IPS-English VENEZUELA: Play Keeps Indigenous Cultures Alive Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:26:28 -0700 X-Nohoney: yes white-hard - relay H=adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (borg.energy-net.org) [63.203.231.61] X-Sender-Host-Address: 63.203.231.61 X-Sender-Host-Name: adsl-63-203-231-61.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net X-Spam-Class: HAM-VERY-WHITELIST ROMAIPS LA CR ED HD PR IN MD=20 VENEZUELA: Play Keeps Indigenous Cultures Alive Humberto M=E1rquez CARACAS, Oct 20 (IPS) - A new study found that play is an essential vehic= le of socialisation and transmission of traditions and customs among indi= genous groups in Venezuela, who often live in an uneasy coexistence with = mainstream society while the survival of their cultures and languages is = threatened. A team of researchers found that indigenous communities in different part= s of the country have maintained similar customs, beliefs and rituals sur= rounding pregnancy, childbirth, newborn care, the teaching of skills, the= transmission of values, and the transition to adulthood, while they grad= ually incorporate schools, modern medicine and television. Under the leadership of Emanuele Amodio, a professor at the Central Unive= rsity's School of Anthropology, and sponsored by the United Nations child= ren's fund (UNICEF), the team studied nine areas of childbirth and childr= earing among six of Venezuela's 35 indigenous groups for two years. According to the 2001 census, indigenous people in Venezuela number 500,0= 00 out of a total population of 25 million. =94Our research was based on reflections on the construction, evolution a= nd crisis of identities, and on the certainty that the roots of identity = are traced back to the first five or six years of life,=94 Amodio explain= ed to IPS. =94We wanted to go to the roots of the identity crisis, where = there was a large gap in the research.=94 He said the team selected indigenous groups with varying levels of intera= ction with mainstream culture, from different linguistic groups, who live= in a variety of ecosystems.=20 The ethnic groups chosen by the researchers were the Way=FAu and A=F1=FA = (part of the Arawak linguistic family) in the extreme northwest, the Ye'k= uana (of the Carib linguistic family) in the south, the Warao (in the Ori= noco River delta) in the east, the Jivi (at the confluence of the Orinoco= and Meta Rivers) and the Piaroa (on the upper Orinoco River). The first area studied was pregnancy, which is sought from the first week= of marriage among Way=FAu couples, while Ye'kuana women prefer to wait u= ntil the second year of marriage. In some communities, couples want their first child to be a boy, so he ca= n help out as soon as possible with the hunting and fishing. But in other= s, couples hope their firstborn is a girl, so she can help with the house= hold chores. Meanwhile, new couples in the Piaroa ethnic group have no preference, but= do not want =94more than three or four children, because everything is v= ery expensive today, and we can't afford to support more than that,=94 sa= id one member of that community. In all of the indigenous cultures studied, pregnancy entails special care= and rules, including cultural taboos -- which often extend to the father= as well as the mother -- with regard to consuming specific kinds of meat= or species of fish that could affect the health of the unborn child. Another shared preference is for small newborn babies, to make childbirth= easier. And in all six of the ethnic groups, the placenta is carefully w= rapped and buried, and is never thrown, for example, into the river.=20 There are also taboos against twins. In past centuries, the Piaroa would = traditionally leave one of the twins at the spot where the placentas had = been buried, so that anyone who wished to could pick the child up and kee= p it. The choice of children's names is steeped in ritual in some of the groups= , but most of the names are of Spanish, or combined, origin. In addition,= most children are given a nickname. One Ye'kuana couple named their children Bebeto, in honour of a famous Br= azilian football player who formed part of the team that won the 1994 Wor= ld Cup; Macunaima, one of the manifestations of the sun god; and Curatay,= the Ye'kuana word for grasshopper. It is mothers and grandmothers who bathe the children, which they do freq= uently in the case of communities whose lives are closely entwined with t= he water, like the Warao in the Orinoco delta and the A=F1=FA on the Sina= maica Lagoon, whose children learn to swim and walk virtually at the same= time. Babies are almost exclusively breastfed in their first few months of life= . The Piaroa even have legends about long-ago struggles by cultural heroe= s in favour of maternal lactation. The first foods given to babies are pureed fruits, rice and fish broth. A= fter the age of three, children eat basically the same diet as adults -- = mainly meat from hunted animals, fish, bananas and other fruits, mandioca= , and a few industrially produced foods. Way=FAu children in rural areas (tens of thousands of people from that et= hnic group now live in the city of Maracaibo and other urban areas in nor= thwestern Venezuela) consume goat's and cow's milk and cheese.=20 And from the age of four or five, Ye'kuana children learn to collect, roa= st and eat =94bachacos=94 (red leaf-cutting ants). The researchers noticed nutritional problems in several communities, espe= cially among the Warao, some of whom make frequent trips to Caracas and o= ther cities to panhandle, and the A=F1=FA, whose nutritional problems are= linked to the increasing scarcity of fish caused by the salinisation and= pollution of the Sinamaica Lagoon. The lagoon is connected to Lake Maracaibo, which in turn is connected to = the Gulf of Venezuela. For decades, Lake Maracaibo has been dredged to al= low the passage of oil tankers. The researchers also studied play among the groups, all of whom use child= ren=B4s games as a mechanism for learning, socialisation and preparation = for adult life. Starting at the age of three or four, there are marked gender differences= in toys and games, with boys' activities geared towards hunting, fishing= , planting or selling, and girls' activities towards cooking, weaving and= taking care of the home and family. The toys include canoes, bows and arrows, carved animals and dolls made o= f natural fibers, wood, shells or clay. But plastic, glass and metal toys= from the city are also common now. Adults often play games with children, or egg them on as they play. Warao= children hold rowing contests, Ye'kuana children play =94family=94, and = the A=F1=FA, who live near the border with Colombia, play a game called =94= border guards and smugglers.=94 Diarrhea, vomiting and fever are common among the children in the indigen= ous groups studied, as is malaria. These health problems are blamed by th= e communities on their poverty, violations of tribal customs or taboos (l= ike eating foods banned during pregnancy), or supernatural causes (the in= fluence of evil spirits). The groups turn for assistance to western doctors, in rural or urban heal= th posts, as well as traditional healers or shamans, who fight evil spiri= ts or spells using herbs and potions. The education and development of children is the responsibility of mother= s, grandmothers and aunts, grandfathers and uncles, older sisters and bro= thers, and the community at large, especially among the Ye'kuana and Piar= oa who live in large community huts, or the Warao and A=F1=FA, who live i= n =94palafitos=94 (houses on stilts) over the water, connected by walkway= s. The mother tongue is predominant when it comes to transmission of knowled= ge among the Warao, Ye'kuana, Jivi and Piaroa, who communicate among them= selves in their own languages, although they are happy to send their chil= dren to bilingual schools in their territories. The Way=FAu, on the other hand, are mainly bilingual. By contrast, of the 10,000 people making up the A=F1=FA community -- of w= hom around 3,000 still live along the edge of the Sinamaica Lagoon -- onl= y a few elderly people and one young person still speak the group's mothe= r tongue. The rest are now Spanish speakers. What values are passed on to children? =94Good things: how they should be= have, to have profound mutual respect within the family, and that it=B4s = wrong to steal, say mean things to other people, and mistreat other child= ren,=94 said one father from the Jivi community. In the indigenous villages where there are TV sets with satellite connect= ion, the children gather as often as they can to watch cartoons, movies, = sitcoms and soap operas. =94These are new factors of loss of traditional culture, just like Christ= ianity and school taught only in Spanish were in the past,=94 said Amodio= =2E =94My proposal is that educational curriculums should be modified so that= in the first four or five years of school, indigenous children study in = their own languages, and after they have become proficient in their mothe= r tongues, they continue studying in Spanish, as a second language,=94 he= said. The study also found that the ethnic groups all had rituals to mark the e= nd of childhood. For boys, the threshold is crossed when they can fend fo= r themselves in hunting, fishing and other bread-winning activities, whil= e for girls the transition occurs after their first menstruation, when th= ey undergo purification and isolation. The study =94has revealed aspects that should bolster the development of = new educational policies,=94 said Deputy Minister of Education Armando Ro= jas. For her part, Anna Luc=EDa D' Emilio, UNICEF representative in Venezuela,= said she hoped it would serve =94as a tool to empower indigenous communi= ties and organisastions.=94 ***** + UNICEF Venezuela - in Spanish (http://www.unicef.org/venezuela/) + CULTURE-VENEZUELA: New Compendium on Yanomami Language - November 2004 = (http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=3D26404) + VENEZUELA: Rain God Gets His Own Planet - September 2003 (http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=3D19977) (END/IPS/LA PR ED HD IN CR MD/TRASP-SW/HM/DM/06) =20 =3D 10201931 ORP010 NNNN