Nukak

The Nukak 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-gatherers with seasonal nomadic patterns and in addition they practice a shifting horticulture in small scale.

Hunting

Nukak are expert hunters. The men hunt using blowguns, with darts coated with curare "manyi", a poison made from different plants (Curarea sp.). 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, chachalacas, guans, curassows, Grey-winged Trumpeter and toucans). 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 tapirs (Tapirus terrestris); these animals are considered by thes as part of the same group of origin of human beings.

The Nukak also capture rodents (Agouti sp., Dasyprocta spp.); armadillos (Dasypus sp.) tortoises (Geochelone sp); frogs (in large quantities); crabs; shrimps; snails; larvae of palm weevils (mojojoy, "mun", Rynchophorus spp.); larvae of several species of wasps and caterpillars.

Fishing

The Nukak prey on several species of fish, like Hoplias sp., Myloplus spp., Mylossoma spp., Hydrolicus sp., Cichla sp., surubí (Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum), catfishes (Brachyplatystoma spp.), piranhas (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 barbasco (Lonchocarpus sp., "nuún"), root of a rattan that contains a number of substances that when dissoluted in the water streams stun the fish, making them them an easy catch for the Nukak.

Gathering

They collect honey of twenty species of bees and many fruits: palm fruits (Jessenia bataua, Oenocarpus sp., Attalea spp., Mauritia sp.), Phenakospermum guyanense, Aechmea sp., Inga sp., Couma sp, Duroia maguirei, Iryanthera sp., Theobroma spp., Pourouma spp., Parinari sp., Micrandra sp., Helicostylis sp., Caryocar sp., Talisia sp., Touraleia sp., Dacryodes spp., Perebea spp., Protium sp., Hymenaea sp.', Tapirira sp., Cecropia sp., 'Batocarpus sp., Hyeronima sp., Brosimum sp., Dialium sp., Garcinia sp., Manilkara sp., Naucleopsis spp., Pradosia sp., Pouteria sp.; Abuta sp., Salasia sp., Passiflora spp.; Duroia hirsuta, Mouriri sp., Eugenia spp., 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" (witn 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.

Shifting horticulture

They have orchards in their territory, throughout their traveling routes. They cultivate traditionally, for their nutrition, tubercles like sweet potatoes, mafafas (Xanthosoma violaceum), taros, yam and cassava. Also chontaduro palm (Bactris gasipaes), pineapple, chiles (Capsicum sp.), Amazon Grape, annonaceaes (Annona sp., Rollinia sp.), ucuye (Macoubea sp.), papaya and maize (Zea mays). There is banana and sugar cane (Saccharum oficinarum)in all the orchards.

Social aspects

The marriage, 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 those predominate that have a single one and are few men have three. 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 grups 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 diferent 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 aform of exchange, "ihinihat", especially when all the resources are not in the same territory.

Language

Nukak people speak a tonal Puinave-Macú language.

Endangered people

The Nukak have already suffered the devastation of their population by malaria and flu since their contact with outsiders in 1988; now, coca growers, left-wing guerillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the Colombian army have occupied their lands. These Indians have therefore become embroiled in Colombia's quasi-civil war.

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 958-8051-35-5
• CÁRDENAS, Dairon y Gustavo POLITIS 2000: Territorios, movilidad, etnobotánica y manejo del bosque en los Nukak orientales. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI, Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 958-695-035-2
• 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 958-95646-1-5
• POLITIS, Gustavo G. 1995 Mundo Nukak. Fondo de Promoción de Cultura, Banco Popular, Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 958-9003-81-83

1996 Nukak. Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones SINCHI, Bogotá D.C.- ISBN 958-95379-8-7

External links

• Survival International 2006 Nomads killed, others flee as fighting rages