Tukano

South Americaother subsistence combinations

CULTURE SUMMARY: TUKANO

John Beierle and Eleanor C. Swanson

ETHNONYMS
ORIENTATION
IDENTIFICATION AND LOCATION

The Tukano are a group of tribes speaking languages of the Eastern Tukanoan language family. These tribes include the Arapaso, Bará Barasana, Buhagana, Carapana, Cubeo, Cueretu, Desana, Makuna, Pamoa (Tatuyo), Piratapuyo, Tukano, Tuyuca, Uaina, Uanana (Wanano), Uasona, Yahuna, and Yapua (Japua). In this summary the Tukano are considered together as a whole because of the commonality created by the high degree of intermarriage among the groups. These Eastern Tukanoan people occupy the immense tropical forest areas of the Comisaría del Vaupés, a region roughly the size of New England, lying approximately between the equator and one degree north latitude and between 69 degrees and 71 degrees west longitude (Jackson 1983; This region lies within the southeastern portion of Colombia and the northwestern portion of Brazil. The whole northwestern Amazon region is frequently referred to as a single culture area, comprising members of the Eastern Tukanoan, Arawakan, Tupi-Guaranian, and other language families.

DEMOGRAPHY

Population figures for the Tukano are extremely sketchy, making it difficult not only to say how many Tukano there are at any given time, but also to make any assessment of population trends. According to Jackson (1983) population density for the Vaupés region is quite low; one approximation being 0.2 inhabitants per square kilometer (Instituto Geograáfico "Agustín Codazzi" 1968: xiii). Other estimates vary between 7,000 (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975: 64), and 13,403 (Instituto Geográfico "Agustín Codazzi" 1969: xi). The latter figure, however, includes non-Indians, approximately 1,000 in number and mostly located in Mitú and its environs. Early estimates of a Tukano population of 8,500 in the northwestern Amazon region seem based largely on guesswork and again may include non-Tukano populations.

LINGUISTIC AFFILIATION

The Tukano tribes speak languages of the Eastern Tukanoan language family, which in turn is part of the Macro Tukanoan division of the Andean Equatorial macro phylum. Sorensen (1967) identifies thirteen languages as members of this language group: Tukano, Tuyuka, Yurutí, Paneroa, Eduria, Carupana, Tatuyo, Barasana, Piratapuya, Wanano, Desana, Siriano, and Cubeo. The unusual feature of these various Eastern Tukanoan-speaking groups is the high degree of multilingualism existing between them (e.g., the Cubeo, Makuna, Barasana, etc., each speak a different language), yet most of the groups practice linguistic exogamy in which wives are obtained from a group speaking a different language. Hence there is considerable commonality across these groups. Sorensen suggests that the Eastern Tukanoan languages are less closely related to one another than any languages of the so-called Romance group. (Quoted in Chernela 1993: 2).

HISTORY AND CULTURAL RELATIONS

The earliest explorers to the Vaupés region were the conquistadors in the sixteenth century seeking "Dorado de los Omagua". Their expeditions, however, left little in the way of documentation. White influence on the population of the northwest Amazon region has been persistent since the sixteenth century. As early as 1557 Francisco Perez de Quesada founded the community of Mocoa on the Caquetá River. Missionaries entered the region in 1550; first the Dominicans, followed twenty years later by the Franciscans. Prior to their expulsion from the region in 1767, the Jesuits founded many missions located on the Orinoco, Meta, Casanare, Guaviare, and Vichada Rivers. In 1852 the first mission on the Vaupés proper was founded by P. Gregorio, a Carmelite. He was successful in bringing together a village of approximately 300 Indians around the mission station, calling the complex Carurú. This mission was subsequently disbanded in 1881, with the Indians returning to their own native communities. Although missionary activity in the region in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has been generally discontinuous, nevertheless, while operational, they were quite energetic in fervor. It should be noted that while Christian doctrines have made only a vague impression on native religious practices, they have served the purpose of acquainting the Indian with new ideas from the outside world. During the period of 1875 to the early 1900s, the region was characterized by a flurry of nativistic movements. From 1875-1878, an Indian by the name of Anizetto, led a messianic movement against the whites of the region until he was finally arrested by Brazilian authorities. Later in 1880, Vincente Cristo, a shaman, led yet another such movement along the middle Vaupés. There is little evidence to suggest that any of these movements had much influence on the Indian population of the area.

European commercial penetration into the region started slowly but reached a sudden expansion with the rubber boom that only subsided just before World War I. The Putumayo rubber camps were a notorious and baleful focus of white influence in the area. Here thousands of Indian laborers died as the result of the ill treatment and poor working conditions they experienced in the rubber camps. From the late nineteenth century on, Indian and whites along the Vaupés were in constant contact and often in conflict. As early as 1852, various Indian groups along the lower Vaupés (in Brazilian territory) began to adapt some of the outward appearances of the mestizo population in the area. On the other hand, those living on the upper Vaupés, in Colombian territory, tended to remain relatively unacculturated.

SETTLEMENTS

The settlement pattern of the Tukano is one of dispersed villages located along river systems. Each community shifts its residence every three to five years within a large geographical area, as soil depletion necessitates the clearing of new crop lands. Communities range in size from 20 to 100 people, and frequently a whole community is housed in a single, multi-family dwelling called a MALOCA or longhouse. The community is typically made up of all the members of a patrilineal sib, the most important unit of social organization among the Tukano.

ECONOMY
SUBSISTENCE

Tukano subsistence activities include fishing, hunting, collecting, and horticulture; the relative importance of each depending on seasonal abundance. Fish are the most important source of protein in the diet. Fishing is a male activity, done either collectively or by individuals, and includes a variety of techniques, such as the use of bow and arrows, lines, nets, weirs, and poisons. Hunting, a secondary male activity, is accomplished through the use of shotguns, blowpipes, bow and arrows, and poison. Deer, peccaries, tapirs, squirrels, monkeys, jaguars, capybaras, pacas, birds, and other tropical forest fauna are the major game animals. A number of insects and reptiles round out the list of Tukano animal foods.

Large areas of forest near Tukano villages are cleared for cultivation by the slash-and-burn method. Horticulture is largely, but not exclusively, a female activity. Bitter manioc (cassava) is the most important crop grown and is the dietary staple of the Tukano. Manioc cultivation and subsequent processing to remove poisonous substances from the root, occupy much of the women's time. Other crops include squash, melons, yams, sweet potatoes, calabash, sugarcane, bananas, plantains, citrus fruit, and pineapples.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES

Although still a minor economic activity, some Tukano engage in the production of items for use in trade with other Tukano groups or with non-Indian people in the area.

TRADE

The entire northwest Amazon area is a vastly complex trading network. All kinds of objects, such as household implements, ornaments, musical instruments, ceremonial objects, plants, pets, and magical substances are in a constant state of exchange. Indians who have contact with Colombian and Brazilian trading centers frequently serve as middlemen in introducing manufactured goods into the flow of trade, such as cloth, salt, fishhooks, guns, machetes, and cheap ornaments. There are at least three different types of trade among the Tukano: (1) with the whites, of a commercial nature but increasing in importance; (2) intertribal, in which the specialties of specific groups (e.g., canoes among the Bará and Tuyuka, small benches or footstools among the Tukano proper), are exchanged for other comparable goods; and (3) intra-tribal, particularly between members of separate longhouse communities, which is more in the nature of a social exchange than an economic necessity (Goldman 1963: 68-69). Trade with other non-Tukanoan groups is also common, with, for example, poison (used in fishing and hunting) and raw materials for making ornaments coming from the Makú and manioc-grating boards from the Arawak-speaking Kuripako. Tukano-European trade is centuries old in the Amazon region, but following World War I it has been greatly stimulated by the European interest in rubber. Rubber tapping in the region has exerted great influence on native life. In order to satisfy their taste for European products the Tukano will often barter their own labor in the rubber camps for an exchange of goods. Another means of obtaining European goods is by trading farina, a coarse meal of manioc, for the items they desire. The farina is used by the European rubber tappers as a source of food for their workers. There is also some minor Indian-white trade in other food items, such as chickens, fish, and fruit.

DIVISION OF LABOR

As with subsistence activities, there is a marked distinction between the sexes in domestic activities. Women weave from plant fibers the bags and garters used by men. They also wash and mend clothing, sweep the MALOCA, gather firewood, fetch water, and manufacture pottery. Men produce all the baskets and wood items used by both sexes, construct houses, hunt and fish, and make canoes, fishing gear, and weapons. They also manufacture the ritual equipment used in various ceremonies. Men are also directly involved in coca growing and processing. In general women's activities more directly serve their families. They are responsible for preparing all foods, as well as the planting, tending, and processing of almost all edible cultigens, although men share responsibility for some fruit trees, corn, and pineapple plants. Primarily it is also the women who are involved in most of the gathering activities. In general, the economic activities of both men and women are complementary to one another in respect to subsistence contributions.

LAND TENURE

The Tukano recognize jurisdiction over rather than actual ownership of land. For example, a tribe will hold jurisdiction over a specific territory; a phratry over a river or a particular section of a river; and a sib over a smaller segment of river frontage. The periodic change of settlement sites occur within these boundaries. Tukanoans have implicit usufruct rights to resources in these areas, but the concepts of "tribal lands", "inalienable rights", or "title" are foreign ones to the Tukano (Jackson 1983: 62). As noted above, individuals have the right to use but not ownership of land under the jurisdiction of their sib for the purpose of cultivation, hunting, or fishing. Crops grown on the land, however, are considered the property of the cultivator. This jurisdiction or dominion over land is sanctioned by traditions of origin from the first ancestors and their subsequent travels and settlements. Place names thus become part of the traditional claim to a territory, for they identify ancestral sites, fishing areas, old orchards, and manioc plantations.

KINSHIP
KIN GROUPS AND DESCENT

As noted previously, the Tukano longhouse community is typically made up of all the members of a patrilineal sib. Sibs are named, exogamous and localized kinship units, and have important social, economic, political, and ritual functions in the society. They are the largest units within which there is any kind of authority structure. The sib headman achieves leadership status through a combination of personal abilities, and relationship to the previous headman. His powers are limited to persuasion, however, and his term in this role lasts as long as the sib members accept his leadership. The sibs are hierarchically ordered, and each sib belongs to one of five phratries. Each of these phratries is composed of up to twenty or thirty ranked sibs and derives its origin from mythical ancestors or "totemic" concepts. The major importance of the phratry is its function as an exogamous unit. The usefulness of the term "tribe" among the Tukano is questionable. Observers use it to identify Tukano groups that share common descent and language, but the Tukano themselves have no overarching sense of the tribe as a political or territorial unit, and recognize no tribal leaders.

KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY

Kinship terminology is related to the Dravidian model, in which ego's generation is either "classificatory siblings" or "classificatory cross-cousins". In this system classificatory siblings of the opposite sex to ego are prohibited from marriage, and classificatory cross-cousins of the opposite sex to ego are potentially marriageable (C. Hugh-Jones 1979: 76). According to Århem "the Dravidian type of terminology is generally characterized by classification according to generation, distinction of sex, distinction of two kinds of relatives in the three medial generations and distinction of relative age in the central generational level...(Århem 1981: 37). The central features of this type of terminology is the division of terms into two opposed classes in the medial generation, as for example, the opposition between cross and parallel relatives or as an opposition between consanguineal and affinal terms.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
MARRIAGE

Marriage among the various Eastern Tukanoan groups is basically a kind of movement in which people, goods, and intangible commodities, such as prestige, follow marital paths which link families and settlements. Sib and phratry exogamy is observed and marriage to real or classificatory cross-cousins is the preferred, but not obligatory pattern. Ideally, in Tukanoan marriage, sisters are exchanged, but in actual practice this seldom occurs because of demographics and other factors. As noted above, marriage is prohibited by incest prohibitions within patrilineal descent groups, but when language is the marker of patrilineal descent, as it is for most Eastern Tukanoan societies, the result is linguistic exogamy. In such a system wives typically come from a group speaking a different language than that of their husbands, and thus they become the principal mediators between groups speaking diverse languages. According to Århem, the Makuna flatly contradict the ideal rule of linguistic exogamy (Århem 1981: 139). Although they do marry into other language groups, they also marry among other Makuna speakers. Chernela suggests that this was a recent phenomenon as the result of depopulation (Chernela 1989: 38). In the household situation the wife invariably uses the language of the husband in talking to her children, but since she is usually not the only woman from her linguistic group in a large longhouse community, she will frequently find time during the day to converse with these other women in their own language. Marriage arrangements include the payment of bride price. A form of marriage by abduction is also to be noted among the Eastern Tukanoans. Most marriages are monogamous, the exception being a few headmen with more than one wife. Divorce is usually accomplished by the wife returning to her paternal sib, while her children remain in their own or father's sib.

DOMESTIC UNIT

The basic political and ceremonial unit of the northwest Amazon is the longhouse or residence group, consisting of one or more nuclear families each with their own specific location in the large communal house or MALOCA which they jointly occupy. Several related nuclear families form an extended family unit within the longhouse. As the result of dissension or for the purpose of establishing independence, brothers (real or classificatory) may move away from the original residence group and establish their own longhouse units. These units, often separated from one another by several hours of paddling on the river, and speaking a distinct language, constitute a linguistic group or so-called tribe. Over the years socio-cultural change has brought about the gradual disappearance of the MALOCAS, succeeded in turn by the POVOADOS, or clustering of individual family residences within a specified area.

INHERITANCE

In general, information on property and inheritance is little covered in the literature on the Tukano. Ritual property, such as sets of names for sacred musical instruments, sets of dances, chants about ancestral origins, traditions of origins expressed in myths, etc., are the exclusive property of the sib and phratry descent lines who transmit knowledge of these things to their own membership. Although not strictly speaking "ritual property", language too could be included in the list, for it is ideally descent determined and forms the medium of expression of many of the items listed above. Several non-ritual items and techniques are also associated with descent lines, so that particular weaving styles, types of leaves used for roofing, special cooked dishes, etc. are described as belonging to one or another group (C. Hugh-Jones 1979: 30-31).

SOCIALIZATION

With very young children both parents are involved in the nurturing process, with the sex of the child irrelevant. As the child matures, he or she spends increasingly more time with the same sex parent learning from them the basic skills necessary for later life as an adult Tukano, and promoting the assumption of adult responsibilities at an early age. From the Western point of view parents are very permissive and access to them by the child is never denied. Refusal to grant a child's request or demand seldom progresses to an outright rejection. The child is simply distracted, amused in some other way, or bought off with a treat. Children learn proper behavior either by imitation or gentle suggestion from the parents. When children disobey or otherwise cause displeasure to the parent they are rarely directly punished, and most often disapproval is not even apparent. Eventually a point is reached in the maturation process in which the parents begin to exert more authority over the child and expect them to be more responsible for their actions. Actions applied by parents at this time duplicate those techniques of social control found in other areas of Tukanoan life, namely: ignoring the behavior, collective ostracism, laughing to the point of ridicule, and other similar methods. At puberty both boys and girls undergo ceremonial initiation into the tribe under the close scrutiny of the PAJÉ or shaman. The PAJÉ teaches the young men the traditional legends, their rights and duties as members of the group, the ritual practices (including their introduction to the sacred musical instruments), and verifies their ability to assume adult status in the society by means of interrogation, and through their ability to withstand various physical ordeals (e.g., flagellation, fasts, etc.). Young women are instructed by the PAJÉ in theoretical and practical instructions about maternity and related obligations. The shaman also gives them practical instructions in sex education, either personally, by means of the KUMÚ (an elder person of status in the village), or with another young man of her or her father's choice. This part of the young woman's initiation ritual is essential before she can marry.

SOCIOPOLITICAL ORGANIZATION
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

In the Eastern Tukanoan region of the northwest Amazon, those social units of particular importance are the nuclear family, lineage, sib, tribe, phratry, the residential or longhouse groups, and the linguistic group. Several nuclear families constitute a lineage, and several lineages form a sib which is the primary unit of social organization among the Tukano. Several sibs together form a tribe which has its own separate history and is identifiable by a distinct language. The tribe is therefore co-extensive with the linguistic group. The identifying language of the linguistic group is thus the father tongue, the longhouse language, and the tribal language of each member, but it is not the language that identifies the mother's linguistic group (Sorensen 1967: 671). With few exceptions the tribe is aligned with one of five phratries. Each phratry represents a named exogamous group of sibs that marry into the other phratries of the region. As noted previously, the longhouse or residential group is the basic political and ceremonial unit in the northwest Amazon. In time the well established longhouse group becomes a cluster of lineages, as brothers move away from the original household and establish their own independent longhouse units.

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

Traditionally each MALOCAN or in more recent times the POVOADO had its family head called the TUXAUA who was the guardian over the local group of families. He represented the family in its relations with other groups, with other tribes, or in contact with Europeans. The TUXAUA was the hereditary president, speaker, and executor of the decisions of the Council of Elders, a political body composed of the PAJÉ or shaman and two or three men called KOMŨÁ (pl. of KOMŨ or KUMU), men of status in the community (Silva 1962: 701).

By the 1970s no political organization, in a formal sense, existed in the Vaupés region above the level of the community or settlement. Reichel-Dolmatoff notes [ca. 1960] that authority is represented "...mainly by shaman, the concepts of chiefs or important headmen being almost completely lacking. In Koch-Grünberg's time [early 1900s] there still existed a category of chieftains (TUSHÁua) but this has since disappeared and the shaman, called PAYÉS [sic], in the Amazonian vernacular, have come to combine in themselves most functions of civil and spiritual leadership" (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1987: 2).

SOCIAL CONTROL

Shaming, ridicule, fear of sorcery, and the force of public opinion, seem to be the primary means of exerting social control in Tukano society.

CONFLICT

The most common sources of conflict among the Tukano are the accusation or suspicion of sorcery following death, unsuccessful marriage arrangements, disputes over the ceremonial feather headdresses, and bride capture. Disputes and the competition for power within Tukano society are expressed in the language of communal ritual; individuals are either not invited to attend a given ceremony, or if they are, will not come. Thus communal rituals serve to display, channel, control, and settle disputes. When disputes arise between local and territorial groups, neighbors and co-residents, who are generally kinsmen, exert pressure to prevent the disagreement from escalating into fullscale violence. In the traditional culture serious disputes between neighbors and co-residents were settled by sham fights with wooden clubs. Within the residence or longhouse community, conflict is expressed by physical separation from the main group. Conflicts between higher-order social segments often turn to conflicts between local groupings: a dispute, for example, between members of two segments of the same sib, living in different local groups, tend to turn into a conflict between the two local groups rather than between the two sib-segments involved (Århem 1981: 89). Until recently war and feuds between different territorial groups were not uncommon. By the early 1970s feuds and large scale raiding have been suppressed by the national administration, although latent hostility between peoples of different territories still exists.

RELIGION AND EXPRESSIVE CULTURE
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The Tukanoans conceive of their physical world as much more than appears to the senses. The world as we now know it was different in ancestral times, and this world of the ancestors is re-created during sacred ceremonies. In this physical perception of the world, for example, the sky represents not only a sky but the underside of the level of the universe above this one. At the peak of the most sacred point in Tukanoan rituals, all aspects of "space" -- vertical, horizontal, and temporal -- are transformed. The longhouse itself now becomes the universe, the ceremonial participants the ancestors, and the realities behind the outward appearance of space, time, and matter are revealed. All of these characteristics -- insubstantiality, mutability, and multiple reality -- are crucial factors in the Tukanoan conception of the universe (Jackson 1983: 204).

In general, Tukano religious beliefs center around an elaborate cosmology depicting five separate levels of the universe, and a mythology of origins based on the mythical being called the Manioc-stick Anaconda. The Tukano also express belief in a somewhat vague all-powerful good spirit or god, and a multitude of lesser spirits, both good and evil, which have a great influence on individuals and to a large extent rule their lives. The Tukano also believe in an immortal soul for they acknowledge the existence of the spirits of the dead, usually their own ancestors. These spirits form the basis of a cult of ancestors around which major rituals revolve. It is in connection with ancestor ritual that mourning ceremonies are held and the sacred musical instruments played. Shamanism is also a very important part of the Tukano religious system.

RELIGIOUS PRACTITIONERS

Most religious rituals of the Tukano are performed by the PAJÉ (shaman) who serves as an intermediary between society and the supernatural world. The PAJÉ directs the ceremonies of the life cycle -- naming, initiations, and burial rites -- acts as a curer, and at times practices sorcery and poisoning (of individuals). The institution of shamanism goes back to mythical times; shamans are said to have been among the first passengers of the anaconda-canoe in the origin myth. The office of shaman is not hereditary, although there may be some degree of family traditions in a shaman's calling. The special traits that seem to characterize the shaman are: interest in the natural history of the area, in oral traditions, myths, disease, altered state of consciousness, and in dream interpretation. One of the most important functions of the shaman is, through the use of hallucinogenic drugs, to fly to remote regions of the universe in order to acquire esoteric knowledge. The principal ceremonies in which the shaman participates are: curing rituals, the exchange of marriage partners in the DABUCURÍ ceremony, the name giving ceremony held for infants, and in male and female initiation rites (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1987: 7 ff.). The term KOMŨÁ (KUMU sing.) is generally applied by the Tukano to elders or people of status in the community. Among the Desana, however, the term refers to individuals with priestly functions different from the activities of the PAJÉ, and holding a very respected position in the society. Although at times the KUMU may intervene in rites of the life cycle, this individual's main public function seems to be in pronouncing the GO'A MËË BAYÁRI or "songs of god" which are sometimes sung on the occasion of large gatherings when gifts of food are distributed between phratries.

CEREMONIES

The principal ceremonies of the Tukano are those related to the life cycle, initiation, marriage and death. Most of these are rituals over which the PAJÉ presides, and are concerned with ideas of fertilization and rebirth. The first of these is the name-giving ceremony during which the infant is incorporated into the social group, receiving in the process the name of a patrilineal male or female relative (often of ancestral origin). Male initiation, which may involve several boys of the same age group, is another occasion in which death and subsequent rebirth form an important part of the religious symbolism. During this initiation, boys are taught the sacred lore associated with the large YURUPARÍ trumpets, and in fact the literature frequently refers to the boy's initiation rituals as the YURUPARÍ ceremonies. The female initiation rites are also similar in their emphasis on transformation and rebirth. The ritual curing of illness through shamanistic performance, is in all essence, considered as the shedding of a placenta and a process of rebirth. In addition to the above, a recurrent ceremony or semi-secular festival is that of the DABUCURÍ. This ceremony involves the gathering of two or more exogamic groups (phratries) for the purpose of sister exchange. This exchange of marriage partners is almost always accompanied by the mutual exchange of fruits or other foods. During the two or three days of this ceremony, shaman and elders sing and recite lengthy genealogical or origin myths, while other participants engage in various other recreational pursuits (e.g., singing, dancing, etc.). This ceremony again places emphasis on reciprocity and fertility, for the ritual recitals refer to the fecundity of women and the desire to transform potential enemies into allies. Among most Tukano groups, rituals associated with death involve prayers and chants for the deceased to ensure that the spirit of the dead person leaves quickly on his or her journey to the land of the dead. The Cubeo, however, have much more complex ceremonies for the dead. These are known collectively as ÓYNE (weeping) and may take place as late as a year after death. The ÓYNE consists of two parts, the first of which is a long, three day section, followed a month later by a one-day concluding ceremony at which the dead is finally evicted from the community (Goldman 1963: 219).

DEATH AND AFTERLIFE

The Tukano dead are interred beneath the floor of their MALOCA, in a coffin-canoe, wrapped in his or her hammock and accompanied by the personal possessions of the deceased. These possessions include pottery or a basket in the case of a woman, or a bow and arrows, coca pouch, or snuff-shell in the case of a man. Shortly after the burial, sometimes the following night, a feast takes place in the MALOCA of the deceased. This feast consists of traditional masked dances, along with libations poured over the grave of the dead person. Mourning ceremonies for the Cubeo, as reported by Goldman, were far more elaborate (see Goldman 1963: 190 ff.). Mortuary endocannibalism, in which the bones of the dead were ground up, added to chicha beer, and consumed, was reported by both Wallace and Koch-Grünberg at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but the information was based on second-hand reports and never properly authenticated. Goldman observed what he thought to be this custom during his field work among the Cubeo in 1939-1940, but he could not confirm that the bones he observed being ground up were actually human (Goldman 1963: 13). Strong elements of an ancestor cult permeate many of the rituals of the Tukano, especially those in which the sib dead are mourned, when an infant receives a sib name, and in male initiation ceremonies in which the sacred musical instruments are used.

After death the spirits of the deceased go to "dead-people spirit" houses where their ancestors live. These houses are found in specific locations depending on an individual's language group (e.g., Tuyukas go to a longhouse on Behuya stream on the upper Paca River, and Bará go to Pamüri Wi at Yuruparí Rapids in the Vaupés). Not all the spirits of the dead go directly to the "dead-people spirit" houses, however, for those involved in various acts of theft, incest, murder, etc., or who have met accidental but bloody deaths, may wander around their graves and never complete the journey to the house of the dead. These spirits are the ones who are potentially harmful to the living and may be banished only by the prayers of the shaman.

ARTS

Tukano oral literature, rich in content, centers primarily around mythological tale of origin. These myths contain a relatively concise statement of cosmology and provide the basis for the establishment of various cultural institutions and religious codes. Singing and dancing, accompanied by a variety of musical instruments, form an important part of Tukano ritual and festival events. The two basic types of songs are the religious songs sung at ritual dances, performed exclusively by men, and the secular songs sung for amusement by women. The former are always sung in choir, without solos, and in only one voice, while the latter are sung by one or more singers simultaneously or alternately, sometimes repeating the same theme, and sometimes not (Silva 1962: 439).

Musical instruments consist primarily of idiophones (rhythm tubes and sticks, rattles, snappers, maracas), membranophones (drums), and aerophones (flutes, whistles, panpipes, trumpets). Instruments are given names, and play an important part in boy's initiation ceremonies (e.g., the YURUPARÍ trumpets). As noted previously, the Tukano are regionally specialized in the production of various craft products. The Tukano proper manufacture decorated benches or footstools, the Desana are specialists in making baskets and mats, while the Bará and Tuyuka (Tuyuca) excel in the construction of canoes. Tukano decorative designs are mostly limited to triangles and crosses, and rely more heavily on color than form. These designs are applied to a great variety of artifacts including the elaborate masks and headdresses constructed and used in certain ceremonials (e.g., the mourning rituals), tools, dance aprons, ornaments, the bark walls of their MALOCAS, and even to body painting. These designs are also woven into baskets. Pottery, however, is usually undecorated except for the pot containing the narcotic YAJÉ used by the elders during certain festivals and curing sessions.

MEDICINE

Diseases are believed to result from the failure to observe specific food restrictions, or as the result of sorcery. Most individuals have a considerable practical knowledge of how to cure specific diseases using a number of medicinal herbs found in the natural environment. These herbs are used effectively to heal wounds, cuts, infections, relieve stomachache, and even cure snake bite. These treatment procedures are often accompanied by magical ones as well. For more serious diseases, especially those thought to be caused by sorcery, the PAJÉ is consulted. The shaman's curing procedures usually include sucking out the evil object from the body, or pouring shamanized (magically prepared) water over the patient.

SYNOPSIS

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Tukano file consists of seventeen documents. Three of these are translations from the Spanish (Fulop 1955, 1956, 1954, nos. 1-3), and one from the Portuguese (Silva 1962, no. 4). The remaining thirteen works are all in English. Fieldwork for these studies was conducted intermittently for a period of over forty years from 1939 to 1980. Probably the most comprehensive ethnographic account covering the Tukano as a whole is that found in Silva (1962, no. 4). This work, the result of the author's fieldwork, archival research, and interviews with Brazilian missionaries, contains quotations from early documents, a vast amount of linguistic material, descriptions of material culture, and a discussion of the identification of Tukano subgroups. The three Fulop publications, used in conjunction with those by Sorensen (1967, no. 7), and Reichel-Dolmatoff (1987, no. 9), provide supplemental data to that found in Silva. These works present information on kinship terminology, folktales and myths, cosmology, shamanism, agriculture (including the growing, processing, and use of coca), and multilingualism and tribal exogamy. The remaining documents in the file relate to specific subgroups of the Tukano. Goldman's two publications (1963, 1976, nos. 5 & 14), provide well-rounded ethnographic coverage on the Cubeo, including data on the economy, social structure, marriage, political organization, the ancestor cult, and religion. Similar data are provided on the Bará by Jackson (1983, no. 12); the Makuna by Århem (1981, no. 13); the Desana by ReichelDolmatoff (1971, no. 8); the Barasana by C. Hugh-Jones (1979, no. 11); and the Wanano by Chernela (1993, no. 18). Other documents deal with more specific ethnographic topics. For example Dufour's articles on the Tatuyo focus on the dietary needs of this group and the expenditure of energy by women in horticultural work (Dufour 1983, 1984, nos. 15-16), while Chernela discusses the concept of linguistic exogamy among the Arapaso and Makuna. Stephen Hugh-Jones who shared a common field site among the Barasana Indians with his wife Christine, whose work is mentioned above, provides an in-depth study of the YURUPARA (YURUPARÍ) initiation cult of this tribe, interspersed with lengthy discussions on religious symbolism (see S. Hugh-Jones 1979, no. 10).

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by John Beierle in December, 1996, and supplemented with additional information from the article "Tucano" by Eleanor Swanson in Sixty Cultures: A Guide To The HRAF Probaability Files. 1977. Robert O. Lagacé, ed. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, Inc. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in December, 1996.

INDEXING NOTES
  • alliance -- generally in terms of marriage between local groups -- categories 571, 581

  • BALAY -- a flat circular basket tray -- category 285

  • BOGÁ -- bio-cosmic energy -- category 822

  • CACHIRÍ -- a social reunion during which CHICHA beer is consumed -- category 574

  • CHAGRA -- a cultivated field or garden plot -- category 241 chanter -- reciter of myths and religious chants; a type of priest -- category 793

  • CHICHA -- a slightly fermented beer made of maize, manioc or palm fruits -- category 273

  • DABUCURÍ -- a ceremonial gathering during which gifts are distributed between allies (see also POOA) -- categories 796, 431, 430

  • dancers/chanters -- categories 554, 535, 538

  • exogamous groups -- a collection of sibs arranged in a hierarchical order -- category 614

  • gourd of beeswax -- application in ceremonies -- categories 237, 415, 778

  • KUMÚ -- a Tukano individual with priestly functions -category 793, 756

  • KURUPÍra -- forest spirits -- category 776

  • language groups -- composed of sibs who share a common ancestor and speak one language -- categories 614, 619

  • language family -- composed of related member language groups -category 619

  • local group -- categories 621, 628

  • Macu-Tukano relationships -- categories 629, 563

  • MAHSA WAMI -- the village headman -- category 622

  • MALOCA -- a large communal house occupied by several nuclear families -- categories 342, 592

  • MASA -- the sib -- category 614

  • MASA BUTU -- any descent unit above the level of the sib; generally refers to a phratric segment -- category 614

  • MATAPI -- see TIPITÍ

  • MOJOJOI -- large, edible larvae -- category 262

  • OHPË -- the household head -- category 592 order -- category 614

  • POOA -- a ceremony of exchange between sibs (see also DABUCURÍ) -- categories 796, 431, 614

  • residence group (WINGANA) -- category 592 territorial group -- category 619

  • TIPITÍ (MATAPI) -- a sleeve-like elastic tube made of basketry, used in squeezing out the poisonous juices of grated manioc -- categories 285, 252

  • VAÍ-MAHSË -- The Master of Animals -- category 776

  • WATI (WAHTÍA) -- spirits in general or often spirits of the dead -- categories 776, 775

  • wax, burning of -- as protective magic and for sending away disease -- categories 789, 751

  • WI NGANA -- see residence group

  • YAJÉ -- a hallucinogenic plant -- category 276

  • YURUPARÍ (JURUPARI) --a ceremonial complex -- categories 796, 881 and/or 852

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Århem, Kaj. Makuna social organization: a study in descent, alliance, and the formation of corporate groups in the north-western Amazon. Thesis (Ph.D.)--Uppsala University, 1981. Uppsala studies in cultural anthropology, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 0348-5099. no. 4. Uppsala, Stockholm, Sweden: Academiae Upsaliensis, 1981

Chernela, Janet Marion. Marriage, language, and history among eastern Tukanoan speaking peoples of the northwest Amazon. The Latin American anthropology review, vol. 1, no. 2 (1989): 36-41.

Chernela, Janet Marion. The Wanano Indians of the Brazilian Amazon: a sense of space. 1st edition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993

Dufour, Darna L. Nutrition in the northwest Amazon: household dietary intake and time-energy expenditure. Adaptive responses of native Amazonians, edited by Raymond B. Hames, William T. Vickers. Studies in anthropology. 1983. 329-355.

Dufour, Darna L. The time and energy expenditure of indigenous women horticulturists in the northwest Amazon. American Journal of Physical anthropology, vol. 65 (1984): 37-46.

Fulop, Marcos. Aspectos de la cultura Tucana: cosmogonia [Aspects of Tucano culture: cosmogony]. Revista Colombiana de Anthropología, vol. 3. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, 1954

Fulop, Marcos. Aspectos de la cultura Tucana: Mitología--Parte I [Aspects of Tucano culture--Mythology--Part I]. Revista Colombiana de Anthropología, vol. 5. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Antropología, 1956

Fulop, Marcos. Notas sobre los términos y del sistema de parentesco de los Tukano [Notes on the terms and the kinship system of the Tucano]. Revista Colombiana de Antropología, vol. 4. Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Anthropología, 1956

Goldman, Irving. The Cubeo: Indians of the Northwest Amazon. Illinois Studies in Anthropology, no. 2 Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1963

Goldman, Irving. Perceptions of nature and the structure of society: the question of Cubeo descent. Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 1 (1976): 287-292

Hugh-Jones, Christine. From the Milk River: spatial and temporal processes in northwest Amazonia. Based on the author's thesis, Cambridge University, 1977. Cambridge studies in social anthropology, no. 26. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979

Hugh-Jones, Stephen. The palm and the pleiades: initiation and cosmology in northwest Amazonia. Based on the author's thesis, Cambridge University, 1974, which was presented under title: Male initiation and cosmology among Barasana Indians of the Vaupés area of Colombia. Cambridge studies in social anthropology, no. 24. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979

Jackson, Jean E. The fish people: linguistic exogamy and Tukanoan identity in northwest Amazonia. Cambridge studies in social anthropology, no. 39. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire], New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983

Moser, Brian. The cocaine eaters. By Brian Moser and Donald Tayler. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1967

Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. Amazonian cosmos: the sexual and religious symbolism of the Tukano Indians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, [1971]

Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. Shamanism and art of the eastern Tukanoan Indians: Colombian northwest Amazon. Iconography of religions, 0921-0334. Section IX, South America; fasc. 1. Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill, 1987

Silva, Álcionilio Brüzzi Alves da. A civilizaçäo indigena do Uaupés [The indigenous civilization of the Uaupés] São Paulo: Centro de Pesquisas de Iauareté, 1962

Sorensen, Arthur P., Jr. Multilingualism in the northwest Amazon. American Anthropologist, vol. 69 (1967): 670-684

ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Instituto Geográfico "Agustín Codazzi". Atlas de Colombia.Bogotá: 1969

Koch-Grünberg, T. Zwei jahre unter den Indianern: reisen in Nortwest-Brasilien. 2 vols. Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth, 1909-1910

Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo. The shaman and the jaguar: a study of narcotic drugs among the Indians of Colombia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1975

Wallace, A.R. A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. 2 d. ed. (1st ed. 1853). London. (Reprint. New York: Dover ed.). 1889/1972