The localvernacular term for the Urarina isShimaku,[3] which is considered by the Urarina to be pejorative, as it is a Quechua term meaning "unreliable".[4] The ethnonym "Urarina" may be fromQuechua--uray meaning below, andrina referring toruna, orpeople. Urarina is rendered in Quechua asuray-runa orpeople from below ordown stream people.[5]
Urarinasociety andculture have been given little attention in the burgeoningethnographic literature of the region, and only sporadic references in the encyclopedic genre ofPeruvian Amazonia. Accounts of the Urarina peoples are limited to the data reported by Castillo,[6] by the Germanethnologist G. Tessmann in hisDie Indianer Nordost-Peru,[7] and to the observations ofmissionaries and contemporary adventure seekers.
The Urarina are asemi-mobile hunting and horticultural society whose population is estimated to be around 2,000.[8] Urarina settlements are composed of multiplelonghouse groups, located on high ground (restingas) or embankments along the flood-free margins of theChambira Basin's many rivers and streams. The embankments are bounded by low-lying territories (tahuampa andbajiales) that are susceptible to flooding during the annual rainy season (roughly November–May).
The Urarina customarily practicebrideservice,[10][11]uxorilocal patterns of post-nuptial residence,debt peonage[12] and sororalpolygyny. While men are esteemed for their hunting prowess and shamanic skills, Urarina women are likewise recognized for their craftsmanship: the women are consummate producers ofwoven palm-fiber bast mats,hammocks, and net-bags.[13][14]
The Urarina have adeluge-myth, in which a man saved himself from the deluge while climbing a cudí (amasiza,Erythrina elei) tree; the man's wife was transformed into a termites' nest clinging to that tree, while their two sons became birds.[19] Afterwards that man acquired a wife, a different woman, one who had at first summoned successively a pit viper, a spider, and a giant biting ant in an unsuccessful attempt to evade him.[20] In another Urarina deluge-myth, a deluge was produced, on the occasion of acassava-beer festival, by the urination by the daughter of theayahuasca-god, "giving rise to thechthonic world of spirits".[21]
The Urarina continue to tell elaboratemyths and stories about theviolence that they experience from outsiders, which historically has included forced-laborconscription,rape,disease,concubinage, and abusive treatment at the hands of outsiders.[22][23] Portions of theBible were first published in Urarina in 1973; however, the complete Bible is not published.[24]
^Dean, Bartholomew 2009Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia, Gainesville: University Press of FloridaISBN978-0-8130-3378-5[1]
^(in Spanish) Myers, Thomas P. and Bartholomew Dean “Cerámica prehispánica del río Chambira, Loreto.”Amazonía peruana, 1999 Lima, Published by the Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicacíon Práctica. 13(26):255-288
^For more information, see Paz Soldan 1877:964; Espinoza Galarza 1979:305).Native inhabitants of theChambira Basin have also been called various names, including: Itukales; Ytucalis, Singacuchuscas; Cingacuchuscas; Aracuies; Aracuyes; Chimacus; and Chambiras (Grohs 1974:53 fn. 4; Velasco 1960: 267; Jouanen 1943, II: 471-2; Figueroa 1904: 163, 177)
^Dean, Bartholomew. "The Poetics of Creation: Urarina Cosmology and Historical Consciousness."Latin American Indian Literatures Journal 1994 10:22-45
^Dean, Bartholomew. "Forbidden fruit: Infidelity, affinity and brideservice among the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia,"Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute March 1995, Vol. 1 Issue 1, p87, 24p
^Dean, Bartholomew. “Urarina Society, Cosmology, and History in Peruvian Amazonia,”Gainesville: University Press of Florida 2009, ISBN 978-0-8130-3378-5
^Dean, Bartholomew. "Multiple Regimes of Value: Unequal Exchange and the Circulation of Urarina Palm-Fiber Wealth,"Museum Anthropology February 1994, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 3-20 available online(paid subscription)[dead link]
^"Múltiples regímenes de valor: intercambio desigual y la circulación de bienes intercambiables de fibra de palmera entre los Urarina,"Amazonía peruana, Special edition: "Identidad y cultura", Lima, Published by the Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicacíon Práctica. 1995, p. 75-118
^Olawsky, Knut (La Trobe University). "Urarina – Evidence for OVS Constituent Order."Leiden Papers in Linguistics 2.2, 43-68.available online accessed 5 July 2006]
^Manus, Ronald and Phyllis Manus.Text and Concordance of words in Urarina Datos Etno-Lingüísticos 65 series, SIL; 1979available online accessed 5 July 2006.
^In Anderson, Myrdene (ed.)Cultural Shaping of Violence: Victimization, Escalation, Response. Purdue University Press;2004ISBN1-55753-373-3 Chapter 21reviewed online accessed 5 July 2006
^(in Spanish) Dean, Bartholomew."Intercambios ambivalentes en la amazonía: formación discursiva y la violencia del patronazgo."Anthropológica. 1999, (17):85-115
^Bartholomew Deanet al., 2000 “The Amazonian Peoples’ Resources Initiative: Promoting Reproductive Rights and Community Development in the Peruvian Amazon.”Health and Human Rights: An International JournalSpecial Focus: Reproductive and Sexual Rights François-Xavier Center for Health and Human Rights atHarvard University’s School ofPublic Health, Vol. 4, No. 2,
^Bartholomew Dean 2004 “digital vibes & radio waves in indigenous Peru” inIndigenous Intellectual Property Rights: Legal Obstacles and Innovative Solutions. (ed.) Mary Riley, Contemporary Native American Communities Series, 27-53 New York: Altamira Press, A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.[2] accessed July 9, 2006
^Dean, Bartholomew. "State Power and Indigenous Peoples in Peruvian Amazonia: A Lost Decade, 1990-2000." InThe Politics of Ethnicity Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States. Chapter 7,David Maybury-Lewis (ed.)Harvard University Press[3]
^Dean, Bartholomew. "Language, Culture & Power: Intercultural Bilingual Education among the Urarina of Peruvian Amazonia,"Practicing Anthropology Special Issue:Reversing Language Shift in Indigenous America, Published by theSociety for Applied Anthropology. 1999, 20(2):39-43. See online cite,Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of theU.S. Department of Education[5]
^Dean, Bartholomew and Jerome M. Levi, EdsAt the Risk of Being Heard; Identity, Indigenous Rights, and Postcolonial StatesUniversity of Michigan Press;2003ISBN0-472-09736-9 (Chapter 7: Dean, Bartholomew.At the Margins of Power: Gender Hierarchy and the Politics of Ethnic Mobilization among the Urarina)[6]
Bartholomew Dean : "The Poetics of Creation : Urarina Cosmogony and Historical Consciousness". In :-LATIN AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES JOURNAL, Vol. 10 (1994)
