Arhuacos
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Arhuacos, Aruacos, Ica, Ijca or Bintuk, names of a Native American ethnic group part of the Chibcha family, remanence of the Tairona Culture concentrated in northern Colombia in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
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[edit] Territory
They live in the upper valleys of the Piedras River, San Sebastian river, Chichicua River, Ariguani River and Guatapuri River, in an Indian Reservation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains. Their traditional territory before the spanish colonialism, was larger than todays boundaries which excludes many of their sacred sites, but that they continue to visit today, to pay offerings. These lost territories are the lower parts by the steps of the mountains, lost to Colonizers and farming.
[edit] Communities
The Arhuacos are distributed into 22 sections.
- Central Zone: Nabusimake (Capital of the Arhuaco nation), Yechikin and Busin.
- Western Zone: Serankua, Windiwameina, Singunei.
- Southern Zone: Zigta, Yeurwa, Gumuke, Yeiwin, Seiarukwingumu, Buyuaguenka, and Simonorwa.
- Southeast Zone: Wirwa, Yugaka, Karwa.
- East Zone: Sogrome, Donachwi, Timaka, Aruamake, Seinimin and Izrwa.
Population is disperse, but gets together in these towns for reunions and ceremonies, being Nabusimake the most important of them and with an especial significance; it's composed of fifty squared shaped houses and circular temples named Kankura, for men and women.
[edit] Economy
Arhuacos main economic activity is subsistance agriculture, which traditionally was practiced by every family in the community in their own parcel by their houses. Each family owned two houses, one in the high lands were weather is cooler and another in the warmer lower lands of the mountains. Nowadays they can only practice this on the higher lands due to expropiation of land during the spanish colonization.
In the higher lands, they cultivate potatoes, onions, cabbages, lettuce, blueberries, tamarilloes, pumpkins, garlic and wheat. In the mid-lands; corn, beans, yuca, arracacha, malanga, coca, cotton, pineapple, papaya, guava, passion fruit, sweet granadilla, oranges and limes. Coffee is cultivated for commercial purposes only along with Mochilas (large handmade purses), and other arts and crafts to exchange it in the lower lands for products they don't get in the high lands. They also raise chickens, cattle, sheeps and goats. Men produce entirely the traditional clothing, but nowadays they also use modern clothing.
[edit] Language
Arhuacos speak a language pertaining to the chibchan linguistic family.
[edit] Phonology
Vowels
| Back vowels | Central vowels | Front vowels | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open vowels | i pron.(E) | + | u pron. (Uh) |
| Mid vowels | e pron. (eh) | ë pron. (yeh) | o pron. (Ohh) |
| Closed vowels | a pron. (Ahh) |
Consonants
This language registers 17 consonantic phonemas:
| Labial-alveolar | Alveolar | Alveolo-palatal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| oclusive (mute) | p pron. (pæ) | t pron. (tæ) | ĉ pron. (Zæ) | k pron. (kah) | ? | |
| oclusive ejective consonant | b pron. (bæ) | d pron. (dæ) | J pron. as (h) | g pron. (gæ or hæ) | ||
| Nasal | m | n | η | |||
| fricative | s | z | ||||
| fricative | ß | ž | ||||
| vibrant | r |
[edit] Beliefs
Arhuacos are profoundly spiritual people who follow their own unique philosophy that tends to globalize their surroundings. They belief in a "Creator" or "great father" named Kakü Serankua, who engendered the first gods and material living things, Other "fathers" like the sun and the snowy peaks and other "mothers" like the earth and the moon. They consider the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to be the navel of the world.
Nature and society as a unity are ruled by a single sacred law, immutable, pre-existent, primitive and survivor to everyone and everything. World can exist or unexist but this law continues to rule without being altered.
This universal law Kunsamü is represented by a boy, Mamo Niankua. This law of nature is an explanation to the orgins of matter and its evolution, equilibrium, preservation and harmony, that constitutes the fundamental objectives and the reason being of the Mamo; the spiritual authority of the Arhuaco society.
Each Mamo or Mamü is selected among different candidates, boys ranging eight to ten years old that will receive a training for a minimum of nine years to fifteen years in average and are free to determine if they want to continue with it further the training period. They specialize in certain knowledge areas such as philosophy, Sacerdotalism, medicine and practical community or individual counselors. Their influence is decisive in in their society.
[edit] Conflicts with colonizers
In 1916 the Arhuacos asked the government of Colombia for teachers to learn to read and write and also learn about mathematics, but instead the government sent Capuchin Friars. The Frairs prohibited the children to learn about their culture, establishing a "regime of terror" and puting them aside in an orphanage. They also established forced labor ignoring the Arhuacos plea to leave them alone.
In 1943, politicians from Valledupar, missionaries and Ministry of Agriculture, expropiated without compensation the best terrains of Nabusimake and built an State-owned, agricultural farm. The Arhuacos fought back and in 1944 created the Liga de Indios de la Serra Nevada (Sierra Nevada Amerindians League), but outlawed later in 1956 by a military government.
In 1962, the government impose the construction of a communications tower for TV in Mount Alguacil, considered sacred by them. The government also established a military post to intimidate them, and later ordered the construction of a highway from their territory to Valledupar. Afer all these and ignoring the threats they restablished their league. In 1972 the Arhuacos created the cabildo Gobernador, a better structured and adequate organization to defend their values and land.
In August 7, 1982 they rebelled against the Capuchins and took over the mission's building who finally left in 1983.
[edit] Prohibited Cultivation
in 1975, Colonials, not Arhuacos, started cultivating Marihuana in the Sierra Nevada. These brought more problems to the community, like forced recruitment for plantations, assimilation of drugdealers culture by some and violence. Many poor peasants from other regions of Colombia came to work in the Marihuana bonanza of the 1980s. Different from the traditional, non-commercial Coca planting, the drug dealers produced Cocaine through chemical processes. All these money later attracted the Colombian Armed Conflict, and combats among the different factions; mainly guerrillas and paramilitaries, who competed for the control of the area, and indiscriminately accused Arhuacos and other ethnicities as collaborators of the rival party, assassinating and intimidating them forcing many to an exodus. The government also started fumigations to eradicate illicit plantations leaving the Arhuacos in the middle of a crossfire.
[edit] Government Proyects
The government of Colombia is trying to develop an irrigation system for the Valley of Cesar by constructing hydroelectric dams and ecotourism routes in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Arhuacos oppose to all these proyects and organized the Confederación Indígena Tairona (Tairona Indigenous Confederation).
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- (Spanish) Etniasdecolombia.org
- Orozco, José Antonio 1990 Nabusímake, tierra de Arhuacos. ESAP, Bogotá. ISBN 958-9079-83-0
- Botero Verswyvel, Silvia 1987: "Indígenas de la Sierra nevada de Santa marta"; Introducción a la Colombia Ameridia:39-50. ICAN, Bogotá.
- dismalworld.com
