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This Arawan language tribe was first contacted in the 1980's.
They are an interfluvial people who are located in the Amazon region of
Northwestern Brazil. Their current population is approximately 140. The
above picture shows two dwellings (malocas), one inhabited and the other under
construction. |
This video is of Suruwaha tribesman
Quoqua, clearing a portion of the jungle for a macaxeira
field. |
| The maloca is the centerpiece of tribal living. The
entire population of the tribe lives within this structure. The maloca is
approximately 70 feet high and 150 feet wide. Large timbers form the conical shape
which is covered with numerous layers of palm fronds. The structure provides
cool shade as well as a water tight environment for its inhabitants. The tribe will
move from one maloca to another, depending on food availability and season. |
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Individual families will hang their hammocks,
store possessions, and build their hearths near the outer edge of the maloca. The
center of the maloca is utilized primarily by the children for playing and dancing. |
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Bows and arrows are used to hunt larger forest game such as
peccary, tapir, and coatmondi The blowgun is used for smaller game such as
monkeys and birds which inhabit the forest canopy. The tips of both the arrow
and the blowgun darts are covered with a poison. These hunters are skillful and
rarely return without sufficient meat for the family. |
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This tribe, which maintains a relatively high reliance on
hunting, has also adopted horticulture as a means of subsistence. Typical of tribes
practicing shifting cultivation, the men cut the heavy growth throughout the year and
burn the material at the end of the dry season. Before the wet season begins,
both men and women plant crops such as bananas/plantains, macaxeira and sugar cane. |
| Inside the maloca, the headman's family gathers for an
evening meal. Just removed from the fire, this particular meal consists of
fish, pineapple and macaxeira. The fish was speared the previous day by the
headman and his sons from a small stream located near the maloca. The pineapple and
macaxeira were gathered by the mother and daughter. |
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Children at play. The little girl on the left is
looking at her hands covered with urucum, a red paint that is made from seed pods.
The seeds are extracted, crushed and them boiled to a thick paste. The red paint is
then applied over the entire body or in decorative dots about the face. The two boys
on the right are catching large rings made of small branches and vines. The rings
are thrown in the air and the boys compete to catch as many as possible with the long,
rigid sticks. |
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