Notes
Notes 1. Introduction: THE SYNTAX OF CULTURE 1. In addition to each individual's Spanish name—a form that has only recently arisen with increased contact and the need to take civil names— ever)' Yekuana also has a secret name, a teknonymous marital name, a nickname, and the various kinship names by which he or she is usually addressed. Of all of these, however, it is the "unspeakable" secret one that remains the most sacred and true. Revealed to the aichuriaha or "master of song" soon after birth, this name is always associated with some aspect of Watunna and, like it, is also in a special shamanic language. While it is possible to learn many of these names, it would certainly be inappropriate to use any of them in a text such asthis. 2. Ahighly feared form of black magic widespread among the Carib-speaking Indians of eastern Venezuela and Guyana, Kanaima was brought to the Yekuana by the first traders traveling to Amenadina (Georgetown) at the end of the eighteenth century. Versions vary as to what a Kanaima actually is, but most agree that it is a person turned-into a monster, jaguar,snake, etc., who ruthlessly kills for revenge, hire, or pure pleasure. While the word may derive from one of the various terms for Carib (Basso 1977:23), the Akawaio claim "Kanaimameans one who murders suddenly" (Anthon 1957:61). 2. THE PEOPLE 1. Among the many recorded spellings of Maiongkong are Majongon, Mayonggong , Maschongcong, Maingcong, Maiongking, Manongon, Munangon, and Majuyonco. In addition, de Civrieux (1959:101) suggests that the name "Guayancomo" is also a phonetic variant.The problem of nomenclature and orthography is so extensive in Yekuana studies that both Fuchs (1962:170) and Salazar (1970:29-30) were able to compile separate lists of at leastfifty different names and variations.Andfinally,Arvelo-Jimenez reports thatMarshal Durbin and Havdee Seijas "in an exhaustive review of the literature 223 224 NOTES TO PAGES 6-13 have found fifty-three different names by which the Ye'cuana or De'cuana have been referred to" (1973:21). 2. Another ethnographer advocating such a division is Helmuth Fuchs, who claims that the real tribal division is not four but five and that "it appears probable that we're dealing with clans and lineages and perhaps eventually 'sibs'" (1962:173). 3. The exact number of Yekuana reported in the Censo Indigena de Venezuela (Oficina Central de Estadistica 1985), the most thorough indigenous census ever undertaken in Venezuela, is 3,038. Previous population estimates for the Yekuanahave ranged from 1,500 (Coppens 1981:27) to 7,794 (Fuchs 1962:170). 4. The only author attempting to set the date of the Yekuana's entrance into Venezuela is de Barandiaran who fixes it at 1400 or "some three hundred years before the date of their first contact with Manuel Roman" (1979:749). As to the reason for choosing this date, de Barandiaran gives little indication , other than to state that it took the Yekuana three centuries to gain possession of the Padamo area and to absorb the Arawak groups already there. 5. More commonly known as the Caribs or "True Caribs," the Karina were one of the largest tribes in South America at the time of the Conquest. In Venezuela, their territory stretched from the Caura and Paragua south of the Orinoco all the way to the Guarapiche near the Caribbean coast. Due to their identification as the Caribs, confusion has often existed between the tribe and the large linguisticfamily of the same name. 6. Ankosturana is a variant of the original Spanish name Angostura ("Narrow "), the town the Spaniards founded in 1864 at the narrowest point of the lower Orinoco in order to defend the river against foreign penetration. Its official name was changed in 1866 to Ciudad Bolivar to honor the "Liberator," Simon Bolivar, who formed the first government of the Republic there in 1819. Asto the origin of the word "laranavi," it would appear to derive from the Puinave, the inhabitantsof the area around San Fernando de Atabapo where the laranaviare said to have originated. 7. Fanuru, the word used to denote the evil race of whites as opposed to the honorable laranavi, derives from the Karina Panoro, which in turn derives from Espanol or "Spanish." 8. The principal Dutch fort located in the mouth of the Essequibo River in what is today Guyana,Amenadina actually refers to several different locations . Originally called Kijkoveral, it was moved from Kaow Island to...
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