Doris
Payne and I did our dissertation research with the Yagua
people in Peru from 1980 to 1983. We lived and worked in the
Lowland region of Peru, living part of the time at the Summer Institute of Linguistics
center in Yarinacocha, and part of the time in the community of
Urco Miraño. We worked with SIL, under the auspices of the
Peruvian Ministry of Education. In addition to linguistic
analysis, we also did community development and primary literacy
work.
The Yagua people are an indigenous
group who live in Northeastern Peru. Currently there are
about 3,000 people who are fluent speakers of Yagua.
Unfortunately, as with many of the indigenous languages of
the world, Yagua is seriously endangered. Language awareness
and literacy are important aspects of linguistic and cultural
revitalization among the Yagua. Without such revitalization,
the Yagua are at the mercy of national and international
forces beyond their control. Here, Estela Mucatyurirya weaves
a suvoo, the traditional Yagua string bag.
Alchico, Estela’s husband is an
expert blowgun maker. The Yaguas are one of the last groups
in the Peruvian Amazon who still use blowguns for hunting and
defense. Poison-tipped darts are used to kill monkeys, birds
and other small game. Making a real blowgun (as opposed to
the suitcase sized ones for sale to tourists) is a highly
technical procedure involving materials from several species
of plant and tree, and many days of exacting labor.
Yagua women make
pottery, used for cooking and for storing food. The pots are
formed in this stationary manner, and baked over an open
fire. Women also make hammocks out of the same palm fiber
used in the string bags.
Our first daughter, Claire Payne,
was one year old when we started living in a Yagua home. She
shared many early childhood experiences with the neighborhood
children. Our second daughter, Stephanie, was born in
Yarinacocha Peru in 1982.
Pijuayo ("pejevalle" in some varieties of
Spanish) is a palm fruit that is very important to the Yaguas.
The fruit is a bright red (the favorite color of most Yaguas),
and matures in February, just as the yearly high waters begin to
recede. Thus the pijuayo harvest represents abundance and the
renewal of good times. Here Yagua women prepare pijuayo beer for
a celebration. In this picture, you can see that the Amazon is at
flood stage at this time of year, reaching right up to the
houses. High water season is a difficult time of year for
residents of the Amazon -- since the fish are dispersed
throughout the jungle, it is nearly impossible to catch any.
Plantations are flooded and transportation is even more difficult
than usual.
Electronic mail address
tpayne@oregon.uoregon.edu
Web address
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~tpayne
Last revised: September 11, 1998.