Vidal, The Arawak Sacred Routes of Migration.pdf

Kuwe Duwakalumi: The Arawak Sacred Routes of Migration, Trade,and Resistance

Vidal, Silvia M.

Ethnohistory, Volume 47, Number 3-4, Summer-Fall 2000, pp. 635-667(Article)

Published by Duke University Press

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Kuw Duwkalumi: The Arawak Sacred Routesof Migration, Trade, and Resistance

Silvia M. Vidal, Instituto Venezolano deInvestigaciones Cientficas

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

This article analyzes Kuw Duwkalumi, or Kuw 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 Bar Indians were organized into different multiethnicconfederacies, such as the Demanao, Madwaka, 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 Kuw 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 Bar still traveled by Kuw Duwkalumi toregain their economic, political, and cultural rights.

Kuw teachings and sacred routes are important aspects of the religion

Ethnohistory : (summerfall )Copyright by the American Society for Ethnohistory.

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of Kuw or Kwai. 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.2Kuw has served the Arawakan-speaking peoples (more specifically, theWarekena and Bar) as a model ofand for society and their geopolitical and interethnic relations on whichthey have built their strategies of resistance. In short, Kuw Duwkalumihave served as a means to participate in as well as to evade and challengethe colonial (and postcolonial) dominion.

As strategies of resistance, Kuw Duwkalumi 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 Bar 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-Jimnez and Biord Castillo ; Arvelo-Jimnez et al. ; Chernela; Gonzlez ez ; Hill ; C. Hugh-Jones ; S. Hugh-Jones ; Jackson ; Morales and Arvelo-Jimnez ; Morey ;Reichel-Dolmatoff ; Roosevelt ; Whitehead , ; Wright).4 Finally, current ethnographical and historical findings obtainedfrom research conducted by someWarekena, Baniva, Kurripako, Bar, andYeral Indians (native ethnography) have also been considered.5

To analyze Kuw Duwkalumi 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, Kuw Duwkalmi

The Arawak Sacred Routes

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, Kuw Duwka-lmi represent their model of constructing and interpreting geography andplace.The anthropological literature on shamanism has also stressed the as-sociation between shamans 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 ifculture 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


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 Bar.Their find-ings and my analysis were combined with European written records to ex-amine Kuw Duwkalumi. 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 Bar

The contemporary Warekena and Bar inhabit several townships of theUpper GuainaNegro region in the Venezuelan Amazon (Figure ). Thereare about six hundred Warekenas and two thousand Bars 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 Bar 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 groups 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 Kuw 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 Bar, Warekena, and Other Arawakan-Speaking Groups in the Venezuelan Amazon. Source: Vidal field notes , , .


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 Kuw or Kwai and the Trick-ster Creator (Npirrkuli or Npiruli). 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 Bars 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 Bar,Kuw or Kwai 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 Kuw 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.

Kuws cult is associated with a hierarchical political and religiousorganization known as secret male societies that represent Kuw 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 Kuw and his troops is based on the associationthat the Arawakan-speaking groups established between the mythic orfirst ancestors (the inpe mik nwi, such as Kuw, Npiruli, Purnamnali,and Dzli) and the living elders or pjnawji.9 The Kuw religion is also alink to collective death and rebirth, world destruction and renewal. Hill(: ) states that the cult of Kuwi and of the ancestor spirits hascontinued to serve the Wakunai [another Arawak group] as a power re-source for negotiating interethnic relations along the lower Guaina Riverin Venezuela.

Myths and Oral History of theContemporary Warekena and Bar

TheWarekena and the Bar sharewith other Arawakan-speaking groups ofthe Northwest Amazon the Kuw or Kwai 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 Bar 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 theBar 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 Bar 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 Hpana, an ancient community located in the Ayar River and themythical place of the beginning of the world. Its principal characters areNpiruli, Amruyawa (primordial woman), the first Kuw, and a group ofhuman-animal beings. Npiruli created the first world andwas entrusted toeliminate all of the dangerous animals and imperfections. This world wasdestroyed by a great inundation from which only Npiruli, Amruyawa,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 Npiruli, the three sons of Npiruli, Amruyawa, the secondKuw, Kli, some human-animal beings, and the first ancestors. This cycleexplains the life and death of Kuw, or the voice that opened up (expanded)the world. He taught agriculture (kaltani) and the sacred rituals of initia-tion to the first ancestors.12 At the end of the first ritual, Kuw performedfor the first ancestors, then Npiruli killed him in a great fire and Kuwleft 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, Amruyawa and other womenstole the sacred instruments from the initiated men; and this act of Amru-yawa and her troop of women set off a long chase (opening theworld again)from the Ayar and Isana Rivers to different places in the Orinoco, Negro,and Amazon Basins. This long chase ended when Npiruli and his men re-gained control over Kuws instruments. According to the Warekena and


the Bar, the death of Kuw 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 (Npiruli, Amruyawa), and the central characters are Purnam-nali (or the giver of names), Pumyawa, Kumasi, and some other real andmythic forebears. This set of narratives mostly takes place inWarekena andBar ancestral lands and is connected with some of their economic, migra-tory, commercial, political, and shamanic activities.

According to theWarekena and the Bar, 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 Kuw cult in a religion that includes an organization of war-riors and secret male societies. It began during the time of the grandfathersDer-der(-nwi) and Benbena, when they introduced initiation rites foryoung girls. By Kuw 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 Bar, the Warekena, theBaniva, and so on), led by Dpenabe, the master of the rite, and Dzli asthe great shaman. After this event, many groups related to the Warekena,Bar, Baniva, and their in-laws and allies started to celebrate the initiationceremonies for men and the Kuw religion began.

The third period began when the Kakhau people murdered Pum-yawa and her husband in the Aguachapita River, an affluent of the Casi-quiare; Pumyawa saw their Kuw, and in this way she broke the sacredlaws of the religion. Before dying, however, she gave birth to Kumasi (orKumati in Bar), who was protected and raised by Inmalu and Inilwiyupeoples. When he grew older, Kumasi waged a war against the Kak-hau, their allies and in-laws. He and his men killed Captain Ipchipimhliand most of the Kakhau. Kumasis 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 Bar are intermingled, especially thoseof some warrior-chiefs of the eighteenth century, such as Cocui, Davipe,Cabi, Cayama, and Basimnare, among others. It is interesting to high-light that in these narratives the ancestors are portrayed as people buildingand opening roads (Kuw Duwkalumi), writing messages and teachingsin riverine stones (petroglyphs), and traveling by Kuw routes.

Kuw Sacred Routes and Travels

The Kuw 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 Kuws geographi-cal, ecological, botanical, and zoological teachings and knowledge. KuwDuwkalumi literally means where Kuw 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. Kuw 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 Kuw 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 Bar (and their affines), thereare at least eighteen main Kuw routes (Figures and ). During his lifeKuw 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


Figure . Map of Kuw Routes. Source: Vidal .

Silvia M. Vidal

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


Figure . Main Kuw Routes According to the Bar and Warekena Oral Traditions.

Arawakan-speaking powerful leaders and their groups were impersonat-ing Kuw and his troops; they were traveling, migrating, trading, and bat-tling by using the Kuw sacred routes. In his interpretations of Kwaisjourneys 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 Kuw 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 Kuw Duwkalumi thus formthe sociopolitical and religious basis of the regional leadership of powerfulArawakan-speaking warrior-chiefs and groups.

Warekena and Bar Routes ofMigration, Trade, and Resistance

From the sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries the ancient forebears oftheWarekena and the Bar 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 (Acua ; Almesto ; Cuervo; De la Cruz ; Federmann ; Simn ; 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 Bar, the Cariaya, the Curanao, and other


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 Kuw 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 Kuw 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 Cumar, AturesandMaipures Falls,Yauita orYavita (a site located at the Temi Creek in theupper Atabapo Basin), Cocorubi Falls, Mari River, Maracoa (the south-ern part of the actual village of San Fernando de Atabapo), Autana River(a creek of the upper Orinoco Basin), Inrida River, Pasiva Lagoon andother places on the Casiquiare River, Tomo River (located at the upperGuainia Basin), Vaups Falls, and Isana Falls.20 For example, the Cumarsite was located between the Arir (or Ariraj) and Unini Rivers in front ofthe mouth of the Branco River (Ribeiro de Sampaio : ). Cumar(later known as the city of Poiares) received the name of Juruparporacei-tua, or place where Jurupar or Kuw dances. The Caburicena (the an-cient forefathers of the contemporary Bar 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 Japurand 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, Bar, Mak, Tibur, Mabazar, Javar, Bumajana, Maia-pena, and others); the Cauauricena confederacy 22 (the Bar, Caraya, Guai-punavi, and other groups from the lower and middle Negro River); theAranacoacena confederacy (the Bar, Curanao, and other groups from themiddle and upper Negro Basin); and the Caberre confederacy 23 (the Ca-berre, Amarisano, Achagua, Enagua, Maipure, Avane, Ature, Sliva, 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.


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 Tef and Paraguar 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 Tarum.

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 Bar allies extended their dominanceto the Dara, Padaur, and Branco Rivers, as well as to other zones of theNegro River that used to be under control of the Caraja, 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 Cumar 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 Portugueses justwar, most of the Manao (the Manao, Urumanao, Irrumanao) and othergroups related to the Warekena and the Bar forefathers (the Maiapena,Caranai, Uipuari) were emigrating to the upper Negro, Atabapo, and Ori-noco Rivers by important Kuw 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 Bar, Manao, Warekena, Cubeo, Mak, and othergroups from the middle and upper Negro River); the Madwaka confeder-

Silvia M. Vidal

acy 25 (the Bar, Bar-Madwaka,Warekena, Yahure, Guinau, Anauy, Ba-niva, Desana, Mak Guariba, Yekuana, and other groups from the upperNegro, upper Orinoco, and Casiquiare Basins); the Boap-Maniva confed-eracy 26 (the Boap or Tariana, Baniwa or Kurripako, Mabana, Meoana orArapaco, Mabei, Cubeo, Yapoa, Mak, Chapuena, and other groups fromtheVaups 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 Guaina 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 Prez ).

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 Kuw 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 Inrida, Atabapo,Orinoco, and Autana Rivers (Altolaguirre; Gilij ).

After the defeat of theManao, the Demanao confederacy, led by ChiefCamanao, controlled the routes by the Mari, Cababur, 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 Boap-Maniva confederacywhich embracedgroups related to the Bar and the Warekena forefathers or their affines,such as the Buop (Tariana) and the Pariana (Yavitero, Baniva)tradedgold and other goods from the Isana and Vaups Rivers to the Orinoco


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 theupperVaups to the Guaina and upper Atabapo Basins, using Kuw routes(Figure : C., D.). The Madwaka 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 OrinocoNegroregion. Between and there were many Indian rebellions in themiddle and upper Negro and in the upper Orinoco Rivers (Cauln ;Fernndez de Bovadilla ; Ramos Prez ; Mendoa 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 confederacywith morethan two hundred Marabitana, Amuisana, and Guaipunavi men andwomenattacked the Spanish mission of San Juan Nepomuceno de Atures(Szentmartonyi, inWright; Gilij ; Ramos Prez). 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 Kuw 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 ; RamosPrez ; 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

Silvia M. Vidal

groups it entailed a decline of their economic and political autonomy.Theseincidents helped to sustain some Indian confederacies (i.e., the Guaipu-navi, the Madwaka) 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 NegroCasiquiareGuainaupper Orinoco region.

Between and European expeditions of delimitation of colo-nial frontiers occurred in the upper Negroupper 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 So Gabriel Falls. This war severed theIndian-Portuguese relationships and caused many Indian migratory move-ments from the middle Negro Basin to the upper Negroupper 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


(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: canicur (Neto :; Stradelli : ). The term literally meant traitor, and it wasused by the Manao, the Bar, 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 leaderssuch as the Marabitana Cocuiand the Umasevituana Davipewere able to reinstate the Kuw religionat the Cucui Mountain site and in the Tomo, San Miguel, and TiriqunRivers.34 During his visit to San Carlos de Ro Negro, between and, Alejandro de Humboldt (, vol. ) was able to listen to the sacredflutes and trumpets of Kuw 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 Kuw Duwkalumi were used during the eighteenth century by theWarekena and the Bar 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 Kuw and his troops; in this way they challenged andweakened the European colonial system. These leaders and their followerstransformed the Kuw cult into a strong religious system that was sharedby many Indian groups of the Northwest Amazon (including the Tukano-ans, Maks, and other groups) (Amorim ; Hill , ; Gonzlezez ; 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-

Silvia M. Vidal

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 Kuw religion and secret male societies constituted importantaspects of the shamanic way of constructing history, culture, and societyfor the Warekena and the Bar forefathers. This political and religiousstrategy allowed theWarekena and the Bar ancient leaders to build politi-cal communities and new cultural identities within the colonial regime ofthe eighteenth century. This article has shown that Kuw 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 theBar forefathers used to organize and interpret the Americas. This carto-graphic knowledgewas continually contested by the European cartographyand the topography of colonial power.

Kuw teachings and sacred routes also represent the valuable infor-mation contained in the mytho-history and oral history of the Warekenaand the Bar. 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 Bar and Warekena forebears used theKuw teachings and sacred routesor the Kuw religionnot 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 Bar 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 Bar, and other groups caused the partial failure of the Por-tuguese and Spanish missionary, military, and civil authorities to develop a


stable colonial system during most of the eighteenth century in the upperOrinocoupper Negro region.

By participating, resisting, and fighting the colonial regimes, theWare-kena and the Bar 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 Bar and the Warekena travel by Kwe routes. TheBar are still fighting to recover their political and economic autonomy.TheWarekena still organize themselves in secret male societies, and in this wayKuw 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 Bar still in-voke Kuw Duwkalumi 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 Kuwroutes to resist gold mining exploitation and invasion of their lands. Forthe last three decades both theWarekena and the Bar have been talking tothe Venezuelan authorities about Kuw 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, Bar, and Baniva elders,colleagues, and friends for sharing with me their forefathers teachings and sacredknowledge. I would like to thank in particular Nelly Arvelo-Jimnez, Jonathan D.Hill, Berta E. Prez, 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.: ).

Silvia M. Vidal

In his article Santos Granero mentions that the Wakunai (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 Mndez, , ; Reichel-Dolmatoff ; Santos Granero ; Vidal ,; Whitehead , a, b; Wright ; Wright and Hill .

Since the end of s, some Warekena, Baniva, Kurripako, Bar, 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 (Guzmn Bckler ). 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 Bar 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 Bar 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 Bar. 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 Bar, Baniva, and Yavitero as Katsimnai, the shrimp eater.Baniva and Yavitero are two other Arawakan-speaking groups of the upperNegroupper Guainia region.

Inepe miki nawimeans the real or mythic ancestors from a very distant past.Npiruli is the Trickster-Creator; Purnamnali is the giver of names and apowerful shaman-warrior; and Dzli is the first shaman who taught the Ware-kena and Bar forebears his knowledge on shamanism. Pjnawji or pinjli-nwimeans 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.

Kaltani, 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 Kuw routes also appear as Passage of the Devil or as Yuru-par, a name for Kwai in the Yeral language. During rituals Warekena andBar shamans, elders, and initiated men can spiritually and symbolically travelto visit sacred places located in this and other levels of the cosmos. They also


believe that Kuw 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 Bar as Barena, Balnu, 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 ; Cauln ; Cuervo ; Daniel ; Fernndez de Bo-vadilla ; Ferreira ; Fritz ; Gilij ; Humboldt ; Jerez a,b; Llanos Vargas and Pineda Camacho ; Mendoa Furtado ;Ramos Prez ; Ribeiro de Sampaio ; Simn ; 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 Buop (), Cocui (),and others. These chiefs and their warriors performed Kuw 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 Prez ). 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 Kuw 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 ; Mendoa Furtado ; Ramos Prez ; Ribeiro deSampaio ; Sweet ; Vega ; Wright .

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

Curunam was the paramount leader of the Cavauricana confederacy; he wasalso in control of the sacred site Cumar.

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

The most famous leader of the Demanao confederacy was Camanao. TheMadwaka 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

Silvia M. Vidal

the great Guaicana, and her uncle Cachupa are mentioned as the confederacysinfluential authorities.

The Boap-Maniva confederacy was led by Boap, 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 Ro Negro Indians in the Cocorubi Falls(also known as So 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 Orinocoupper Negro region.

The groups belonging to the Marabitana confederacy were the Bar, Manao,Guinao, Catarapene, Yahure, Mak, 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 theBar, Piapoco,Warekena, Puinave, Cubeo. Their leader was Mar, and his sec-ondary chiefs were Dojo and Mabi.

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

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

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

upper Negro and in the city of San Carlos de Ro 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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