The Maku Indians reside in the Northwestern part of the Brazilian Amazon close to the Peruvian
border (Map). The Maku population is
distributed within an area bordered to the north-west by the Guaviare river (one
of the Colombian affluents of the Orinoco), to the north by the Negro River, to
the south by the Japurá and to the south-east by the Uneiuxi (one of the
Brazilian affluents of the Negro River). This lozenge adds up to a total of
approximately 20 million hectares. Obviously, not all this area is occupied by
Indians. The high level of spatial dispersion of the six Maku linguistic groups
within this vast perimeter is due to the predominance of enormous areas of
stunted forest and scrubland, a non-riverine type of forest, with extremely poor
soil, little plant variation and a low concentration of game animals. The Maku
occupy precisely the patches of terra firma forest where game is more
abundant and the vegetation richer in species useful as foods or in the
manufacture of artifacts.
The traditional Maku villages had a population varying between 25 and 30
inhabitants - about six domestic groups. The Maku domestic group comprises a
husband, wife or wives, unmarried children and perhaps some adjoined family
members, who may be close relatives, widows or unmarried adults, of the husband
or the wife or wives. Generally, each domestic group possesses its own fire
hearth, around which its members gather to sleep and eat. As for the houses,
these amount to wall-less huts, able to shelter between one and four domestic
groups (hearths), linked by close kinship ties, that may be equally patrilateral
or matrilateral. A village of 25 inhabitants usually has about three houses.
These are situated in a clearing, at the top of a hill, close to a non-navigable
stream or creek. The swiddens are located around the houses or in nearby
clearings (from 5 to 60 minutes walking time), which in the future come to mark
past village sites. Each domestic group possesses on average two 50 x 50 m
swiddens, always set in communal clearings.
In comparison with their Tukano and Arawak neighbors, the Maku possess a
rudimentary material culture: canoes, ritual stools, ceramic pots, body painting
and sacred male initiation flutes, among others, are all items copied from their
neighbors. The items of Maku origin appear to be the aturá (a very resistant
carrying basket) and the blow-pipe. In fact, the latter is an instrument used in
competitive target shooting tournaments, especially among the Nadub. Other games
enjoyed by the Maku are whistling spinning-top, made from cocopalm and the rod
from caryota rufflepalm, hunting doves with stones.
Text from © Instituto Socioambiental. You can
find their web site here:
http://www.socioambiental.org/e/
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They are one of the last groups of nomadic tribal peoples in the Amazon.
It is only a question of a decade or two before their traditional trekking
lifestyle is eroded into the sedentary agricultural village life. This drastic
cultural change is happening under the influence of the Western culture. They
use long blowguns with darts dipped into the curare poison to hunt in the forest
canopy, mostly for monkeys. The blowguns are made from the straight trunks of
the Stilt Palm, sometimes inserting one tube inside another until the
length can reach 8 feet. Their quivers are made of bark cloth with a protective
flap to cover the darts.
Photos property of Hands Around the World.
Handmade bark cloth quiver filled with many blowgun
darts.
Blowgun with quiver
Additional Information
Ethnologue: Language Family Index - Maku
The Use of Psychoactive Plants Among the Hupda-Maku
Maku vocabulary, 2,
3, 4
Folklore video
Hit by disease, deforestation and war, Colombia's last nomadic tribe faces extinction - AP
