towns there werespecial houses for chiefs that were bigger than the others and dedicatedto male meetings and ritual festivals (Ferreira : ). Also, in largerIndian villages there was a ritual house for each chief and important politi-cal leader. At those houses the initiated men received visitors and per-formed ritual whippings and ‘‘combats,’’ which sometimes ended with afew warriors wounded or dead. Despite these casualties, however, thesemeetings between powerful chiefs and their troops also promoted new af-final relationships and peace agreements.17

European and Amerindian narratives also reveal the routes connectingseveral trade systems from the Negro River to surrounding regions. Tradesystems and sacred places were connected from the Negro River to sur-rounding regions by several Kuwé routes.18 In addition to having importantesoteric and religious value, sacred places were also strategic sites for thedefense and trade of Indian leaders and groups.19 Eighteenth-century writ-ten records refer to different sacred ritual places and Indian market centersthat were highly valuable to both European authorities and Indian leaders(Morey ; Sweet ; Hemming ; Whitehead ). The impor-

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tance of these sacred places, as detailed in the Europeanwritten sources andin the Indian oral history, varied during the eighteenth century accordingto their relevance for the commercial activities and the political alliances ofEuropeans and Indians. Some of these sacred places were Cumarú, AturesandMaipures Falls,Yauita orYavita (a site located at the Temi Creek in theupper Atabapo Basin), Cocorubi Falls, Marié River, Maracoa (the south-ern part of the actual village of San Fernando de Atabapo), Autana River(a creek of the upper Orinoco Basin), Inírida River, Pasiva Lagoon andother places on the Casiquiare River, Tomo River (located at the upperGuainia Basin), Vaupés Falls, and Isana Falls.20 For example, the Cumarúsite was located between the Arirá (or Arirajá) and Unini Rivers in front ofthe mouth of the Branco River (Ribeiro de Sampaio : –). Cumarú(later known as the city of Poiares) received the name of Juruparíporacei-táua, or ‘‘place where Juruparí or Kuwé dances.’’ The Caburicena (the an-cient forefathers of the contemporary Baré and other Arawakan-speakinggroups) and many other groups held their ritual festivals at this site (ibid.).This sacred place was related to the trading route connecting the Japuráand upper Amazon Rivers with the Branco River and the Guianas. Thus,as Neil L.Whitehead (a: –) and I (: –, –, –,–) have noted, there was an ancient trade system between the upperUcayali, Negro, Orinoco, the Guianas, and the Caribbean. Through thistrade network circulated different items (gold objects, greenstones, Euro-pean manufactures, and the like) as well as people and information.

Between and , Arawakan-speaking groups and their alliesregrouped to form four multiethnic confederacies: the Manao confeder-acy 21 (Manao, Baré, Makú, Tiburí, Mabazarí, Javarí, Bumajana, Maia-pena, and others); the Cauauricena confederacy 22 (the Baré, Carayaí, Guai-punavi, and other groups from the lower and middle Negro River); theAranacoacena confederacy (the Baré, Curanao, and other groups from themiddle and upper Negro Basin); and the Caberre confederacy 23 (the Ca-berre, Amarisano, Achagua, Enagua, Maipure, Avane, Ature, Sáliva, andother groups from the Guaviare and upper Orinoco Basins). Most of theseconfederated groups and their leaders were devoted to an intense trade oftheir own commercial products and slaves with each other as well as withPortuguese, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies in exchange for guns andother European goods.

While the Manao confederacy maintained its economic and politicalautonomy by freely trading with other Amerindian polities, as well as withtheir Dutch, Spanish, and other European commercial partners, the Arana-coacena, Cauauricena, and Caberre confederacies were political allies andeconomic partners to colonial authorities.

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During this period therewere many different European camps, knownas arraiales or corrals, which were used to keep captive Indian slaves and tocontrol Amerindian and foreigners’ traffic between colonies. Two of thesearraiales were located in the Lugar de Alvaraes (in the Amazon, betweenthe Tefé and Paraguarí Rivers) and in the Fortaleza de Barra do Rio Negro(later known as Manaus). From these places Portuguese authorities ledenslavement parties and campaigns of extermination (so-called just wars)against such Indian groups as the Tarumá.

From the s to the s there were wars between the Manao,Cauauricena, and Aranacoacena confederacies for control over importantareas of the middle Negro River related to the European goods trade fromand to the Dutch colonies (Ribeiro de Sampaio: ,; Ferreira:). As a result the Manao and their Baré allies extended their dominanceto the Daráa, Padaurí, and Branco Rivers, as well as to other zones of theNegro River that used to be under control of the Carajaí, Curanao, andother groups. The Manao confederacy, under the leadership of the chiefAjuricaba, were thus in control of many commercial and sacred routes andwere using them in their trade system from the Cumarú site to the So-limoes and the Guianas. Between the late s and earlys theManaoconfederacy was at war with Portuguese colonial authorities. After ,when the Manao confederacy was dismembered by the Portuguese’s ‘‘justwar,’’ most of the Manao (the Manao, Urumanao, Irrumanao) and othergroups related to the Warekena and the Baré forefathers (the Maiapena,Caranai, Uipuari) were emigrating to the upper Negro, Atabapo, and Ori-noco Rivers by important Kuwé routes.

On the one hand the instability of these new ethnic formations, theirpossession of a great number of European weapons, and their definitive in-sertion in the colonial commercial networks of European goods led to com-petition and internecine conflicts among the leading of these Indian con-federacies. On the other hand European economic ambitions and fears ofthese powerful Indian groups pushed colonial authorities to intensify theirexplorations and patrolling of some important commercial routes and tocompete with the Amerindian polities and other foreign powers to gaincontrol of strategic areas of the Negro and Orinoco Basins. The Europeancolonial system itself and interactions among Europeans and Indians werethus decisive for the creation and transformation of these new ethnic socio-political formations.

Between and the processes of reorganization and fusionof Amerindian societies gave rise to four new confederacies: the Dema-nao confederacy 24 (the Baré, Manao, Warekena, Cubeo, Makú, and othergroups from the middle and upper Negro River); the Madáwaka confeder-

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acy 25 (the Baré, Baré-Madáwaka,Warekena, Yahure, Guinau, Anauyá, Ba-niva, Desana, Makú Guariba, Ye’kuana, and other groups from the upperNegro, upper Orinoco, and Casiquiare Basins); the Boapé-Maniva confed-eracy 26 (the Boapé or Tariana, Baniwa or Kurripako, Mabana, Meoana orArapaco, Mabei, Cubeo, Yapoa, Makú, Chapuena, and other groups fromtheVaupés and Isana Basins); and the Guaipunavi confederacy 27 (the Guai-punavi,Warekena, Maipure, Piapoco, Caberre, Parene, Puinave, and othergroups of the upper Orinoco, Guaviare, and Guainía Rivers).

Both the victory of the Manao over the Aranacoacena and Cauauri-cena in the middle Negro River and their defeat by Portuguese colonialforces were directly related to the emergence of the Guaipunavi confeder-acy and their migration to the upper Orinoco region.The Uipuari, Ipunawaor Guaipunavi, under the leadership of Macapu, migrated from middleNegro via the Isana route (Figure : A.) to the upper Orinoco. In this re-gion they conducted a large war against the Caberre, whom they expelledto mission towns and other places in the middle Orinoco area. By theGuaipunavi were one of the powerful groups of the upper Orinoco region(Gilij ; Vega ; Ramos Pérez ).

Crossing over the border between Portuguese and Spanish colonieswas a common strategy used by the Guaipunavi and other groups duringthis period. But the Guaipunavi did it by using a Kuwé sacred route, whichgave them the opportunity to regain their political, economic, and reli-gious power over other Arawakan-speaking groups of the upper OrinocoBasin. In this way they came to control an important sacred and strategicplace, the township of Maracoa (now known as San Fernando de Atabapo)located on the right margin of the lower Atabapo River, at the confluence ofthe upper Orinoco,Guaviare, andManapiare Rivers.These strategic placesand villages of Guaipunavi principal leaders (Macapu and Cucero) werefortified at the Inírida, Atabapo,Orinoco, and Autana Rivers (Altolaguirre; Gilij ).

After the defeat of theManao, the Demanao confederacy, led by ChiefCamanao, controlled the routes by the Marié, Cababurí, and Branco TheRivers. The Demanao controlled Cocorubi Falls (known today as SaoGabriel das Cachoeiras) and the area of the Cucui Rock, two sacred andstrategic places of the Arawakan-speaking groups. Camanao and his groupwere also important trading and military partners of the Portuguese au-thorities.

The people of the Boapé-Maniva confederacy—which embracedgroups related to the Baré and the Warekena forefathers or their affines,such as the Buopé (Tariana) and the Pariana (Yavitero, Baniva)—tradedgold and other goods from the Isana and Vaupés Rivers to the Orinoco

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and Solimoes as well as other important places in South America (Figure :A, B). Probably as a result of internal conflicts and the Portuguese cam-paign against the Manao, by and the Pariana migrated from theupperVaupés to the Guainía and upper Atabapo Basins, using Kuwé routes(Figure : C., D.–). The Madáwaka confederacy (the Umasevitaunaand Darivazauna) controlled two important trade routes (Figure : C.,E.) and shared another route with the Manao (Figure : C.).

From the s to the late s the progressive process of Europeaneconomic dominion over the Amerindian political economy began. Duringthis period the Crowns of Spain and Portugal signed a delimitation treatyto demarcate their respective overseas possessions. The border demarca-tion, the expansion of colonial frontiers, was dedicated to definitive territo-rial control, to the expulsion of foreign intruders and competitors, and tothe political, legal, economic, and cultural integration (or forced amalga-mation) of Indian populations to the imperial Crowns. As a consequence,new sociopolitical changes and violence took place in the Orinoco–Negroregion. Between and there were many Indian rebellions in themiddle and upper Negro and in the upper Orinoco Rivers (Caulín ;Fernández de Bovadilla ; Ramos Pérez ; Mendoça Furtado ;Ferreira , , , ). While some rebel groups defended theirlands and sacred places against European encroachment, others fought toregain control over strategic networks of trade.28 For example, Imo (orImmo), the principal leader of the Marabitana confederacy—with morethan two hundred Marabitana, Amuisana, and Guaipunavi men andwomen—attacked the Spanish mission of San Juan Nepomuceno de Atures(Szentmartonyi, inWright; Gilij ; Ramos Pérez). Beforetheir attack Imo and his group performed a sacred ritual, which includedplaying flutes, trumpets, and drums (Gilij : –). The purpose ofthis attack was probably to stop Spanish expansion from the middle Ori-noco to the Negro River.

From to the Amerindian confederacies of the upper Negroand upper Orinoco Rivers were led by strong warriors-shaman chiefs whowere directly associated with the Kuwé religion. In fact, thewritten recordssay that Cuceru, Imo, Cocui, Amuni, Mara, Davipe, Inao, and others ledsecret (warrior) male societies that required special ‘‘men houses,’’ whip-ping and fasting ceremonies, and sacred places (Altolaguirre ; RamosPérez ; Vegas ). After their rituals and meetings these powerfulchiefs and their followers used to go out on warfare and trade parties.But these events meant a deeper involvement of these Indian groups inthe colonial system. This involvement produced a continuous desertion ofsome indigenous groups from European towns and villages, while for other

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groups it entailed a decline of their economic and political autonomy.Theseincidents helped to sustain some Indian confederacies (i.e., the Guaipu-navi, the Madáwaka) but also favored the emergence of others, such asthe Marabitana,29 the Darivazauna,30 the Umasevitauna,31 the Urumanavi,32

and the Amuisana,33 which became more powerful in the upper Negro–Casiquiare–Guainía–upper Orinoco region.

Between and European expeditions of delimitation of colo-nial frontiers occurred in the upper Negro–upper Orinoco Region. Mili-tary and civilian authorities tried to impose some changes in the organiza-tion of their respective colonies; new foundations of towns and fortressesbegan, and mission towns were transformed into secular villages underthe control of new European and Indian authorities. Europeans prohibitedAmerindian groups to freely move within and among colonial territories.During this period Europeans began to improve their geographical knowl-edge of the region, and in this way they started the process of imposingtheir colonial cartography over the Amerindian one.

A great contingent of Portuguese soldiers, officials, and experts trav-eled by the Negro River and began using indigenous chiefs and groupsas mediators and ethnic militia against other independent Indian groups.This Portuguese campaign generated a great Indian rebellion in . In-deed, several allied Amerindian confederacies and Indians from missiontowns faced the Portuguese army at São Gabriel Falls. This war severed theIndian-Portuguese relationships and caused many Indian migratory move-ments from the middle Negro Basin to the upper Negro–upper Orinocoregion to the Spanish colony. As a consequence, the confrontation betweenthe Guaipunavi and theMarabitana started. Both confederations competedfor the political control of the Indian slaves and European goods trade sys-tem through the entire region (Gilij : ; Humboldt : ).

Spanish authorities caused more changes with their intervention inIndian-European interaction. The authorities tried to negotiate their politi-cal protection to Indians in exchange for indigenous subjection to the Span-ish Crown. By many powerful Amerindian leaders of the Guaipunaviand Marabitana confederacies were performing public ceremonies of vas-salage to Spanish authorities at San Fernando de Atabapo. This vassalageweakened the leadership of Cucero and Imo and directly affected the Guai-punavi confederacy, causing its rapid disintegration. The influence of otherleaders like Cocui increased, however. Cocui became the principal chiefof the Marabaitana and other smaller confederacies of the Upper Negroregion.

By the end of eighteenth century most of the places along major riversroutes (the upper Orinoco and upper Negro) were virtually uninhabited

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(Jerez a, b; Ribeiro de Sampaio ; Humboldt, , vol. ;Ferreira , , , ), and several groups on the Negro Riverhad been transformed from gentiles (independent peoples) into abalizados(assimilated individuals and families) (Neto ) or groups undergoingdrastic reductions in their political autonomy (Vidal ). During thissame period a new Amerindian category emerged: canicurú (Neto :–; Stradelli : ). The term literally meant ‘‘traitor,’’ and it wasused by the Manao, the Baré, and other groups of the upper Negro re-gion to refer to individuals and groups who were at the service of the colo-nial powers. By the close of the century the European economy, cartog-raphy, and colonial system dominated the Orinoco-Negro region. Despitethis, some Indian groups managed to survive and resist colonial dominionby transforming their sociopolitical structures and redefining their ethnicidentities. Indeed, some of their leaders—such as the Marabitana Cocuiand the Umasevituana Davipe—were able to reinstate the Kuwé religionat the Cucui Mountain site and in the Tomo, San Miguel, and TiriquínRivers.34 During his visit to San Carlos de Río Negro, between and, Alejandro de Humboldt (, vol. ) was able to listen to the sacredflutes and trumpets of Kuwé or Kachimanai (‘‘botutos’’) at the Tomo River;he also learned about the achievements and powerful ritual knowledge ofCocui, the great cacique of the Marabitana.

Conclusion

The Kuwé Duwákalumi were used during the eighteenth century by theWarekena and the Baré forebears as political, religious, migratory, andtrade strategies of resistance. During this period powerful shaman-warriorsledmultiethnic confederacies, ormilitary-trading polities.The polities wereflexible and highly variable ethnic formations that were directly stimulatedby the European-Indian interactions; they represented a quick response andstrategy for survival and redefinition of Indian ethnic identities.

By trading, migrating, and resisting, these powerful chiefs and theirfollowers emulated Kuwé and his troops; in this way they challenged andweakened the European colonial system. These leaders and their followerstransformed the Kuwé cult into a strong religious system that was sharedby many Indian groups of the Northwest Amazon (including the Tukano-ans, Makús, and other groups) (Amorim ; Hill , ; GonzálezÑáñez ; Reichel-Dolmatoff, ; Wright , ; Vidal ,). This religious system, as an ideological support of military-tradingpolities, also came to favor the emergence and continuity of a pan-Indianpolitical-religious hierarchy in the northwest Amazon during the nine-

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teenth century. This pan-Indian organization came into action during therubber boom era as powerful Indian shaman-prophets led millenarianmovements (Hill and Wright ; Wright and Hill ).

The Kuwé religion and secret male societies constituted importantaspects of the shamanic way of constructing history, culture, and societyfor the Warekena and the Baré forefathers. This political and religiousstrategy allowed theWarekena and the Baré ancient leaders to build politi-cal communities and new cultural identities within the colonial regime ofthe eighteenth century. This article has shown that Kuwé routes consti-tuted an extensive network of fluvial, terrestrial, and fluvio-terrestrial con-nections that tied together different Amerindian groups and ample areasof the South American lowlands. The routes are directly related to a com-plex and varied ancient knowledge and a map of sacred and secular places.This map represents the ancient Amerindian geopolitical knowledge thatincludes former sociopolitical, religious, economic, and cultural relation-ships within and among Indian peoples of the great region between theOrinoco and Amazon Rivers. But the most important aspect of this mapis that it constituted the cartographic knowledge of the Warekena and theBaré forefathers used to organize and interpret the Americas. This carto-graphic knowledgewas continually contested by the European cartographyand the topography of colonial power.

Kuwé teachings and sacred routes also represent the valuable infor-mation contained in the mytho-history and oral history of the Warekenaand the Baré. This information is crucial for understanding the histori-cal processes of the South American lowlands. This article shows that bycombining Amerindian mytho-history and oral history (including Indiancategories and typologies) with other data (archaeological, ethnohistorical,ethnographic evidences), it is possible to obtain an insightful approach tothe nature of both interethnic and commercial networks as well as the mi-gratory processes of the Arawak and other peoples of the South Americanlowlands.

As this article has detailed, the Baré and Warekena forebears used theKuwé teachings and sacred routes—or the Kuwé religion—not only to par-ticipate in the trading network of Indian slaves and European goods (espe-cially firearms, knives, machetes) but also to evade or challenge the colonialdominion. On the one hand their participation in regional trading systemsallowed the Warekena and Baré leaders to regain power and prestige, butthis strategy led to the collapse of their local and regional leadership withinthe colonial system. On the other hand the migratory movements of theWarekena, the Baré, and other groups caused the partial failure of the Por-tuguese and Spanish missionary, military, and civil authorities to develop a

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stable colonial system during most of the eighteenth century in the upperOrinoco–upper Negro region.

By participating, resisting, and fighting the colonial regimes, theWare-kena and the Baré forebears were able to rebuild and control their owncultures, identities, territories, and societies. But the most important thingwas that their continual process of rebuilding political and cultural com-munities also contributed to the emergence of yet another political and cul-tural community: that of the criollo or creole populations of the NorthwestAmazon region of Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil.

Even today the Baré and the Warekena travel by Kúwe routes. TheBaré are still fighting to recover their political and economic autonomy.TheWarekena still organize themselves in secret male societies, and in this wayKuwé and his troop of initiated Warekenas continue opening and closingthe world at the sacred places of the San Miguel River. But the most im-portant legacy of their ancestors is that the Warekena and Baré still in-voke Kuwé Duwákalumi as a powerful strategy to control their own pastand to defend their cultural rights and traditional lands. In fact, duringthe s and s the Warekena traveled and migrated by way of Kuwéroutes to resist gold mining exploitation and invasion of their lands. Forthe last three decades both theWarekena and the Baré have been talking tothe Venezuelan authorities about Kuwé teachings and routes as sacred andlegal instruments to reclaim their rights to their ancient territories.

Notes

A version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the AmericanAnthropological Association, San Francisco, – November, in the sympo-sium Reconstructing and Deconstructing Colonial Peripatetics in Venezuela. - (the Venezuelan Council for Technological and Scientific Research) and (the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research) provided me with the funds to at-tend this symposium. I am deeply grateful to theWarekena, Baré, and Baniva elders,colleagues, and friends for sharing with me their forefathers’ teachings and sacredknowledge. I would like to thank in particular Nelly Arvelo-Jiménez, Jonathan D.Hill, Berta E. Pérez, Abel Perozo, Neil L.Whitehead, and Alberta Zucchi for theircontributions, comments, and suggestions. I also thank Carlos Quintero for elabo-ration of the maps.

By multiethnic I mean that the Indian populations of these confederacies be-longed to different ethnic-linguistic groups of the Arawakan, Tukanoan, Ma-kuan, and other linguistic families.

Fernando Santos Granero () states that the Yanesha (or Amuesha, anotherArawakan-speaking group from Peru) also preserve their historical memoryby different and complex practices, including that of writing history into thelandscape. The author calls this practice as ‘‘topographic writing’’ (ibid.: ).

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In his article Santos Granero mentions that the Wakuénai (another Arawakan-speaking group from Venezuela) and the Paez (an Indian group from the Co-lombian Andes) also share this practice.

See also Adorno; Asad; Basso ; Boyarin ; Coronil ; Hill; Mignolo ; Seed ; Shapiro ; Turner a, ; Whitehead, b.

See also Baer ; Biord Castillo ; Butt-Colson; Chernela , ;Hill , a, b; Journet ; Meira a, b; Morales Méndez, , ; Reichel-Dolmatoff ; Santos Granero ; Vidal ,; Whitehead , a, b; Wright ; Wright and Hill .

Since the end of s, some Warekena, Baniva, Kurripako, Baré, and Yeralritual specialists, elders, and teachers have begun conducting their own researchon their cultures and histories. I was honored with the invitation to read anddiscuss with them most of their work and findings.

Today many Latin American peoples (Indians, Afro-Americans, and criollos)center their social and political struggles on their own definitions and interpre-tations of history (Guzmán Böckler ). Defining and controlling the past isthe ultimate form of hegemony (Hill a: ), representing the complicity ofthe official history with empires (Mignolo ; Guha ; Guha and Spivak).

Mythic and historical narratives are known to the Baré as [a]chelekawa (to nar-rate, tell, or relate). Mythic narratives begin with the expression of Idabakabeuku yajanei (‘‘when the day/light began’’ or ‘‘in the beginning of the world’’);while for oral history the Baré use personal names of ancestors or kinship ter-minology, followed by the suffix -mi (as a preterit marker). The Warekena dis-tinguish between mythic narratives (kasaleta, to tell, relate, narrate) and oralhistory (panina); but when they are narrating, they follow the same pattern asthe Baré. For example, Ale tapaka puna (‘‘when the day/light began’’ or ‘‘in thebeginning of the world’’). They also use the suffix -mi.

Also known to the Baré, Baniva, and Yavitero as Katsimánai, the shrimp eater.Baniva and Yavitero are two other Arawakan-speaking groups of the upperNegro–upper Guainia region.

Inepe miki nawimeans the ‘‘real’’ or ‘‘mythic’’ ancestors from a very distant past.Nápiruli is the Trickster-Creator; Purúnamínali is ‘‘the giver of names’’ and apowerful shaman-warrior; and Dzúli is the first shaman who taught the Ware-kena and Baré forebears his knowledge on shamanism. Pjénawji or péinjli-náwimeans ‘‘the elders.’’ These are the living old people who have important histori-cal, shamanistic, ritual, and practical knowledge.

They also share these cult and religious beliefs with the Tukanoan-speakinggroups of the same region (see Chernela , ; C. Hugh-Jones ;S. Hugh-Jones , ; Jackson ).

See Hill , ; Vidal , ; and Wright , for more informa-tion on the mythohistorical narratives of other Arawakan-speaking groups.

Kalítani, meaning ‘‘the tree of all fruits and vegetables,’’ is the name of a moun-tain located at the Autana River, a small branch of the upper Orinoco River.

In some maps Kuwé routes also appear as ‘‘Passage of the Devil’’ or as ‘‘Yuru-parí,’’ a name for Kúwai in the Yeral language. During rituals Warekena andBaré shamans, elders, and initiated men can spiritually and symbolically travelto visit sacred places located in this and other levels of the cosmos. They also

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believe that Kuwé can ‘‘come to the ground’’ (i.e., he visits this world) duringritual festivals or that he can ‘‘be brought down’’ to this world by ritual spe-cialists.

In the written records the Warekena are known as Orejones, Guarequena, Ari-quena, or Uerekena, and the Baré as Barena, Balénu, and Bale (for other namesand references, see Vidal ). The Warekena of the upper Negro were alsomentioned as using a sort of ‘‘quipu’’ writing system after the manner of theancient Peruvians (Baena : ; Ribeiro de Sampaio : ). I asked theWarekena elders about this quipu; they informed me that their forebears usedto have a system of cords and knots to sendmessages from one place to another;some Warekena still remember part of this system.

Betendorf ; Caulín ; Cuervo –; Daniel ; Fernández de Bo-vadilla ; Ferreira ; Fritz ; Gilij ; Humboldt ; Jerez a,b; Llanos Vargas and Pineda Camacho ; Mendoça Furtado ;Ramos Pérez ; Ribeiro de Sampaio ; Simón ; Sweet ; Szent-martonyi, in Wright ; Vega ; Vidal ; Vidal and Zucchi ;Wright .

For example, in Amorim there are many Amerindian narratives that men-tion these shaman-warrior chiefs, such as Buopé (–), Cocui (–),and others. These chiefs and their warriors performed Kuwé rituals and festi-vals before they went on war parties and trading travels.

One of these ritual whippings, combats, and meetings was documented forthe Manetivitano (or Marabitana) and the Guaipunavi in the Atabapo River(Ramos Pérez ). Felipe Salvador Gilij (, vol. ), an eighteenth-centurymissionary, also mentions that Guaipunavi leaders and shamans used to singand dance a variety of songs, including one he heard named ‘‘mariye.’’ This songis currently sung during Kuwé rituals among the Warekena.

According to Whitehead (a: ), the mythology of the Lokono (anotherArawakan-speaking group) and the eighteenth-century written records aboutthem indicate that their ‘‘political geography extended right across the Guayanashield into Colombia and onto the Pacific coast.’’ This constitutes another ex-ample of the secret and secular knowledge of the Arawakan-speaking groupsrelated to trade networks and routes.

To the Arawakan-speaking groups, sacred places include rocks, mountains,lagoons, rapids, and falls. Petroglyphs and other forms of rock art and ritualstructures are also associated with these places.

Altolaguirre y Duvale ; Gilij ; Humboldt ; Llanos Vargas andPineda Camacho ; Mendoça Furtado ; Ramos Pérez ; Ribeiro deSampaio ; Sweet ; Vega ; Wright .

The leader of the Manao confederacy was Ayuricaba (Ajuricaba); another im-portant leader was Camandary (Camandry).

Curunamá was the paramount leader of the Cavauricana confederacy; he wasalso in control of the sacred site Cumarú.

By the early eighteenth century the leader of the Caberra confederacy was Neri-cagua.

The most famous leader of the Demanao confederacy was Camanao. TheMadáwaka confederacy was led in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth

centuries by a paramount chief called Guaicana. Later, Amuni was the leaderof this confederacy, and by the s an Indian woman, Mavideo, daughter of

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the great Guaicana, and her uncle Cachupa are mentioned as the confederacy’sinfluential authorities.

The Boapé-Maniva confederacy was led by Boapé, but Cunaguari is mentionedas its leader as well.

By the s, when the Guaipunavi arrived in the upper Orinoco, their leaderwasMacapu. Later, by thes, the confederacy was led by Cuceru (Cruzero).

For example, there were two important Indian rebellions during this period:one was the rebellion of the so-called Río Negro Indians in the Cocorubi Falls(also known as Sâo Gabriel das Cachoeiras); the other was that of the Marabi-tana, Guaypunavi, and others groups of the Maipure Falls. Both rebellions hadthe purpose of regaining control of the upper Orinoco–upper Negro region.

The groups belonging to the Marabitana confederacy were the Baré, Manao,Guinao, Catarapene, Yahure, Makú, Guariba, Warekena, and Baniva. At first,Imo (Immo, Imocon) was their principal leader, but later Cocui (Cucui, Cucubi)was the most influential warrior-shaman chief of the Marabitana.

The groups belonging to the Darivazauna or Darivazana confederacy were theBaré, Piapoco,Warekena, Puinave, Cubeo. Their leader was Mará, and his sec-ondary chiefs were Dojo and Mabiú.

The groups belonging to the Umasevitauna confederacy were the Warekena,Baré, and Baniva.

The groups belonging to the Urumanavi confederacy were the Baré andManao. The groups belonging to the Amuisana confederacy were the Baniva, Yavitero,

Deesana, and Baré. Cocui was a famous Baré warrior-chief who was the head of the Baré in the

upper Negro and in the city of San Carlos de Río Negro at the end of the eigh-teenth century. Davipe (Dauipe) was a famous Warekena chief who was thefounder of SanMiguel de Davipe, the first mission-town for theWarekena Indi-ans on the San Miguel River.

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