Nukak
Encyclopedia
The Nukak nɨkâk people live between the Guaviare
and Inírida
rivers, in the depths of the tropical humid forest, on the fringe of the Amazon basin, in Guaviare Department
, Republic of Colombia
. They are nomadic hunter-gatherer
s with seasonal nomadic patterns and in addition they practice a shifting horticulture in small scale. An "uncontacted people" until 1988, they have since lost half of their population, primarily to disease. Part of their territory has been used by coca growers, ranchers and other settlers and occupied by guerrillas, army and paramilitaries. Responses to this crisis include protests, requests for assimilation, and the suicide of leader Maw-be'. Some 210–250 are estimated to live in provisional settlements at San José del Guaviare
, while about as many live nomadically in the Nukak Reservation (Resguardo).
Nukak are expert hunters. The men hunt using blowguns, with darts coated with curare "manyi", a poison made from different plants (curare
s). They specially hunt several species of monkeys (Alouatta spp., Cebus
spp., Saimiri sp., Lagothrix spp., Ateles sp., Saguinus spp., Callicebus torquatus), and birds (Muscovy Duck
, chachalaca
s, guan
s, curassow
s, Grey-winged Trumpeter
and toucan
s). Also they use javelins of Socratea exorrhiza
palm wood to hunt two species of peccaries
(Tayassu pecari and T. tajacu) and Caiman
sclerops, whose eggs they consume too. Nukak neither hunt nor eat brocket deer
, Odocoileus virginianus and tapir
s (Tapirus terrestris
); these animals are considered by them as part of the same group of origin as human beings.
The Nukak also capture rodent
s (Agouti
sp., Dasyprocta spp.); armadillo
s (Dasypus sp.) tortoise
s (Geochelone sp); frog
s (in large quantities); crab
s; shrimp
s; snail
s; larvae of palm weevils
(mojojoy, "mun", Rhynchophorus spp.); larvae of several species of wasps and caterpillars.
es (Brachyplatystoma spp.), piranha
s (Serrasalmus spp., Pygocentrus spp.) and rays
(Potamotrygon sp.). Lately, part of this activity is done using cord and metal fishooks, although the Nukak, to this day, still catch their fish in the traditional way, with bow and arrow or harpoons, traps or baskets ("mei", water cages). They also use a very sophisticated technique that has been reported in several cultures. This technique uses nuún, the root of a Lonchocarpus
sp. that contains a number of substances that when dissoluted in the water streams stun the fish, making them an easy catch for the Nukak.
They collect honey of twenty species of bees and many fruits: palm
fruits (Jessenia bataua, Oenocarpus spp.
, Attalea spp
., Mauritia sp.
, Phenakospermum guyanense, 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., Hyeronima sp., Brosimum sp., Dialium sp., Garcinia sp., Manilkara sp., Naucleopsis spp., Pradosia sp., Pouteria sp., Salasia sp., Passiflora spp., Duroia maguirei, Duroia hirsuta, Mouriri sp., Alibertia sp..
Nukak take the sweet resin from "mupabuat" (Lacunal sp.) and the rattan water (Doliocarpus sp.). They collect vegetal materials like the elements necessary to cover their encampments "wopyi" (with leaves of Phenakospermum guyanense and palms); to make their hammocks (with fiber of the cumare palm Astrocaryum sp.), moorings (Heteropsis tenuispadix, Eschweilera sp., Anthurium sp.), blowguns (Iriartella
stigera, Bactris maraja), bows (Duguetia quitarensis), axe ends (Aspidosperma sp.), darts (thorns of Oneocarpus sp.), quivers for the darts (leaves of Calathea sp.), milkweed to assure the darts (Pachira nukakika, Ceiba sp., Pseudobombax sp.), loinclothes for men (Couratari guianensis), baskets (Heteropsis spp.), disposable bags (Ischnosiphon arouma, Heliconia sp.), soap (Cedrelinga sp.), perfumes (Myroxylon sp., Justice pectoralis) and diverse objects.
They make blades with the teeth of piranha, but lately they also use metallic ones. Until 1990 they practised pottery in small scale, producing a small kind of pot to take with them on their travels and a second, bigger kind, to leave as supplies in their key 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. At present time they do not make mirrors with the resin of Trattinickia glaziovii nor stone axes like they did in past times.
, base of the domestic group, 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 pair, a man must have gone through an initiation ritual
in which he endures several penalties and difficulties, to demonstrate the fundamental abilities for the subsistence and consumes a hallucinogen (Virola sp.).
The most suitable couple is one made up by crossed cousins. Parallel cousins marriage is forbidden , that being the reason why each man looks for a suitable woman in groups where his maternal sisters and aunts are married and therefore the unmarried are eligible. 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 encampment of the man and 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 others 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 with an animal or plant.
Ten territorial Nukak groups have been identified, at least each one with 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. In certain special occasions different groups join, after 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 climatic 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.
, measles
and pulmonary diseases since their contact with outsiders in 1988; now, coca
growers, left-wing FARC guerillas, right-wing AUC
paramilitaries and the Colombian army have occupied their lands. These Indians have therefore become embroiled in Colombia's armed conflict. In 2006, a group of nearly 80 Nukak left the jungle and sought assimilation along with cultural preservation. 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." In October 2006, leader and Nukak Spanish speaker Maw-be' committed suicide by drinking poison; friends and the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia
(ONIC) described him as in desperation in his inability to secure supplies or a safe return to their homeland for the Nukak.
Niall Ferguson
cites them as an example of a hunter-gathering tribe which, hitherto ignorant of a money economy, has shown itself happy to exchange an arduous traditional live in their jungle homelands for a subsistence existence based on government handouts at the periphery of a globalized world of finance.
Territorial-Environmental Information System of Colombian Amazon SIAT-AC website
Guaviare River
The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco located in Colombia.The Guaviare has its source in two other rivers, the Ariari and the Guayabero, which in turn have their own sources in the eastern part of the Andes. At long, it is the longest river on the Orinoco and is navigable for of its total...
and Inírida
Inírida River
-References:*Rand McNally, The New International Atlas, 1993....
rivers, in the depths of the tropical humid forest, on the fringe of the Amazon basin, in Guaviare Department
Guaviare Department
Guaviare is a department of Colombia. It is in the southern central region of the country. Its capital is San José del Guaviare. Guaviare was created on July 4, 1991 by the new Political Constitution of Colombia...
, Republic of Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. They are nomadic hunter-gatherer
Hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...
s with seasonal nomadic patterns and in addition they practice a shifting horticulture in small scale. An "uncontacted people" until 1988, they have since lost half of their population, primarily to disease. Part of their territory has been used by coca growers, ranchers and other settlers and occupied by guerrillas, army and paramilitaries. Responses to this crisis include protests, requests for assimilation, and the suicide of leader Maw-be'. Some 210–250 are estimated to live in provisional settlements at San José del Guaviare
San José del Guaviare
San José del Guaviare is a town and municipality in Colombia, capital of the department of Guaviare by the Guaviare River.-External links: *...
, while about as many live nomadically in the Nukak Reservation (Resguardo).
Nukak are expert hunters. The men hunt using blowguns, with darts coated with curare "manyi", a poison made from different plants (curare
Curare
Curare is a common name for various arrow poisons originating from South America. The three main types of curare are:* tubocurare...
s). They specially hunt several species of monkeys (Alouatta spp., Cebus
CEBus
CEBus, short for Consumer Electronics Bus, also known as EIA-600, is a set of electrical standards and communication protocols for electronic devices to transmit commands and data...
spp., Saimiri sp., Lagothrix spp., Ateles sp., Saguinus spp., Callicebus torquatus), and birds (Muscovy Duck
Muscovy Duck
The Muscovy Duck is a large duck which is native to Mexico and Central and South America. A small wild population reaches into the United States in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas...
, chachalaca
Chachalaca
Chachalacas are mainly brown birds from the genus Ortalis. These cracids are found in wooded habitats in far southern United States , Mexico, and Central and South America. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly common even near humans, as their relatively small size makes them...
s, guan
Guan
Guan may refer to either of two Chinese family names . The two names are as follows:-Guan :...
s, curassow
Curassow
Curassows are one of the three major groups of cracid birds. Three of the four genera are restricted to tropical South America; a single species of Crax ranges north to Mexico...
s, Grey-winged Trumpeter
Grey-winged Trumpeter
The Grey-winged Trumpeter is a member of a small family of birds, the Psophiidae. It is found in the northern Amazon Rainforest and Guiana Shield in tropical South America...
and toucan
Toucan
Toucans are members of the family Ramphastidae of near passerine birds from the Neotropics. The family is most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and about forty different species...
s). Also they use javelins of Socratea exorrhiza
Socratea exorrhiza
Socratea exorrhiza, the Walking Palm or Cashapona, is a palm native to rainforests in tropical Central and South America. It can grow to 25 meters in height, with a stem diameter of up to 17 cm. It has unusual stilt roots, the function of which has been debated. Many species of epiphyte have...
palm wood to hunt two species of peccaries
Peccary
A peccary is a medium-sized mammal of the family Tayassuidae, or New World Pigs. Peccaries are members of the artiodactyl suborder Suina, as are the pig family and possibly the hippopotamus family...
(Tayassu pecari and T. tajacu) and Caiman
Caiman
Caimans are alligatorid crocodylians within the subfamily Caimaninae. The group is one of two subfamilies of the family Alligatoridae, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Central and South America. They are relatively small crocodilians, with most species reaching lengths of only a few...
sclerops, whose eggs they consume too. Nukak neither hunt nor eat brocket deer
Brocket Deer
Brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian...
, Odocoileus virginianus and tapir
Tapir
A Tapir is a large browsing mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. There are four species of Tapirs: the Brazilian Tapir, the Malayan Tapir, Baird's Tapir and the Mountain...
s (Tapirus terrestris
Brazilian Tapir
The South American Tapir , or Brazilian Tapir or Lowland Tapir or Anta, is one of four species in the tapir family, along with the Mountain Tapir, the Malayan Tapir, and Baird's Tapir...
); these animals are considered by them as part of the same group of origin as human beings.
The Nukak also capture rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s (Agouti
Agouti
Agouti refers to a number of species of rodents as well as a number of genes affecting coat coloration in several different animals. Agouti fur contains a pattern of pigmentation in which individual hairs have several bands of light and dark pigment with black tips.* When referring to a rodent,...
sp., Dasyprocta spp.); armadillo
Armadillo
Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...
s (Dasypus sp.) tortoise
Tortoise
Tortoises are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles . Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise...
s (Geochelone sp); frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s (in large quantities); crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s; shrimp
Shrimp
Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...
s; snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s; larvae of palm weevils
Rhynchophorini
The tribe Rhynchophorini is the largest member of the true weevil subfamily Dryophthorinae. Alonso-Zarazaga & Lyal treated it as distinct subfamily Rhynchophorinae...
(mojojoy, "mun", Rhynchophorus spp.); larvae of several species of wasps and caterpillars.
Fishing
The Nukak eat several species of fish, like Hoplias sp., Myloplus spp., Mylossoma spp., Hydrolicus sp., Cichla sp., surubí (Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum), catfishCatfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
es (Brachyplatystoma spp.), piranha
Piranha
A piranha or piraña is a member of family Characidae in order Characiformes, an omnivorous freshwater fish that inhabits South American rivers. In Venezuela, they are called caribes...
s (Serrasalmus spp., Pygocentrus spp.) and rays
Rajiformes
Rajiformes is one of the four orders of batoids, flattened cartilaginous fishes related to sharks.Rajiforms are distinguished by the presence of greatly enlarged pectoral fins, which reach as far forward as the sides of the head, with a generally flattened body. The undulatory pectoral fin motion...
(Potamotrygon sp.). Lately, part of this activity is done using cord and metal fishooks, although the Nukak, to this day, still catch their fish in the traditional way, with bow and arrow or harpoons, traps or baskets ("mei", water cages). They also use a very sophisticated technique that has been reported in several cultures. This technique uses nuún, the root of a Lonchocarpus
Lonchocarpus
Lonchocarpus is a plant genus in the legume family . The species are called lancepods due to their fruit resembling an ornate lance tip or a few beads on a string....
sp. that contains a number of substances that when dissoluted in the water streams stun the fish, making them an easy catch for the Nukak.
They collect honey of twenty species of bees and many fruits: palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
fruits (Jessenia bataua, Oenocarpus spp.
Oenocarpus
Oenocarpus is a genus of pinnate-leaved palms native to Trinidad, southern Central and tropical South America. With nine species and one natural hybrid, the genus is distributed from Costa Rica and Trinidad in the north to Brazil and Bolivia in the south.Common names in their native range are...
, Attalea spp
Attalea (genus)
Attalea is a large genus of palms native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. This pinnately leaved, non-spiny genus includes both small palms lacking an aboveground stem and large trees. The genus has a complicated taxonomic history, and has often been split into four or five...
., Mauritia sp.
Mauritia
Mauritia is a genus of fan palms which is native to northern South America. Mauritia flexuosa is widely distribution across northern South America, extending north to Trinidad, while the other M. carana is restricted to the Amazon region....
, Phenakospermum guyanense, Aechmea sp.
Aechmea
Aechmea is a genus of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Bromelioideae. The name comes from the Greek “aichme” . Aechmea has 8 subgenera and 255 species distributed from Mexico through South America...
, Inga sp.
Inga
Inga is a genus of small tropical, tough-leaved, nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs, subfamily Mimosoideae. Ingas leaves are pinnate, and flowers are generally white...
, Couma macrocarpa, Iryanthera sp.
Iryanthera
Iryanthera is a flowering plant genus in the family Myristicaceae.Species include:* Iryanthera campinae* Iryanthera elliptica Ducke – sangretoro* Iryanthera juruensis...
, Theobroma spp.
Theobroma
Theobroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that is sometimes classified as a member of Sterculiaceae. It contains roughly 20 species of small understory trees native to the tropical forests of Central and South America...
, Pourouma spp.
Pourouma
Pourouma is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae, native to tropical regions of Central and South America....
, Parinari sp.
Parinari
Parinari is a genus of plant in family Chrysobalanaceae.Species of genus Parinari are found in Subsaharan Africa from Senegal to Sudan and Kenya and south to Namibia and Natal; in Eastern Madagascar; from Indochina through Indonesia, New Guinea, northern Queensland, and the southwest Pacific; and...
, Micrandra sp.
Micrandra
Micrandra is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae.-Synonyms:This genus is also known as:*Clusiophyllum Müll.Arg.*Pogonophyllum Didr....
, Helicostylis sp.
Helicostylis
Helicostylis is a genus of plant in family Moraceae.Species include:* Helicostylis heterotricha, Ducke* Helicostylis tomentosa, Rusby...
, Caryocar sp.
Caryocar
Caryocar is a genus of flowering plants, in the South American family Caryocaraceae. There are 15 species in this genus, all trees that yield a strong timber. Eight species within the genus Caryocar have edible fruits, called souari-nuts or sawarri-nuts. The most well-known species is probably...
, Talisia sp.
Talisia
Talisia is a genus of 52 species of flowering plants in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. The genus is closely related to Melicoccus, with some species sometimes included in that genus....
, Hymenaea sp.
Hymenaea
Hymenaea L. is a genus in the flowering plant family Fabaceae . Of fourteen living species in the genus, all but one are native to the tropics of the Americas, with one additional species on the east coast of Africa. Some authors place the African species in a separate monotypic genus, Trachylobium...
, Dacryodes spp.
Dacryodes
Dacryodes is a tree genus in the family Burseraceae. Species include:*Dacryodes costata*Dacryodes edulis*Dacryodes excelsa*Dacryodes peruviana...
, Abuta sp.
Abuta
Abuta is a genus in the flowering plant family Menispermaceae, of about 32 species, native to tropical Central and South America.-Description:...
, Eugenia spp.
Eugenia
Eugenia is a genus of flowering plants in the myrtle family Myrtaceae. It has a worldwide, although highly uneven, distribution in tropical and subtropical regions. The bulk of the approximately 1,000 species occur in the New World tropics, especially in the northern Andes, the Caribbean, and the...
, Touraleia sp., Perebea spp., Protium sp., Cecropia sp., 'Batocarpus sp., Hyeronima sp., Brosimum sp., Dialium sp., Garcinia sp., Manilkara sp., Naucleopsis spp., Pradosia sp., Pouteria sp., Salasia sp., Passiflora spp., Duroia maguirei, Duroia hirsuta, Mouriri sp., Alibertia sp..
Nukak take the sweet resin from "mupabuat" (Lacunal sp.) and the rattan water (Doliocarpus sp.). They collect vegetal materials like the elements necessary to cover their encampments "wopyi" (with leaves of Phenakospermum guyanense and palms); to make their hammocks (with fiber of the cumare palm Astrocaryum sp.), moorings (Heteropsis tenuispadix, Eschweilera sp., Anthurium sp.), blowguns (Iriartella
Iriartella
Iriartella is a genus of two species of palms found in South America. The Nukak people use Iriartella stigera to fashion blowguns....
stigera, Bactris maraja), bows (Duguetia quitarensis), axe ends (Aspidosperma sp.), darts (thorns of Oneocarpus sp.), quivers for the darts (leaves of Calathea sp.), milkweed to assure the darts (Pachira nukakika, Ceiba sp., Pseudobombax sp.), loinclothes for men (Couratari guianensis), baskets (Heteropsis spp.), disposable bags (Ischnosiphon arouma, Heliconia sp.), soap (Cedrelinga sp.), perfumes (Myroxylon sp., Justice pectoralis) and diverse objects.
They make blades with the teeth of piranha, but lately they also use metallic ones. Until 1990 they practised pottery in small scale, producing a small kind of pot to take with them on their travels and a second, bigger kind, to leave as supplies in their key 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. At present time they do not make mirrors with the resin of Trattinickia glaziovii nor stone axes like they did in past times.
Social aspects
The marriageMarriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, base of the domestic group, 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 pair, a man must have gone through an initiation ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
in which he endures several penalties and difficulties, to demonstrate the fundamental abilities for the subsistence and consumes a hallucinogen (Virola sp.).
The most suitable couple is one made up by crossed cousins. Parallel cousins marriage is forbidden , that being the reason why each man looks for a suitable woman in groups where his maternal sisters and aunts are married and therefore the unmarried are eligible. 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 encampment of the man and if they have a child then they are considered a formal pair, which establishes mutual relations of kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
, 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
Polygyny
Polygyny is a form of marriage in which a man has two or more wives at the same time. In countries where the practice is illegal, the man is referred to as a bigamist or a polygamist...
coexists with a temporal polyandry
Polyandry
Polyandry refers to a form of marriage in which a woman has two or more husbands at the same time. The form of polyandry in which a woman is married to two or more brothers is known as "fraternal polyandry", and it is believed by many anthropologists to be the most frequently encountered...
during the pregnancy in order to improve the qualities of the baby.
Each domestic group is part of a territorial group and others 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 with an animal or plant.
Ten territorial Nukak groups have been identified, at least each one with 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. In certain special occasions different groups join, after 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 climatic 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.
Language
Nukak people speak a tonal Nadahup language.Endangered people
The Nukak have already suffered the devastation of their population by malariaMalaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
, measles
Measles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
and pulmonary diseases since their contact with outsiders in 1988; now, coca
Coca
Coca, Erythroxylum coca, is a plant in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. The plant plays a significant role in many traditional Andean cultures...
growers, left-wing FARC guerillas, right-wing AUC
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia was created as an umbrella organization of regional far-right...
paramilitaries and the Colombian army have occupied their lands. These Indians have therefore become embroiled in Colombia's armed conflict. In 2006, a group of nearly 80 Nukak left the jungle and sought assimilation along with cultural preservation. 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." In October 2006, leader and Nukak Spanish speaker Maw-be' committed suicide by drinking poison; friends and the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia
National Indigenous Organization of Colombia
The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia is an organization representing the indigenous peoples of Colombia, who comprise some 800,000 people or approximately 2% of the population...
(ONIC) described him as in desperation in his inability to secure supplies or a safe return to their homeland for the Nukak.
Niall Ferguson
Niall Ferguson
Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson is a British historian. His specialty is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.....
cites them as an example of a hunter-gathering tribe which, hitherto ignorant of a money economy, has shown itself happy to exchange an arduous traditional live in their jungle homelands for a subsistence existence based on government handouts at the periphery of a globalized world of finance.
Sources
- CABRERA, Gabriel; Carlos FRANKY y Dany MAHECHA 1999: Los N+kak: nómadas de la Amazonia colombiana; Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sf. Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 978-958-8051-35-2
- CÁRDENAS, Dairon y Gustavo POLITIS 2000: Territorios, movilidad, etnobotánica y manejo del bosque en los Nukak orientales. Amazonic Institute of Scientific Research, SINCHI, Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 978-958-695-035-0
- GUALTERO, Israel 1989: "Estudio breve de la cultura material de los Nukak". Asociación Nuevas Tribus de Colombia, mec. 15 p.
- GUTIÉRREZ, Ruth 1996: "Manejo de los recursos naturales (fauna y flora) por los Nukak"; trabajo de grado. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, mec.
- MONDRAGÓN, Héctor 1994 "La defensa del territorio Nukak" en Antropología y derechos Humanos. Memorias del VI Congreso de Antropología en Colombia. Carlos Vladimir Zambrano editor. Universidad de los Andes, p.p. 139 a 155. Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 978-958-95646-1-5
- POLITIS, Gustavo G. 1995 Mundo Nukak. Fondo de Promoción de Cultura, Banco Popular, Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 958-9003-81-8
- 1996 Nukak. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones SINCHI, Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 978-958-95379-8-5
- 2007: Nukak: Ethnoarchaeology of an Amazonian People. (Benjamin ALBERTI, trans.) Left Cast Press and University College London Institute of Archaeology Publications, Walnut Creek, CA.
External links
- National Nukak Natural Reserve (in Spanish)
- Survival International 2006 Nomads killed, others flee as fighting rages
Territorial-Environmental Information System of Colombian Amazon SIAT-AC website