Urarina Totally Explained

Everything about Urarina totally explained

The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin (Loreto) who inhabit the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they've resided in the Chambira Basin of contemporary northeastern Peru for centuries. The Urarina refer to themselves as Kachá (lit. "person"), while ethnologists know them by the ethnonym Urarina. The local vernacular term for the Urarina is Shimaku, which is considered by the Urarina to be pejorative. The ethnonym "Urarina" may in fact be from Quechua--uray meaning below, and rina referring to runa, or people. Urarina is thus rendered in Quechua as uray-runa or people from below or down stream people.

Society and culture

Urarina society and culture have received exceptionally little attention in the burgeoning ethnographic literature of the region, and only sporadic references in the encyclopedic genre of Peruvian Amazonia. Accounts of the Urarina peoples are limited to the data reported by Castillo, by the racist information relayed by the German ethnologist G. Tessmann in his magnum opus Die Indianer Nordost-Peru, and to the erratic and idiosyncratic observations of missionaries and contemporary adventure seekers.
   The Urarina are a culturally vibrant, semi-mobile hunting and horticultural society whose population is estimated to be around 2,000. Urarina settlements are composed of multiple longhouse groups, located on high ground (restingas) or embankments along the flood-free margins of the Chambira Basins many rivers and streams. The embankments are bounded by low-lying territories (tahuampa and bajiales) that are susceptible to flooding during the annual rainy season (roughly November-May).
   Urarina local politics are characterized by a mercurial balance of power between demes united through affinal ties and episodic political alliances, exchange relations and disputation. Surrounded by the Jivaroan, and the Tupi-Guarani speaking Cocama-Cocamilla indigenous peoples of the upper Amazon, the Urarina have an elaborate animistic cosmological system predicated on ayahuasca shamanism, which is based in part on the profoundly ritualized consumption of Brugmansia suaveolens.
   The Urarina customarily practice brideservice,, uxorilocal paterns of post-nuptial residence, and sororal polygyny. While men are esteemed for their hunting prowess and shamanic skills, Urarina women are likewise recognized for their craftsmanship: the women are consummate producers of woven palm-fiber bast mats, hammocks, and net-bags.

Language

Documentation of the Urarina language, or which has been classified as a language isolate or unclassified language by Terrence Kaufman (1990) has deemed is now under-way. Linguistic work among the Urarina was first pioneered by SIL International. The Urarina continue to tell elaborate myths and stories about the violence that they experience from outsiders, which historically has included forced-labor conscription, rape, disease, concubinage, and abusive treatment at the hands of outsiders. Portions of the Bible were first published in Urarina in 1973, nevertheless the complete Bible is yet to be published.

Survival

Despite challenges to their on-going cultural survival, including ecocide, inadequate health-care, and cultural appropriation, the Urarina have both been inspired by and resisted the violence of the colonial and postcolonial encounters in Amazonia, particularly during the Alberto Fujimori dictatorship.

Indigenous rights

Contemporary indigenous resistance has involved intercultural education projects, as well as Urarina political mobilization.

Further Information

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