Documentary linguistics & Language preservation
either in whole or in part, please cite the source appropriately*
The Kokama-Kokamilla/Kukama-Kukamiria Documentation Project
The people and their language
The Kokama-Kokamilla people live in the Peruvian amazon. Based on historical and geographic criteria, two dialects have been reported for this language: Kokamilla (Kukamiria) is spoken basically in the high Huallaga
River,
and Kokama (Kukama) along the Marañon, Samiria, Ucayali,and Amazon
Rivers. So far only a few phonetic and lexical differences have been
found between these two dialects (Vallejos, 2000). The total ethnic population
is approximately 20,000. Nevertheless, their heritage language is highly
endangered because all of the estimated 1500 remaining speakers are elderly
people spread in small villages. Small groups of Kokama have been also
reported in Brazil and Colombia; however, at present, the language is no
longer spoken in Colombia and very close to extinct in Brazil. In Peru,
speakers still use the language to speak amongst themselves, but only in
very restricted situations, such as traditional events and intimate meetings.
Several historical reasons could explain the current sociolinguistic situation
that one finds in the communities, such as a long history of contact with
various linguistic groups, the geographic proximity of Kokama-Kokamilla
communities to big cities where Spanish is the dominant language, and the
early presence of schools with instruction only in Spanish. Such
factors have led them to stop using their language. As a consequence, natural
processes of language transmission have been interrupted and the majority
of the Kokama-Kokamilla population has shifted to Spanish.
Even though the Kokama-Kokamilla people have been interacting with non-indigenous groups for a long time, their cultural practices and their way of life are still traditional in many respects. The old generations preserve vast knowledge of the forest and the aquatic environment, which allows them to survive in this area of the jungle that is flooded with water almost half of the year. However, younger generations have been gradually abandoning some traditional practices, such as certain agricultural and fishing techniques. It is known that when a cultural practice ceases, a great deal of culturally specific knowledge is lost with each generation.
A history of migration and contact
The Kokama people have a long history of migration and contact. According to Chaumeil (1996), there were various migratory movements from the Central Amazon of Brazil to the Peruvian Amazon which happened during centuries, from about IX to XVI. Stocks (1981) claims that the Tupi came to the Western Amazon looking for better sources of food, escaping from wars among Indians, for religious purposes, and, later, escaping from slavery imposed by Europeans. The Kokama, says Stocks, arrived to the lower Amazon around 200 or 300 years prior to the Spanish conquest. The current location of the Kokama is considered by some scholars one of the best examples of the migratory tendency characterizing the Tupí-Guarani ethnodynamism. In the lower, middle, and upper Amazon river they lived surrounded for several groups, such as the Pawanas, Parianas, Machiparu, Yurimawas, Benorinas, Ibanomas, Ikitos, Mayorunas, Chiberos, Panoan, Arawakan, among others. Early chronicles attest a regular trade network among these groups.The Kokama people were the first Amazonian group contacted by the Spanish explorer Juan Salinas de Loyola in 1557. They were located at the lower Ucayali river and upper Amazon river. The communities he found had each about 200 to 400 houses along 300 Km of the rivers. At the time of the conquest, the population is calculated in 10000 to 12000 (AIDESEP 2000). But the Kokama continue migrating, down the river by the Ucayali, and up the river by the Marañon were they created the town called Nauta. A small group of Kokamas continue migrating towards the Marañon and High Huallaga river creating a town called Lagunas, which marks the origin of the Kokamilla variety. Rivas (2000) mentions that the Kokamilla may have splitted from the Kokamas around 1619.
During the time of missionary presence in the Alto Amazonas (1637-1768), Kokama was the lingua franca in the area known as the Province of Maynas (Peru) which included villages along the Ucayali, Huallaga, Pastaza, and Napo rivers. In that period, indigenous populations were forced either to move away from their habitat to escape the subjugations of the whites, to join the large farms or haciendas and live in slavery, or to accept the reductionist system administered by the missionaries. The missionary villages or reducciones concentrated different ethnic groups. It is said that in the reducciones the dominant language was Kokama because, in part, the Spanish missionary work started with the Kokama people, and the Kokama reducciones were the first created in the area. In 1768, the missionaries were expulsed from the area. By then, there were more than 40 reducciones with about 18000 Indians living in there. Later, around 1853, there were additional campaigns and projects for colonization the forest. The system of hacienda was re-established the system of hacienda and the Kokama people were the main laborers.
References:
AIDESEP-FORMABIAP. 2000. El Ojo Verde: Cosmovisiones Amazónicas.
Lima, Peru.
Espinosa, Lucas. 1935. Los tupí del oriente peruano. Estudio
Lingüístico y etnográfico. Casa Editorial Hernando.
Rivas, Roxani. 2000. IPURUKARI. Los Cocama-Cocamilla en la Várzea
de la Amazonía Peruana. M.A. Thesis, Pontificia Universidad Catolica
del Peru. Lima, Peru.
Stocks, Anthony. 1981. Los Nativos Invisibles: Notas sobre la historia
y realidad actual de los cocama del río Huallaga, Perú. Serie
Antropológica Nº 4, 185 pp. CAAAP, Lima , Perú.
Vallejos, Rosa. 2004. Basic Clauses in Kokama-Kokamilla. M.A. Thesis,
University of Oregon.
Documentation project
Kokama-Kokamilla is a deeply endangered language. At present, only about 5% of the Kokama-Kokamilla population speaks the language in very restricted situations; that is, the majority of them has shift to Spanish. The remaining speakers are elderly people, and natural processes of language transmission have been interrupted. Since the early 1980s, the Kokama-Kokamillas have promoted language revitalization efforts, including training of bilingual elementary school teachers to teach Kokama-Kokamilla as a second language. However, there are no clear results in terms of language learning in these formal-school contexts. Among the problems for the success of learning the language through formal instructional methodologies are lack of school materials for teaching Kokama-Kokamilla as a second language and lack of a basic description of the language to enable development of such materials. Although it is common to meet community members who lament the disappearance of their language, there is also little motivation for younger people to learn Kokama-Kokamilla since there is not many communicative situations for using it.This documentation project attempts to contribute concrete resources to those who are already committed to the revitalization and maintenance of the language. These resources include a collection of audio and video data of people using the language in real comunicative situations, a collections of analized texts, as well as a reference grammar and a bilingual dictionary. So far, the project has focused on collecting and processing video materials which can be used to reproduce the sounds of the language in formal instructional settings.
This project has been possible thanks to the financial support of the Hans Rausing Endangered Language Project (August 2006- December 2007), and the National Science Foundation (January 2008-June2008). Previous fieldwork has been partially supported by the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (July-August 2003) and by the Endangered Language Fund (July-August 2005).
Team members
Victor Yuyarima ChotaA Kokamilla speaker, original for the community "8 de Octubre-Paucaryacu", along the Huallaga river. He is a respected curandero and very knowledgeable about the Kokama-Kokamilla traditional practices. He has an excellent sense of humor that makes him an awesome fieldtrip mate. I am very fortunate to have his friendship and wise advice since 1999.
Rosa Amías Murayari
A Kokama speaker, she is original from the community
"Dos de Mayo, San Pablo de Tipishca", along the Samiria river. She has
been collaborating with my research since 2001, and with this project since
2003. She is a great story teller and an excellent interviewer. Patience
is not among her virtues, though; she is so smart and expects everyone
to learn things at her pace!
Pascual Aquituari Fachín
A teacher and Kokama speaker. He is from Lupuna,
a Kokama community at only 20 minutes by boat from Iquitos, the biggest
city in the Peruvian Amazon. Since 2001, he works as instructor and researcher
in the FORMABIAP project. At present, he is in charge of developing instructional
materials for teaching Kokama-Kokamilla as a second language.
Language consultants
Up to know we have visited 11 communities
along the Samiria, Nanay, and Huallaga rivers. We have interviewed 30 speakers,
14 women and 16 men. The range of age of the consultants is from 50 to
86 years. In one community we meet the youngest speaker (26) which in statistical
terms would be considered an outlier. Taking him out of the sample, the
average age of the consultants is 69.4 years. If you want to know
the Kokama-Kokamilla language consultants, click PLAY, below.
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