The Nukak people (also Nukak-Maku people) live between the Guaviare River 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 with seasonal nomadic patterns and practice small-scale shifting horticulture.[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.- ] They were classified as an "uncontacted people" until 1981,[" Se suicida un líder indígena, desesperado por la inminente extinción de su pueblo en Colombia," El Mundo, October 2006. This] Part of their territory has been used by coca growers, ranchers, and other settlers, as well as being occupied by guerrillas, army and paramilitaries. Responses to this crisis of land loss have included protests, requests for assimilation, and the suicide of leader Maw-be'.
History
Food acquisition
Hunting
Nukak are expert hunters. The men hunt with blowguns that shoot darts coated with curare "manyi", a poison made from different plants (
). They hunt, in particular, several species of monkeys (
Alouatta spp.,
Cebus spp.,
Saimiri sp.,
Lagothrix spp.,
Ateles sp.,
Saguinus spp.,
Callicebus torquatus), and birds (
Muscovy duck,
, guans,
, grey-winged trumpeter and
). They also use javelins made out of
Socratea exorrhiza palm wood to hunt two species of
peccary (
Tayassu pecari and
Tayassu tajacu) and spectacled caimans, whose eggs they consume. Nukak neither hunt nor eat
brocket deer,
Odocoileus virginianus, and
(
Brazilian tapir); they consider these animals to share a common ancestor with humans.
[Cabrera, Gabriel; Carlos FRANKY y Dany Mahecha 1999: Los Nɨkak: nómadas de la Amazonia colombiana. Bogotá D.C.: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. ][Politis, Gustavo 1996: Nukak. Bogotá D.C.: Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones SINCHI ]
The Nukak also capture ( Paca sp., Dasyprocta spp.), ( Dasypus sp.), ( Geochelone sp), (in large quantities), , , , larvae of Rhynchophorini (mojojoy, "mun", Rhynchophorus spp.) and larvae of several species of wasps and caterpillars.
Fishing
The Nukak eat several species of fish, like
Hoplias sp.,
Myloplus spp.,
Mylossoma spp.,
Hydrolycus sp.,
Cichla sp., surubí (
Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum),
(
Brachyplatystoma spp.),
(
Serrasalmus spp.,
Pygocentrus spp.) and
Potamotrygonidae (
Potamotrygon sp.). Fishing is partly done with cord and metal fish hooks, although the Nukak still catch their fish traditionally with bow and arrow or harpoons, traps, or baskets ("mei", water cages). They also use a sophisticated technique that has been reported in several cultures: it uses
nuún, the root of a
Lonchocarpus sp. that contains a number of substances that when dissolved in the water streams stun the fish, making them easy to catch.
Gathering
They collect honey of twenty species of bees and many fruits:
Arecaceae fruits (
Jessenia bataua),
Oenocarpus spp.,
Attalea spp.,
Mauritia sp.,
Phenakospermum guyannense,
Aechmea sp.,
Inga sp.,
Couma macrocarpa,
Iryanthera sp.,
Theobroma spp.,
Pourouma spp.,
Parinari sp.,
Micrandra sp.,
Helicostylis sp.,
Caryocar sp.,
Talisia sp.,
Hymenaea sp.,
Dacryodes spp.,
Abuta sp.,
Eugenia spp.,
Touraleia sp.,
Perebea spp.,
Protium sp.,
Cecropia sp.,
Batocarpus sp
., Hyeronimasp
., Brosimumsp
., Dialiumsp
., Garciniasp
., Manilkarasp
., Naucleopsisspp
., Pradosiasp
., Pouteriasp
., Salasiasp
., Passifloraspp
., Duroia maguirei, Duroia hirsuta, Mouririsp
., and
Alibertia sp
.[Gutiérrez, Ruth 1996: "Manejo de los recursos naturales (fauna y flora) por los Nukak"; Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, mec.][Cárdenas, Dairon y Gustavo Politis 2000: ]Territorios, movilidad, etnobotánica y manejo del bosque en los Nukak orientales''. Bogotá D.C.: SINCHI.
Nukak take the sweet resin from "mupabuat" ( Lacunal sp.) and the rattan water ( Doliocarpus sp.). They cover their encampments ("wopyi") with leaves of Phenakospermum guyannense and palms, and make their hammocks with fiber of the cumare palm Astrocaryum sp.; moorings with Heteropsis tenuispadix, Eschweilera sp., and Anthurium sp.; blowguns with Iriartella stigera, Bactris maraja; bows with Duguetia quitarensis; axe ends with Aspidosperma sp.; darts with thorns of Oneocarpus sp.; dart quivers with leaves of Calathea sp.; milkweed with Pachira nukakika, Ceiba sp., and Pseudobombax sp.; loinclothes for men with Couratari guianensis; baskets with Heteropsis spp.; disposable bags with Ischnosiphon arouma and Heliconia sp.; soap with Cedrelinga sp.; perfumes with Myroxylon sp. and Justice pectoralis; and diverse objects.
Shifting cultivation
They have crops in their territory, along their routes. They traditionally cultivate for food, tubers such as sweet potatoes (
Ipomoea batatas), taros (
Xanthosoma violaceum,
Colocasia sp.), yams (
Dioscorea sp.), and manioc (
Manihot esculenta). Also peach palms (
Bactris gasipaes), pineapple (
Ananas comosus), chili pepper (
Capsicum chinense), and several fruit trees. In all the gardens there are bananas (
Musa paradisiaca) and sugar cane (
Saccharum officinarum). They also plant to obtain tools for daily life (like bowls of
Crescentia cujete and
Lagenaria siceraria); or to make dyes. (like "achiote"
Bixa orellana and "carayurú"
Arrabidaea chica, in order to paint the body); and a cane (
Gynerium sagittatum), to make arrows and harpoons. Tobacco (
Nicotiana tabacum) is harvested for ritual uses.
Society
Marriage 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 a pairing, a man must have gone through an initiation
ritual in which he endures trials and consumes a
hallucinogen (
Virola sp.).
The most suitable couple is one made up by crossed cousins. Marriage between parallel cousins is forbidden. 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 man's encampment; if they have a child then they are considered a formal pair, which establishes mutual relations of kinship, expressed in rights and duties of reciprocity. A man can marry several wives, although a single wife is most common, and examples of three or more are rare. This polygyny coexists with a temporal polyandry during the pregnancy in order to improve the qualities of the baby. Each domestic group is part of a territorial group and other groups that are established to perform specific duties like security measures, according to the different stations and situations. On the other hand, each Núkâk is considered as part of a paternal lineage, "nüwayi", named after an animal or plant.
Ten territorial Nukak groups ("wün") have been identified, each one with at least 50 or 60 people, who most of the year do not remain together but form different groups for harvesting and/or hunting that are distributed in accordance with the climatic seasonal changes and the security situation. Each group is considered part of one of four regions of its territory. On certain occasions different groups join, where 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 climactic moment in which they all embrace, weeping while they remember their ancestors and express affection. The groups practice a form of exchange, "ihinihat", especially when all the resources are not in the same territory.
It is considered taboo among Nukak to discuss dead people.
Language
Nukak people speak a
tonal language.
[Hess, Richard; Kennet Conduff y Jan Ellen Conduff 2005: Gramática Pedagógica Provisional del idioma Nukak. Bogotá: Iglesia Nuevos Horizontes. ][Mahecha, Dany 2009: "El nombre en Nɨkak"; L. Wetzels (ed.) The linguistics of endangered languages. Contributions to morphology and morpho-syntax. Utrecht: LOT, pp. 63-93.] It is very closely related to
Kakwa language.
[Mahecha Rubio, Dany; Gabriel Cabrera & Carlos Franky (2000). «Algunos aspectos fonético-fonológicos del idioma Nukak n+kak». María Stella González de Pérez (ed.) Lenguas indígenas de Colombia. Una visión descriptiva. Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo. pp. 547-560. .]
Endangered status
Nukak populations have lowered from
malaria,
measles and
flu since their contact with the New Tribes Mission and other outsiders beginning in 1981.
Today
coca growers, left-wing
FARC guerillas, right-wing AUC
paramilitaries, and the Colombian army have occupied their lands. In 2006, a group of nearly 80 Nukak left the jungle and sought assimilation to preserve their culture. As one of the migrants, Pia-pe, put it: "We do want to join the white family, but we do not want to forget words of the Nukak."
[Juan Forero, " Leaving the Wild, and Rather Liking the Change," New York Times, May 11, 2006.] In October 2006, leader and Nukak Spanish speaker Maw-be' committed suicide by drinking poison. Friends and the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) reasoned he did so out of desperation in his inability to secure supplies or a safe return for the Nukak to return home.
[Darcy Crowe, Nomadic tribe struggles in Colombia, Associated Press, October 27, 2006.]
Bibliography
-
FRANKY, Carlos 2011: "Acompañarnos contentos con la familia" Unidad, diferencia y conflicto entre los Nükak. Wageningen University.
-
GUALTERO, Israel 1989: "Estudio breve de la cultura material de los Nukak". Asociación Nuevas Tribus de Colombia, mec. 15 p.
-
MAHECHA, Dany y Carlos FRANKY 2013: "Recolectando en el Cielo: elementos del manejo Nɨkak del mundo"; Patience Epps & Kristine Stenzel (eds.) Upper Rio Negro: cultural and linguistic interaction in Northwestern Amazonia, p.p. 163-193. Rio de Janeiro: Museu do Índio - Funai. [4]
-
POLITIS, Gustavo 1995: Mundo Nukak. Fondo de Promoción de Cultura. Bogotá D.C:Banco Popular.-
-
POLITIS, Gustavo 2007: Nukak: Ethnoarchaeology of an Amazonian People. (Benjamin ALBERTI, trans.) Left Cast Press and University College London Institute of Archaeology Publications, Walnut Creek, CA.
External links
