Nukak

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the language, see Nukak language.
Nukak
Hupdu

The Nukak

uncontacted people" until 1981,[5] and have since lost half of their population primarily to disease.[6] Part of their territory has been used by coca growers, ranchers, and other settlers, as well as being occupied by guerrillas, army and paramilitaries. Responses to this crisis include protests, requests for assimilation, and the suicide of leader Maw-be'.[6] An estimated 210–250 Nukak people live in provisional settlements at San José del Guaviare
, while about as many live nomadically in the Nukak Reservation (Resguardo).

Hunting

Nukak are expert hunters. The men hunt with blowguns that shoot darts coated with curare "manyi", a poison made from different plants (

Tapirus terrestris); they consider these animals to share a common ancestor with humans.[3][7][8]

The Nukak also capture

Dasyprocta spp.), armadillos (Dasypus sp.), tortoises (Geochelone sp), frogs (in large quantities), crabs, shrimps, snails, larvae of palm weevils (mojojoy, "mun", Rhynchophorus spp.) and larvae of several species of wasps and caterpillars.[3][7][8]

Fishing

The Nukak eat several species of fish, like

surubí (Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum), catfishes (Brachyplatystoma spp.), piranhas (Serrasalmus spp., Pygocentrus spp.) and river rays (Potamotrygon sp.). Fishing is partly done with cord and metal fish hooks, although the Nukak still catch their fish traditionally with bow and arrow or harpoons, traps, or baskets ("mei", water cages). They also use a sophisticated technique that has been reported in several cultures: it uses nuún, the root of a Lonchocarpus sp. that contains a number of substances that when dissolved in the water streams stun the fish, making them easy to catch.[3][7][8]

Gathering

From their hammocks a couple of young Nukak Makú women eat a local fruit and cook a meal.

They collect honey of twenty species of bees and many fruits:

Phenakospermum guyannense, Aechmea sp., Inga sp., Couma macrocarpa, Iryanthera sp., Theobroma spp., Pourouma spp., Parinari sp., Micrandra sp., Helicostylis sp., Caryocar sp., Talisia sp., Hymenaea sp., Dacryodes spp., Abuta sp., Eugenia spp., Touraleia sp., Perebea spp., Protium sp., Cecropia sp., Batocarpus sp., Hyeronimasp., Brosimumsp., Dialiumsp., Garciniasp., Manilkarasp., Naucleopsisspp., Pradosiasp., Pouteriasp., Salasiasp., Passifloraspp., Duroia maguirei, Duroia hirsuta, Mouririsp., and Alibertia sp.[3][8][9]

Nukak take the sweet resin from "mupabuat" (Lacunal sp.) and the rattan water (Doliocarpus sp.). They cover their encampments ("wopyi") with leaves of

Phenakospermum guyannense and palms, and make their hammocks with fiber of the cumare palm Astrocaryum sp.; moorings with Heteropsis tenuispadix, Eschweilera sp., and Anthurium sp.; blowguns with Iriartella stigera, Bactris maraja; bows with Duguetia quitarensis; axe ends with Aspidosperma sp.; darts with thorns of Oneocarpus sp.; dart quivers with leaves of Calathea sp.; milkweed with Pachira nukakika, Ceiba sp., and Pseudobombax sp.; loinclothes for men with Couratari guianensis; baskets with Heteropsis spp.; disposable bags with Ischnosiphon arouma and Heliconia sp.; soap with Cedrelinga sp.; perfumes with Myroxylon sp. and Justice pectoralis; and diverse objects.[3][8][9]
Iryanthera They make blades with the teeth of piranha but have also adapted to use metals. Until 1990 they practised small-scale pottery, producing a small kind of pot to take with them on their travels and a second, bigger kind, to leave as supplies in their camping sites. Today they prefer to obtain metallic pots. When they do not have matches or lighters, they use special wood (Pausandra trianae) to produce fire. They no longer make mirrors with the resin of Trattinickia glaziovii or stone axes.[3][7][8]

Shifting cultivation

They have crops in their territory, along their routes. They traditionally cultivate for food, tubers such as sweet potatoes (

Gynerium sagittatum), to make arrows and harpoons. Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is harvested for ritual uses.[3][4][9]

Social aspects

Marriage is settled after the man has formally courted the woman with accepted gifts and she has acceded to live with him. In order to look for a pairing, a man must have gone through an initiation ritual in which he endures trials and consumes a hallucinogen (Virola sp.).[3][4][7]

The most suitable couple is one made up by crossed cousins. Marriage between parallel cousins is forbidden. If the woman still lives in the home of the father, the gifts must include him. If the woman accepts, she settles down in the man's encampment; if they have a child then they are considered a formal pair, which establishes mutual relations of kinship, expressed in rights and duties of reciprocity. A man can marry several wives, although a single wife is most common, and examples of three or more are rare. This polygyny coexists with a temporal polyandry during the pregnancy in order to improve the qualities of the baby. Each domestic group is part of a territorial group and other groups that are established to perform specific duties like security measures, according to the different stations and situations. On the other hand, each Núkâk is considered as part of a paternal lineage, "nüwayi", named after an animal or plant.[3][4]

Ten territorial Nukak groups ("wün") have been identified, each one with at least 50 or 60 people, who most of the year do not remain together but form different groups for harvesting and/or hunting that are distributed in accordance with the climatic seasonal changes and the security situation. Each group is considered part of one of four regions of its territory. On certain occasions different groups join, where they practice a special ritual, "entiwat," in which the groups dance face to face, striking and verbally injuring each other until the ritual reaches a climactic moment in which they all embrace, weeping while they remember their ancestors and express affection. The groups practice a form of exchange, "ihinihat", especially when all the resources are not in the same territory.[3][4]

It is considered taboo for the Nukak to discuss dead people.[3]

Language

Main article: Nukak language

Nukak people speak a tonal language.[10][11] It is very closely related to Kakwa language.[12]

Endangered people

Nukak populations have lowered from

paramilitaries, and the Colombian army have occupied their lands. In 2006, a group of nearly 80 Nukak left the jungle and sought assimilation to preserve their culture. As one of the migrants, Pia-pe, put it: "We do want to join the white family, but we do not want to forget words of the Nukak."[13] In October 2006, leader and Nukak Spanish speaker Maw-be' committed suicide by drinking poison. Friends and the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) reasoned he did so out of desperation in his inability to secure supplies or a safe return for the Nukak to return home.[6][14]

References

  1. ^ Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. Censo provisional 2023.
  2. ISBN 85-230-0275-8
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-958-8051-35-2
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-958-95646-1-5
  5. ^ a b Hammer, Joshua (March 2013). "The Lost Tribes of the Amazon". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  6. ^ a b c "Se suicida un líder indígena, desesperado por la inminente extinción de su pueblo en Colombia," El Mundo, October 2006. [This appears to be a translated press release from Survival.]
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-958-95379-8-5
  8. ^ a b c d e f Gutiérrez, Ruth 1996: "Manejo de los recursos naturales (fauna y flora) por los Nukak"; Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, mec.
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-958-695-035-0
  10. ISBN 978-958-96239-6-1
  11. ^ Mahecha, Dany 2009: "El nombre en Nɨkak"; L. Wetzels (ed.) The linguistics of endangered languages. Contributions to morphology and morpho-syntax. Utrecht: LOT, pp. 63-93.
  12. ISBN 958-611-083-4
    .
  13. New York Times
    , May 11, 2006.
  14. ^ Darcy Crowe, Nomadic tribe struggles in Colombia, Associated Press, October 27, 2006.

Bibliography

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nukak&oldid=1212909046"
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article: Nukak. Articles is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license; additional terms may apply.Privacy Policy