Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink
(CAC)
The Amerindians of Venezuela
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ABC
News: Venezuela--Country Profile, from the Internet Archive.
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Astroaborigen—Carib Astronomy:
“La Fundación de Estudios Indígenas ofrece este sitio web
para divulgar la Astronomía en la Cultura, el Arte Rupestre,
la Mitología Aborigen de Venezuela y el Glosario, permitiendo ampliar
conocimientos sobre nuestras etnias. Este portal, está
basado en el libro La Astronomía de los Caribe en Venezuela, de
Domingo Sánchez Picconne…”—a comprehensive site on the Venezuelan’
Caribs astronomical knowledge, including an overview, general features,
natural phenomena, calendrical time, petroglyphs, and mythology.
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Ethnologue:
Venezuela --- Languages of Venezuela. Part of Ethnologue: Languages
of the World, 13th Edition; Barbara F. Grimes, Editor; Summer Institute
of Linguistics, 1996.
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Information
on The Last Cannibals: A South American Oral History by Ellen B
Basso, University of Texas Press, 1995—Synopsis: “The Kalapalo are
a Carib-speaking group of Brazilian Indians who live in the Alto (Upper)
Xingu region around the headwaters of the Xingu River, a tributary of the
Amazon. In this major discourse-centered study of their culture, Ellen
Basso transcribes and analyzes nine traditional Kalapalo stories to offer
important insights into Kalapalo historical knowledge and the performance
of historical narratives within their nonliterate society. The stories
focus on the biographies of exceptionally powerful warrior bowmen. Basso
uses these stories to explore how the Kalapalo remember and understand
their history and what specific linguistic, psychological, and ideological
materials they employ to construct their narratives. This inquiry represents
the first comprehensive study of Amazonian Indian ethnohistory using indigenous
oral documents and the first attempt to understand, though indigenous discourse,
the emergence of Upper Xingu society. It will be important reading in anthropology,
linguistics, and South American studies.”
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Information
on Orinoco-Parima: Indian Societies in Venezuela: The Cisneros Collection,
by Luiz Boglar, Hatje Cantz, 2000—Synopsis: “Since the discovery of
the ‘New World’, Indian societies have been fighting the process of cultural
alienation. Some have managed to preserve their identity while others have
successfully come to terms with what is new. Representative of these cultures
are the societies living between the Upper Orinoco in Venezuela and Parima
Mountain Range. This is the region of the legendary Lake Parima where ‘El
Dorado’ -- the golden man -- was said to have lived. In the 1950s, Edgardo
Gonzalez Nino lived among the Amazon Indians and gathered artifacts from
these cultures. On the Upper Orinoco, he collected over a thousand objects
which, a few years ago, were acquired by the Fundacion Cisneros in Caracas.
This book presents this stunning collection, containing masks, ritual objects,
ornaments, feather decorations, cooking utensils, and weapons. Essays by
acknowledged experts provide excellent insights into the relationships
between the material and spiritual culture of these groups of Indians.”
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Poblaciones
Indígenas de Venezuela: includes, Epocas indígenas en
Venezuela, Las etnias indígenas en la actualidad, Clasificación
de las etnias indígenas en Venezuela, Situación actual de
los principales grupos indígenas, Mapa de Distribución de
las Etnias Indígenas, Areas de desarrollo cultural prehispánico
de Venezuela
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SALIVA INDIANS
--- The principal of a small group of tribes constituting a distinct linguistic
stock (the Salivan), centring in the eighteenth century, about and below
the junction of the Meta and Orinoco, in Venezuela, but believed to have
come from farther up the Orinoco, about the confluence of the Guaviare
in Columbian territory.
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Team
Expansion Online--Update from Venezuela, by Chris and Eric Barry: “Our
Chacaito congregation supports a missionary to the Warao Indian tribe with
10 percent of our offerings….We also took a 2-hour drive and a 30-minute
hike into the Venezuelan interior to visit the indigenous Warao Indian
tribe. It was saddening. The men were laid out drunk on the floors of their
grass huts. There are no walls on the grass huts, the only furniture are
hammocks and perhaps a table made with sticks. The men had been drinking
going on 30 days straight. They sell tropical birds to people in Carupano
and use the cash to buy liquor. They were oblivious to us - sprawled out
in their own urine. The women were cooking in a nearby hut….”
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Venezuela
History --- Venezuela is the most northerly South American nation with
the Caribbean Sea directly to the north. Christopher Columbus encounterd
Venezuela, the homeland of the Carib and Arawak Indians, on his third voyage
to the New World in 1498....
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Venezuela en Postales:
a collection of photographs on the places and the indigenous peoples of
the Guayana region of Venezuela.
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At
the Yanomami's/Pawlikowska --- November, 1997 Venezuela, the
Amazon - We are going up the Orinoco river to meet one of the last "wild
tribes" - the Yanomami Indians. Even though they were discovered over 45
years ago, not many people get here.
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Warao:“Oikeastaan
Warao -kansaa ei saisi kutsua intiaaneiksi. He ovat Orinoco -joen suistoalueen
alkuperäisväestöä. Heitä on jäljellä
vielä vähän yli 20000. Asumukset ovat tyypillisimmillään
puisia, usein paalujen varaan tehtyjä rakennuksia (palafito)….”
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Warao
Defend Orinoco River Delta Indigenous Warao communities in the Orinoco
River Delta of Venezuela are demanding an immediate end to oil exploration
by transnational companies in three areas of their homelands.
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The Warao Indians:
a simple page of introductory information, photographs, and related links
on the Warao of Venezuela—“ Warao (Waroa, Guarauno, Guarao, Warrau):18,000
in Venezuela (1993 UBS). A few elderly speakers on both sides of the Guyana-Surinam
border. On the delta of the Orinoco River, Delta Amacuro, Sucre, Monagas…”
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Health Problems
among the Warao of the Orinoco Delta: this page features some details
and a personal testimony—“ My name is Robert Yanez, I am 9 year old Warao
Indian living in the Orinoco river delta in Venezuela….We are a family
of 12 and we have one thing in common, we all have Tuberculosis…. Robert
died on June 15th/2001”.
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Los
Warao pierden el país de agua: “El universo de la etnia era
el moriche, la pesca, el conuco, la madera tallada. Pero el cierre de caño
Mánamo, la exploración petrolera, la explotación de
manaca y la imposición de costumbres hirió a esa cultura.
El Censo Indígena de 1992 contó a 23.957 waraos; decenas
de ellos han sido empujados a la mendicidad en ciudades como Caracas y
Valencia…. apenas el 17% de la población indígena de Venezuela
posee algún título de propiedad sobre sus tierras, y sólo
el 1% posee títulos definidos, producto de la falta de expedición
de títulos de propiedad colectivos definitivos a las comunidades
indígenas, el otorgamiento indiscriminado e irracional de concesiones
a empresas de explotación petrolera, minera y maderera que involucran
capital privado nacional y extranjero, la venta de terrenos en áreas
de resguardo que involucran capital privado nacional y extranjero, la venta
de terrenos en áreas de resguardo indígena a ganaderos y
hacendados, y la falta de cedulación….”
IN CONNECTION WITH DOMINGO SAnCHEZ'S ARTICLE IN ISSUES
IN CARIBBEAN AMERINDIAN STUDIES, "A
NEW REALITY FOR VENEZUELA'S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES":
Constitutions of Venezuela
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The full
text, in Spanish, of Venezuela’s 1999 Constitution is available online.
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The
1961 Constitution to which Domingo Sanchez refers to in his article
as embodying an indigenista reframing of the indigenous peoples as peasants,
is available in its entirety online.
Indigenous Participation in the 1999 Constitution
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Some
have called 2001, “The Year of Indigenous Venezuelans”. Andrés Cañizález
of the InterPress Service (IPS), wrote: “The year 2001 is turning out
to be the year of Venezuela’s indigenous peoples with the launching of
a number of new laws and development projects that vindicate the rights
and cultures of 28 native communities, which represent 1.3 percent of the
national population of 22.3 million people. Last December, Congress ratified
the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169 on Indigenous and
Tribal Peoples, and expedited the Law on Demarcation and Guarantee of Habitat
of Indigenous Peoples, while this month debate on the Bilingual Inter-Cultural
Education Law began, indigenous congressman Guillermo Guevara told Tierramérica.
All of this legislative action will reach its high point in November, when
the bill on the Organic Law of Indigenous Peoples is slated for presentation
before the National Assembly (Congress). In addition, several official
entities have announced the implementation of development plans that respect
the unique qualities of Venezuela's native communities while confronting
the poverty and exclusion of the country's 315,000 indigenous peoples….”
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A number of news items have been archived online that detail processes
of indigenous participation in the drafting of Venezuela’s Constitution
of 1999. A
press release of 24 March, 1999, from the Indigenous Federation of Bolivar
State (FIEB), is one example, titled, “Indigenous Peoples from 28 Tribes
Hold Special Congress To Form Their Proposals for Venezuela’s New Constitution”.
More than 400 indigenous delegates representing the 28 different indigenous
ethnic groups that exist in Venezuela held an extraordinary congress in
March 1999 to elaborate their unified proposal for the new Venezuela Constitution.
Venezuela’s indigenous peoples elected three representatives to participate
in the Constituent Assembly. In addition to electing their representatives,
Venezuela’s indigenous peoples also met to formulate their position on
a number of key issues, most notably indigenous peoples’ rights to their
traditional lands and natural resources. One of the elected representatives
is featured in the next item.
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Read
more about indigenous participation in the drafting of the new Constitution
in this piece on one of Venezuela’s leading indigenous activists and her
participation in the National Constituent Assembly: VENEZUELA: A Lifelong
Struggle for Indigenous Rights, By Luis Córdova “CARACAS, Feb 29
[2000]
(IPS) - Nohel Pocaterra's most recent battle took place before the entire
Venezuelan public when, in the middle of televised debates on the nation's
new constitution, she stood up in full traditional dress to defend indigenous
people's rights to their ancestral territory and to denounce racism.”
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Amazon
Watch spoke of more than 600 indigenous delegates, from 34 indigenous tribes,
being represented at the National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela.
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See also, “Indigenous
Leaders Elect Three Representatives to Historical Process to Revamp Venezuela's
Constitution” (19 July 1999): “Caracas, Venezuela: Some six-hundred
delegates representing 34 indigenous tribes participated in the National
Assembly of Indigenous Peoples July 17 through 18 and elected three representatives
to the National Constituent Assembly. Three prominent indigenous leaders,
José Luis González, Guillermo Guevara, and Noelí Pocaterra
were elected by an overwhelming majority….”
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“Full
Indigenous Participation In Venezuela's Constitutional Assembly”, a press
release by Venezuela’s National Indigenous Confederation (CONIVE), 17 July
1999.
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The
National Indigenous Confederation of Venezuela (CONIVE), issued a press
release (02 November 1999), detailing some of the right wing resistance
to the adoption of the articles of Chapter VIII of the new Constitution,
on the rights of indigenous peoples. This same item is also available at
NativeWeb
Pre-1999: Domestic and International Exploitation of Indigenous Lands
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Before the drafting of the new Constitution, laws were passed permitting
international mining and logging on indigenous lands without any form of
regard for the inhabitants. Indigenous people had been suffering from alarmingly
high levels of mercury and cyanide poisoning caused by various mining projects.
Past governments only seemed to facilitate such negative intrusion of transnational
corporations onto indigenous lands. For example, in April 1997, the former
Venezuelan President signed a new decree, 1850, opening up 40 percent of
the Imataca Forest Reserve (formerly a protected area) to large-scale logging
and mining concessions. This initiated a period of sustained indigenous
protest. In February, after the election of President Hugo Chavez, development
to open up lands to a controversial electrification project was suspended
while the Senate Environmental Commission reviewed issues related to consultation
and environmental impact assessment process. To learn more of examples
from the recent past, leading up to the Constitution of 1999, see “Venezuela's
Indigenous Peoples Defend Land Against Electrical Transmission Line”, an
Action Alert posted by Amazon Watch.
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More
information on this powerline project is provided in an article by the
World Rainforest Movement, “Venezuela: ‘Stop it, Mr. President’ say indigenous
Pemon leaders”: “The Pemon indigenous people continue to fight against
the construction of a high-voltage power line in the south-eastern Gran
Sabana region, that will cross the Brazilian border. Four indigenous leaders
have recently asked President Chávez to stop the works. ‘They understand
the world as something that can be divided into small boxes. For us the
world is a round place, where the gods, sacred sites, great rocks, large
rivers, mountains, plants and animals coexist; where the sun impregnates
the earth so that she can give birth. And as part of nature there is the
indigenous people’. Silviano Castro, from San Rafael de Kamoirán;
Melchor Flores, from Mapaurí; Cleto Javier Ramírez, from
Agua Fría; and Darío Castro, from San Juan de Kamoirán
addressed the Venezuelan President with this cosmologic view of the world
as perceived by the Penan people….”
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The
World Resources Institute also detailed some of the serious legal problems
afflicting Venezuela’s indigenous peoples in their struggle to protect
their lands in the pre-1999 period. Apparently, over 70% of the country’s
aboriginal population lacked any legal right to the lands it occupied:
“Indigenous communities are not well protected under Venezuelan law. Because
most indigenous peoples live in areas considered ‘unoccupied’ or protected,
they are vulnerable to having their lands opened for development projects,
mining and timber concessions, and tourism lodges. Furthermore, national
government policies and access to urban markets have led some communities
to become more sedentary and to undertake nontraditional activities, such
as mining. In addition, extractive activities and tourism on indigenous
lands have had a noticeable impact on Venezuela's indigenous communities….”
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“Warao
Defend Orinoco River Delta”, InterPress Service, April 2, 1997: “Indigenous
Warao communities in the Orinoco River Delta of Venezuela are demanding
an immediate end to oil exploration by transnational companies in three
areas of their homelands. The government recently awarded concessions to
British Petroleum to reactivate the abandoned Pedernales oil field, located
on the Orinoco a short distance before it enters the Atlantic, and to the
US-based Amoco, and a US-Canadian consortium to work two other fields in
the region. The Orinoco Delta, which comprises 40,000 square kilometers
of waterways and sedimentary islands, is considered the last of the world's
great river deltas that is still unspoiled. It is the home of the Warao
people. There are approximately 25,000 surviving Warao living around the
Orinoco River”.
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“The
effects of the new ‘enlargement’ of the Venezuelan Oil Industry in the
Delta of the Orinoco River area”: this page includes discussion of
the social and environmental conditions of surrounding the ecological destruction
of the Orinoco Delta by new oil exploration and the impacts on the Warao.
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A collection of articles focused on the environmental destruction of indigenous
lands in Venezuela is presented online by the
World
Rainforest Movement.
About Venezuela: BBC Mundo
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Some
data on Venezuela: the total population in 1998 was 22,803,409; of
that, 86% live in urban areas, while 14% live in rural areas. 1.5% of the
total population is aboriginal. For more information, see BBC Mundo’s “Venezuela:
El país de los cambios”.
Researchers, Colonial History, and Indigenous Rights
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Apart from the links posted above, there is also an interesting article
on how Venezuelan researchers, including one cited by Domingo Sanchez in
his article (Filadelfo Morales), found a deed by King Charles III of Spain
(1716-1788, and ruling from 1759), granting the Karina a land title for
an area alongside the Aguasay river on October 13, 1783. See: “RIGHTS-VENEZUELA:
Indigenous Group's Colonial Deed Holds Good”, By Jose Zambrano, 19 November
1998.
BOOKS:
TOURS OF INDIGENOUS TERRITORIES:
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DeltaAir: tour
packages for the Orinoco Delta, organized by this regional airline; the
special focus of this airline site is its focus on visits with the Warao.
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The Orinoco
Delta: a tourism page featuring this region and its Warao inhabitants—“
The Warao Indians – literally the ‘Canoe People’- are the native inhabitants
of the delta. With a population of 24,000, the Warao constitute the second
largest indigenous tribe in the country. Family groups reside in palafitos
(wooden houses raised on stilts) along the banks of the river, and spend
most of their daily lives in canoes fishing the nearby caños and
hunting and gathering in the surrounding forests. Skilled craftspeople,
the Warao build their palafitos and canoes from forest wood using traditional
techniques, and, owing to increased contact with tourists, have also begun
to carve figurines from balsa wood and to make necklaces, baskets and hammocks
from the leaves and seeds of the ubiquitous moriche palm. The moriche palm,
however, supplies more than just the basis for artesania. Otherwise known
as the ‘tree of life’, the moriche provides the Indians with fruit, juices
and a sweet pulp that can be made into a type of bread. Moreover, the trunk
of the palm is used to cultivate a thumb-sized beetle grub, the moriche
worm, a nutritious dietary supplement”.
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The Orinoco, from
Rainforest to Delta, by Geodyssey: “….The history of the Warao dates
back perhaps 6,000 years and maybe much longer. Once more widely scattered,
they have remained secluded in the labyrinth of the Delta for centuries,
weathering Arawak and Carib conquests of the West Indies, and the arrival
of the Europeans….”
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Venezuela,
Le Delta de L’Orénoque: this tour site by Chrystel Nercessian
and Jérôme Bernard-Abou features photographs of Warao
individuals, families and scenery from the Orinoco.
This page was last updated: Tuesday, 30 December, 2003
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