Goajiro

By MICHEL PERRIN

Goajiro, Guajira, Uáira, Wayuu, Wayu, Waiu, Wayúu, Wayuunaiki

The Guajiro are an Indian group living in Colombia and Venezuela. The name “Guajiro” is probably of Spanish origin.

The traditional Guajiro territory, with a land area of approximately 16,000 square kilometers, consists of a peninsula called “La Guajira” located in the Caribbean Sea between 11° and 12°30' N and between 71° and 72°30' W. The peninsula is divided by the Colombia-Venezuela border; although only one-fifth of its surface area is Venezuelan, roughly half of the Guajiro population lives on the Venezuelan side. This is a region of brush savanna and xerophytic vegetation, dotted with desert zones, that also includes several mountain ranges reaching upwards of 850 meters (Makuira, Kusina, Jala'ala, and Kamaichi). Rainfall is abundant from October to November (the period called [N]juyapu[/N]) and sometimes also in April or May (the period of iiwa). The major dry season (called jouktai-jamü, “hunger-wind”) lasts from May to September and sometimes even longer, preempting the rainy season and imperiling the lives of animals and people. In the north of the peninsula annual mean precipitation is approximately 20 centimeters; it can reach 60 centimeters in the south. The amounts are irregular, however, and the regional variations great.

In 1938, as in 1981, there were approximately 47,000 Guajiro in Colombia. The population in Colombia has reportedly increased to about 270,413 in 2005. In 1991, there were an estimated 60,000 Guajiro in Venezuela, about two-thirds of whom lived on the margins of the territory, in the city of Maracaibo, or in other areas. The population has continued to grow steadily, reaching to about 293,777 in 2001 and about 420,574 in 2011. This suggests that the total Guajiro population in both countries in 2012 maybe well over 690, 988.

Guajiro is part of the Arawak Language Family. The speech of Wüinpumuin (the northeastern region) is distinct from that of Wopumuin (the southeastern region), although the two are mutually intelligible.

In the southern part of the peninsula, there existed a population from around 1500 B.C. to just before the Conquest that, like the Guajiro, had a custom of double funerals; however, there is nothing to indicate that they were the ancestors of the Guajiro, who, from the linguistic evidence, originated in Amazonia. The Spaniards reached the coasts of Guajiroland in 1499 and began their penetration into the peninsula in 1526. According to chroniclers, there were several indigenous groups coexisting in the area (e.g., Anate, Atanare, Canoa, Caquetio, Cocina, Guanabucare, Makuira), but it is possible that they attributed several names to a given society, each one referring to various economic and social aspects of that society. The only other group that existed in the vicinity of the Guajiro in the 1990s was the lacustrine Paraujano, who speak a closely related language and who are on the road to extinction.

In the traditional territory, the settlements are widely dispersed. The residential unit (miichipala, “place of houses”) is an aggregate of dwellings, often separated by many tens of meters, that provides shelter for nuclear families sharing the same water source. There are generally between a few dozen and several hundred persons in a miichipala. The latter are all named, and sometimes divided into subunits, which are themselves named. The miichipala are, on average, several kilometers distant from one another, and large stretches of the interior of the Guajira Peninsula remain uninhabited. Traditional dwellings are comprised of a small house where hammocks are hung at night; a kitchen, which consists of a surrounding wall of cactus or branches, sometimes covered by a roof; and a porch roof, made of a flat overhang on posts, under which daily activities and the entertainment of visitors take place. Located farther out are the sheep and goat pens and the garden, which is protected by a fence.

Formerly, Guajiro society was probably egalitarian, based on an economy of horticulture, gathering, hunting, and fishing, depending on the region. By mid-1990s, it was a strongly hierarchical pastoral culture. The first livestock arrived from Europe around the beginning of the sixteenth century. Hungry, curious, and adventurous, some of the Guajiro obtained livestock by raid and theft until they had semi-wild herds of cattle and horses. Pastoralism progressively became widespread, probably facilitated by missionaries, who made many attempts at pacification; by Dutch, French, or English pirates hostile to the Spanish and in quest of food; and finally by the Black slaves who, by choice or by force, settled among the Guajiro. At the end of the nineteenth century, pastoralism was nearly general except, it seems, in the region of the Sierra Kusina, where it has developed since. The keeping of cattle, sheep, and goats is still the principal source of livelihood for the majority of the Guajiro on the peninsula. Horticulture, hunting, and fishing have become marginal as opportunities for smuggling and occasional wage labor have developed, even assuring essential income for mestizo families or families that have emigrated to urban zones. Livestock are destined for consumption or the market, but they are also a prestige item that is good to accumulate. Formerly, horses and mules were, along with cattle, the most valued animals. The former have practically disappeared. The wealthiest Guajiro now buy trucks or pickups.

Women weave hammocks of cotton with very rich motifs and coloring and belts decorated with similar motifs. They also crochet small bags that they sell at local markets or in Maracaibo. Men principally make sandals and produce colorful wool rugs using the saddleblanket technique.

For centuries the Guarjiro have sold European-Americans brazilwood (Hematoxilon brasiletto) to make dyes, divi-divi fruits (Caesalpinia coriara), and skins. In the northwest of the peninsula, they fished for lobster and pearls and produced salt, an activity that still continues. There are weekly markets in many localities along the margins of the peninsula.

Women tend to domestic chores, make the essential items of material culture, and work beside the men in pastoral activities and horticulture. Some occasionally hold political office. In the late 1980s eight of every ten shamans were women.

Land is not owned, but its usufructs are associated with pasturage rights for visiting groups.

The Guajiro are organized into some thirty nonlocalized clans (matrisibs) called eiruku, a term that also means “flesh” or “meat.” Each one is associated with a proper name (or “flesh name,” sünülia eiruki) and a totemic animal, a “clan animal” (uchii shiiruku). These clans are actually agamic and noncorporate, however. Filiation is matrilineal. Persons recognized as relatives, designated by the general term wayuu kasa tanain (“the people who are something for me”), constitute two groups: apüshi and oupayu. The former are uterine relatives in the strict sense—an Egocentric group or matrilineage, depending on the author—who gather together in the same cemetery the bones of their dead and act as a corporate group. The term “oupayu” refers to the close uterine relatives (apüshi) of Ego's father. The complementarity of these two groups becomes apparent: at the time of bride-price negotiations (in general, the price is determined by the father of the bride if it is his father daughter or, for the other girls, by their uterine relatives), in situations of conflict (in general, compensation is claimed by the victim's father if the wound is superficial, and by the victim's maternal uncle if the injury is serious or mortal), and, finally, in funeral arrangements (it is often the father or other uterine relatives of the deceased who are responsible for organizing the first obsequies, since the second funeral is always the responsibility of the apüshi).

Guajiro kinship terminology is of the Crow type.

Marriage entails a bride-price (apan'na). The amount varies greatly according to the hierarchical position of the bride's lineage as well as her specific qualities (e.g., skillfulness in weaving and commerce, beauty). Matrimonial exchanges are generally limited to certain very limited circuits. Virginity is valued. It was long believed that the Guajiro adhered to a rule of matrilocal residence (a new couple living in the same miichipala as the bride's mother). No single rule, however, is strictly applied. A couple can change residence several times during a lifetime, the previous configuration corresponding to the most stable situation. For the majority of young couples, residence is initially uxori-matrilocal; then it can change several times, possibly to patrilocal (patri-uxorilocal or patri-virilocal) or neolocal. The coresidence of sisters and brothers is the next most common form. The choice of residence is the result of two processes: the mode of marriage and the logic of household formation. Polygyny is highly valued and characteristic of rich men.

An individual is affiliated with three distinct groups - two of kinship and one of residence. This explains the great mobility of Guajiro society. A common household consists of a cohabiting group of siblings.

Property is owned both by lineages and individuals. Men and women both possess their own animals. The animals of a dead man not sacrificed during his funeral are generally distributed to his brothers and uterine nephews, who often share their portions with their sisters. A woman's children inherit her livestock at her death. Maternal uncles usually offer animals to their nephews. A father can also give animals to his children, a tendency that has developed during the twentieth century. In fact, the transmission of property is a complex process, varying according to the status of the lineage involved.

Children are raised in a rather permissive fashion, but they participate in economic activities at a very young age—little girls in household tasks, boys in tending the livestock. Pubescent girls were formerly subjected to a period of seclusion, which, by the 1990s, was sometimes more symbolic than real.

The dominant functional units of Guajiro society are the groups of apüshi, the matrilineal relatives in the strict sense.

One or several groups of apüshi, in general not localized, can recognize a dominant male figure, an alaüla, a term that designates a maternal uncle, an “elder,” and, by extension, a “chief.” In fact, the alaüla of a matrilineage functions in all three capacities. He is the keeper of “Guajiro custom” (sükuaitpa wayuu). The group to which he gives coherence is an economic unit. All of its members contribute to the payment of compensation for a misdeed caused on the outside by one of its members, to members' burial costs, and to the bride-price obligations of male members. In theory, the office of alaüla is inherited by one of the sons of the former's eldest sister, or failing that, by the most competent of his uterine relatives. In fact, situations of conflict among the constituent lineages can arise. The alaüla from the minimal lineage that considers itself the most wealthy can lay claim to the office, and fission can result.

An alaüla is responsible for maintaining daily order in the domestic unit in which he resides.

Serious offenses (homicide, body wounds) committed against members of different lineages are no longer, as formerly, subject to retaliation. Theoretically, there is always a way to arrive at a peaceful settlement. Each person who has suffered a wrong (aainjala) is a victim (asirü). The dispute (putchi) is submitted to a go-between (pütchipu, püchejachi, or often an alaüla), chosen by lineages in conflict and considered neutral. The dispute is settled by the payment of compensation (maüna) consisting of livestock, jewels, and money. The sum is accumulated by the lineage of the wrongdoer (womuyu) and remitted to the victim's familial group. The amount paid depends on the recognized worth of the victim, that is to say on the status of the victim's lineage. On the other hand, Guajiro history shows that if the groups in conflict are unequal, the stronger can refuse all mediation in order to appropriate the weaker's assets and capture and enslave certain of its members.

The Guajiro are little inclined to religious practices. They do not appeal to their divinities directly, and their rites few. Although their conception of the world is extremely dualistic, the Manichaeism of the Christian religion has made little impact on them.

The Guajiro invoke Maleiwa, their culture hero born from the remains of his mother, who was devoured by Jaguar. After having rejected Jaguar in the wilderness of Nature, which he personifies, Maleiwa created humans and differentiated the world, in which originally everything was anthropomorphic and related. Maleiwa, who is sometimes confused with the God of the Whites, has over the years lost its importance. Guajiro mythic concepts are based on an opposition between two fundamental supernatural beings: Juya (rain), the hypermasculine hunter, and Pulowi, the subterranean woman, mistress of animals, who is associated with drought and death and who manifests herself in numerous places such as holes or little rises, which are called pulowi and are avoided by the Guajiro for fear of disappearing or falling gravely ill. The elements of the symbolic world are divided into two equivalent and complementary classes of which Juya and Pulowi, who are husband and wife, are the representations and relevations. Several other supernatural beings are also recognized: wanulüü, akalpui, keeralia, juyain, and others. The Guajiro also accord great importance to the ghosts of the dead, the yoluja, who haunt their dreams, dictate much of their behavior, and are the cause of many illnesses.

Shamans as well as diviners still continue to corroborate traditional representations and beliefs, for example by curing sickness or epizootic disease or foretelling the appropriate site of new houses.

Formerly, collective horticultural work was accompanied by a ceremony, which has in recent times disappeared, called kaa'ülayawaa (goat dance), often accompanied, among the wealthy, by courses of horse meat (awachira ama). It was an occasion for competitions, games of skill and team games, and for rendezvous between young people. In the 1990s, the yonna dance, which is danced by a couple to the beat of a drum, is the most common collective demonstration. It is organized to celebrate an economic success; the visit of an important person, Guajiro or foreign (alijuna); the end of a period of seclusion; and similar events. The dance is also frequently prescribed by a shaman at the end of a cure. But funerals, both first and second, remain the most important Guajiro ceremonies.

Songs (jayeechi), sung as solos, often accompany gatherings; they can last for hours and so can become for men a true test of endurance. Their content can be biographical, historical, or ancedotal (love stories, lullabies, etc.). The Guajiro also play, also in solo, several types of flute and the Jew's harp.

The Guajiro distinguish two types of sickness. Beyond a certain threshold of pain and when the domestic treatments by plants, firebrands (asijai), and the like are found to be ineffective, the sickness is considered to be of the wanülüü type: its cause is supernatural. Nosology is of the etiological type. It distinguishes three great types of causes: encounters with or aggression by supernatural beings (oustaa), aggression by ghosts of the dead (yolujasiraa), and contamination (kapülainwea) by animals or by those who have handled remains of the dead or the bodies of murder victims. Traditionally, only shamans could assure a cure. By mid-1990s, many Guajiro followed winding therapeutic itineraries that took them from shamans to doctors at “health centers” and, in passing, to the healers or “sorcerers” of the neighboring rural areas.

According to the Guajiro, humans are part of a fatal cycle. When they die, their souls cross the “way of the dead Indians,” the Milky Way, and they go to Jepira, the peninsula of the dead, passing from the state of person (wayuu) to that of yoluja. To Jepira, the yoluja constitute a society comparable or opposed to that of the living, and then, “a long time after,” “they are lost.” Everything happens as though Juya and Pulowi were assimilating them. Long-dead Guajiro are then found on earth in the form of rain, which assures the rejuvenation of vegetation and life, or in the form of wanülüü, who bring sickness and death. The double funeral corresponds to the double fate of the dead. At the time of the second burial, to which the Guajiro accord extreme importance, the remains of the members of the same matrilineage are reunited, signifying anonymity and oblivion but also the force and the permanence of the group.

Goulet, Jean-Guy, 1978. Guajiro Social Organization and Religion. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms. Translated as El universo social y reliqioso guajiro. 1982. Caracas and Maracaibo: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.

Gutiérrez de Pineda, Virginia, 1950. “Organización social en La Guajira.” Revista del Instituto Etnológico Nacional (Bogatá). Translated as Social Organization in La Guajira. 1960. New Haven: HRAF.

INE, Venezuela. 2001. http://venciclopedia.com/index.php?title=XIII_Censo_de_poblaci%C3%B3n_y_vivienda Accessed August 9, 2012.

INE, Venezuela.. 2011.

DANE, Colombia. 2005. http://www.mincultura.gov.co/?idcategoria=41794. Accessed August 9, 2012.

http://www.ine.gob.ve/documentos/Demografia/CensodePoblacionyVivienda/pdf/ResultadosBasicosCenso2011.pdf Accessed August 13, 2012.

Perrin, Michel, 1976. Le Chemin des indiens morts: Mythes et symboles guajiro. Paris: Payot. Translated as The Way of the Dead Indians. 1987. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Perrin, Michel, 1982. Antropóloqos y médicos frente al arte guajiro de curar. Caracas and Maracaibo: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello; Corpozulia.

Picon, Francois-Reneé, 1983. Pasteurs de nouveau monde: Adpotion de l'élevage chez les indiens guajiros. Paris: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme.

This culture summary is based on the article, "Goajiro" by Michel Perrin, in the Encyclopedia of World Culture, Vol. 7, South America, Johannes Wilbert, ed. 1994. MacMillan Reference, USA. John Beierle wrote the indexing notes in 2011. Teferi Abate Adem added the synopsis in July 2012. Leon Doyon updated the population data in August 2012.