Warao

ETHNONYMS: Ciawani, Guaraúnos, Tiuitiuas, Waraweete

Orientation

Identification. The Warao Indians, fishermen and incipient agriculturists, inhabit the labyrinthine arms of the Orinoco Delta of northeastern Venezuela and adjacent areas. "Warao" is an autodenomination meaning "lowland people" or "marshland people" from waha, "lowland," and arao, "inhabitant people." All non-Warao, whatever their origin, are hotarao, "dryland people," from hota, "high" or "dryland," and arao. "Guaraúno" is a Hispanicized version of the ethnonym, and "Tiuitiua" is the name given the Warao by the Otomac Indians, referring to a type of sandpiper, waharomu (Tringa flavipes ), with which the Warao identified mythologically. Sir Walter Raleigh, the sixteenth-century English explorer, refers to the Tiuitiuas as divided into "Ciawani" and "Waraweete" ("real Warao").

Location. Politically, the Orinoco Delta forms part of the Venezuelan Federal Territory of Delta Amacuro (Territoria Federal Delta Amacuro), which spreads over 40,200 square kilometers and is located between 7°38′ and 10°3′ N and 59°48′ and 62°30′ W. The area is at the northern tip of the vast lands between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, called in colonial times the "Island of Guayana." More than half of the Warao population lives in a coastal strip of mangrove and moriche- palm (Mauritia flexuosa ) swamps, about 80 kilometers deep, along some 200 kilometers of seashore between the Río Marosa (Mariusa) of the central delta and the Río Amacuro (Amakoro) south of the Río Grande del Orinoco. The warm and humid climate of the delta produces a mean annual temperature of 26° C, but early mornings can be chilly. The area is under the influence of twice-daily tides, which during the dry season between January and April bring brackish water upriver. After the sudden onset of the rainy season around May, the annual flooding of the Orinoco reaches a peak in August and September and fills the adjacent Gulf of Paria up to the island of Trinidad with fresh water to such an extent that it made Columbus suspect he had happened on a great continent when he touched the Spanish Main for the first time on his third voyage in August of 1498.

Demography. Today the total Warao population is estimated at 22,000, of which, according to the Venezuelan indigenous census of 1982, 19,573 live in Venezuela, and 17,654 in the Territorio Federal Delta Amacuro, where they constitute about one-third of the total population. The Warao form the second-largest indigenous group in the country after the Guajiro (Wayuu). Although indigenous peoples make up less than 1 percent of the country's estimated 17,000,000 population, they inhabit over one-third of its surface, mainly in strategic border areas. After holding at an estimated 8,000 during colonial times and into the twentieth century, the Warao population has about tripled, possibly because of improved health service regarding infectious and gastrointestinal illnesses; but new endemic diseases such as tuberculosis are bringing this growth to an end.

Linguistic Affiliation. AU Warao speak mutually intelligible variants of the same language. Warao has traditionally been considered an isolate, without affiliation with one of the great South American language families such as Tupí, Carib, or Arawak. Nevertheless, some scholars suggest a possible connection of Warao, together with Yanomaman and Barían, to the Chibcha Language Family, whose speakers live mainly in the Colombian Andes. More likely, all these unaffiliated languages belong to a common substratum and are only tenuously related. Originally an unwritten language, Warao today is spelled in a variety of ways, all in the Roman alphabet.

History and Cultural Relations

According to Warao oral tradition, relations with the neighboring Lokono, an Arawak-speaking population, were peaceful, but not so with the Carib-speaking Cariña ("red faces"), or Musimotuma, who are still feared today. From the beginning of colonial times the Río Orinoco (Wirinoko in Warao) was the main entrance for explorers, missionaries, and scientists to the lands of El Dorado, which supposedly lay farther upriver. Located at the limits of the Spanish colonial empire, the Warao worked for and traded with the Spanish and the neighboring Dutch alike, but from a secure home base in the swampy interior of the deltaic islands, where they lived by exploiting the starchy pith of the moriche palm, a relative of the Metroxilon or sago palm of Oceania. Until the decline of the rubber boom earlier in this century, the Warao suffered greatly, serving as forced laborers. After the agreement in 1922 between the Capuchin order and the Venezuelan government, Spanish missionaries arrived in the Orinoco Delta and in 1925 established the mission of Divina Pastora de Araguaimujo, the first organized effort to permanently penetrate the Warao heartland. In the meantime, migratory Warao from the Río Sakobano with family ties among the Lonoko south of the Rio Grande had imported from there a new cultigen suitable for growing in the swampy delta environment, the tarolike "Chinese" ocumo or ure (Colocasia sp.). This freed the Warao from their dependence on palm starch and the swamps and allowed them to establish themselves in the open river arms of the delta. It also made them available as a cheap labor pool for newly established sawmills and palmetto factories as well as commercial rice-growing operations.

Settlements

Traditional villages range in population from an extended household of 25 to clusters of household groups with 250 persons. Acculturated Indians may live in isolated homesteads around sawmills and palmetto factories. Until the early decades of the twentieth century, most settlements were located in the moriche-palm groves, where the Warao lived in small, 3-by-3-meter huts thatched with moriche leaves and with floors of stems from the same palm, but after the introduction of ocumo, many groups moved to the open river shores, where most villages are now located. These consist of clusters of 8-by-12-meter houses with a number of smaller kitchens and, in traditional settlements, menstruation huts, dancing floors, and two-story ritual structures. Warao homes there are composed of two independent sections: the floor, built like footbridges on stilts above the highest tide with a covering of manaca- palm trunks and anare ahorohoro (Euterpe sp.) and the saddle roof thatched with temiche -palm leaves (Manicaria saccifera ).

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Traditional Warao subsistence is based on fishing and, to a lesser extent, on hunting, supplemented by gathering fruits, larvae, and crustaceans in a marked yearly cycle. Since the substitution of ocumo for palm starch as a staple, gathering activities have diminished and been supplanted by wage labor in lumbering and fishing. Incipient agriculture other than ocumo includes some sugarcane, bananas, and, where suitable soil is available, bitter manioc and maize. There is also some commercial rice growing.

Trade. The allocation of the domestic product is affected by delayed reciprocity and prestations inside local groups, whereas trade with outsiders is based on direct exchange, either through barter or the occasional use of money. Items sold by the Warao include hammocks made of moriche-palm fiber and other handicraft objects, as well as hunting dogs and pets such as parrots and macaws. Acquisitions consist mainly of metal tools such as axes and matchetes, fish hooks, and iron pots, as well as some clothing.

Division of Labor. There are no full-time specialists, although some persons are more proficient in a craft than others. Among the men, the expert builder of canoes, moyotu, is an important personage with considerable knowledge of rituals and oral tradition. Among the female population, the weaving of hammocks is practiced from childhood; this activity is a demonstration of how an old and sometimes blind woman can continue to perform useful labor. Along with the expert weaver of basketry, male or female according to area, such a man or woman is known as uwasi, with important implications for that person's afterlife (see "Death and Afterlife"). There is a whole range of religious practitioners with special knowledge. Other than the "guardian of the rains" (naharima ) and the owners of specific ritual songs and musical instruments, there are three shamanic specialists who, according to their age, carry a lighter work load. Work is assigned on the basis of ae and sex, girls aiding their mothers from an early age in the important gathering activities that contribute heavily to food production and female prestige. With the introduction of wage labor, female status has declined, as has the role of religious practitioners.

Kinship

Kin Groups. Kin groups as such play a role only as expressed in the domestic unit built around a group of real or classificatory sisters. The principal woman, hanoko orotu or "owner of the house," enjoys considerable prestige, and the important daily decisions are made by the core group of sisters and classificatory sisters. The work group is commanded by the old father-in-law, arahi, through the husband of his oldest daughter, dawa awahabara, who serves as foreman over the inmarrying husbands, harayabas, of the former's daughters and granddaughters. Descent is bilateral and fictive kinship is frequent.

Kinship Terminology. Warao kinship terminology is different from that of all neighboring indigenous groups, which use Dravidian or two-line systems. Warao cousin terminology is of the Hawaiian type, according to Murdock's classification, resulting in the same kin terms for brothers/sisters and cousins. Male and female Ego, however, use different kinship terms, and address and reference terms are not distinguished. The ascending generation has a bifurcate-collateral terminology, whereas in the descending generation only a man's sister's children are distinguished from sons and daughters. There is a complete set of affinal kinship terms that structure social behavior inside the residence group.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriage is endogamous in relation to the local group, based on descent from one or several common ancestors (ahokonamu ), but exogamous to the domestic unit. Residence is uxori-matrilocal with the young son-inlaw moving into his mother-in-law's house, which is as close to the household of origin as possible. A prestigious head of a domestic unit may take a second wife by marrying his principal wife's "assistant" (atekoro ), usually her brother's daughter, but polygynous marriages also come about by default, as when a man marries his wife's widowed sister. After a number of early trial unions, couples with several children are extremely stable and divorce is infrequent. A widowed man moves to another domestic unit, but must leave his children behind; they are brought up by a foster parent (aidatu ), generally a maternal grandfather.

Socialization. Children are taught by example rather than through formai instruction. Religious practitioners such as shamans and those who aspire to be expert boat builders serve apprenticeships. Both parents show affection to infants, but older siblings frequently take charge of routine child care. Role behavior, however, is learned from the same-sex parent. An important point in a child's life is when "consciousness strikes" at about the age of 4 and the individual is counted as a "human being." Life passages are marked by natural events such as menarche, when, at a special ceremony, a girl passes from anibaka to nubile young woman, iboma. and at the birth of the first or second child from iboma to adult woman, tida.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. Although consanguineal kinship constitutes the framework for Warao social organization, specific rights and duties are determined by affinal kinship. The most important traditional relationship is the longterm social contract between father-in-law (arahi) and sons-in-law (dawatuma ), with the former becoming over time the head of a large domestic unit that may grow to over 100 persons and constitute a separate settlement. Such an arahi then becomes the aidamo (village head) as well.

Political Organization. Holding political office was traditionally equivalent to the role of a major shaman, but since colonial times headmen and other officeholders have been appointed by outside authorities. A kabitana (captain) was usually the head of the strongest domestic unit of the village and the bisikari (derived from the Spanish fiscal ) or borisia (derived from the Spanish policía ) head of a minor one. The native governor (kobenahoro ) presided over an area such as a delta river arm. Although there is no concept of exclusive land tenure, the leader of an inmoving Warao group must subordinate himself to the local kobenahoro. Political offices are assigned on the basis of prestige, according to the number of dependent workers (nebu ) and public acclaim during ritual dances like the moriche ritual (nahanamu ) or the fertility ritual of the "little rattles" (habi sanuka ). Thus, a hierarchical ranking is established in an otherwise classless society. In recent years the Venezuelan administration has nominated paid police comisarios, but they have little influence on day-to-day activities.

Social Control and Conflict. There is little coercive control available to headmen and other political officeholders. Gossip and complaining in an even-toned monologue serve to attract attention to grievances. Ridicule of antisocial behavior is very effectively aimed. Shamans, however, especially hoarotu shamans, exercise considerable influence through the threats of witchcraft and punishment by the supernaturals. The Warao do not wage war; traditionally, they have retreated deeper into the moriche-plam swamps when threatened by neighbors or invaders. They are known to be very pacific, but there are occasional outbursts of violent reactions to abuses by outsiders. The concept of knauobe, literally "the retribution of the head," is very important to the Warao and implies an ideal equilibrium with nature and between persons, but also vengeance. Intra-group conflicts are mediated through public hearings (monikata ), with the aim that "all should be satisfied." Intergroup conflicts are handled by the Warao through the use of witchcraft (hoa ). "We kill each other with hoa," the Warao say. Among interrelated groups a quite peaceful contest with shields (isähi ) is used to vent anger.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Although Catholicism and, in some areas of the western delta, evangelical Christianity, have made some inroads into Warao religious attitudes in recent decades, the vast majority of the indigenous population continues to adhere to traditional beliefs and values. The Warao possess a well-developed ancestor cult. Important spiritual beings are the life forces of great deceased wisiratu shamans (hebu araobo ), who occupy the cardinal points of the edge of the world (aitona ). Their subordinates are materialized in sacred ancestor stones (kanohotuma, "our old ones"), which are cared for locally in ritual huts by their "guardians" (kanobo arima ), a task carried out by experienced wisiratu shamans. Trees and other plants and natural phenomena are animated, and hebu spirits roam the forests and rivers. Mythical nabarao, "people of the river depths" in a mirror image of human life, mate with Warao women to engender monsters (at times justifying infanticide). Metamorphoses (anamonina ) are frequent, transforming "forest people" (plants and animals) and men into jaguars. The Warao worldview is an immanent one, and the concept of kanonatu, "our creator," seems of recent origin.

Principal spiritual beings, hebu aidamo or hebu araobo, together with their principal wives and a coterie of subordinates, occupy the edge of the Warao world, especially whatever higher elevations there are in Trinidad and south of the Orinoco, such as Naparima in the former area and Karosima in the latter. Each religious practitioner looks to a particular hebu spirit and its location as a destination for his life force (mehokohi ) after death. Hebu spirits may be beneficial or malevolent and are mediated by wisiratu shamans. Especially feared are the hebu masisikiri, known among Carib speakers as kanaima, and the kanobo himabaka.

Religious Practitioners. Virtually all Warao adults exercise a religious function or are tied into one as craft experts, but the three basic religious offices are those of bahanarotu, who controls bahana or hatabu (arrows); the hoarotu, who kills by means of hoa sickness for the voracious Hoebo spirits on the western world edge but also can counteract hostile hoarotu; and the wisiratu shaman, who mediates between the Warao and their ancestor spirits (hebu) and cares for the sacred rock, their material expression (kanobo ). Women may become shamans after menopause.

Ceremonies. Of vital economic and religious importance is the moriche ritual (nahanamu), which stretches over some six months from the collection of palm starch to its distribution. The habi sanuka dance, which takes different forms throughout the Guiana region, is a fertility ritual that formerly included sexual activities with an amuse, the wife of a close associate.

Medicine. Women are familiar with a number of curative herbs, but all sickness is considered to have a supernatural origin. Shamans both inflict and cure illnesses. Western medicine is available to a limited degree.

Death and Afterlife. When a Warao dies the life force leaves his or her body and returns symbolically to the maternal womb, and the person thus becomes a hebu spirit. Sometimes tarrying around its former dwelling place, the life force ultimately moves to the abode of the Supreme Kanobo corresponding to the magico-religious specialty or craft that he or she exercised in life. Hence the Warao look to the end of their lives with a certain tranquility. Men are buried in their dugouts.

Bibliography

Barrai, Basilio de (1964). Los indios guaraunos y su cancionero: Historia, religión y alma lírica. Madrid: Concejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Departamento de Misionología Española.

Heinen, H. Dieter (1988). OKO Warao: Marshland People of the Orinoco Delta. Münster: Lit Verlag.

Heinen, H. Dieter (1988). "Los Warao." In Etnología contemporánea. Vol. 3, edited by Jacques Lizot. Los Aborígenes de Venezuela, edited by Walter Coppens and Bernarda Escalante. Monograph no. 35. Caracas: Fundación LaSalle de Ciencias Naturales, Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología.

Murdock, George P. (1949). Social Structure. New York: Macmillan.

Osborn, Henry (1966a). "Warao I: Phonology and Morphophonemics." International Journal of American Linguistics 32:108-123.

Osborn, Henry (1966b). "Warao II: Nouns, Relationale, and Demonstratives." International Journal of American Linguistics 32:253-261.

Osborn, Henry (1967). "Warao III: Verbs and Suffixes." International Journal of American Linguistics 33:46-64.

Wilbert, Johannes (1970). Folk Literature of the Warao Indians: Narrative Material and Motif Content. Los Angeles: University of California, Latin American Center.

Wilbert, Johannes (1972). Survivors of Eldorado: Four Indian Cultures of South America. New York: Praeger.

Wilbert, Johannes, and Miguel Layrisse, eds. (1980). Demographic and Biological Studies of the Warao Indians. Los Angeles: University of California, Latin American Center.

H. DIETER HEINEN