Piaroa
Piaroa Leaders Assert their Peacefulness
The Piaroa in Venezuela have been protesting earlier this year about the dangers of mining in their territory, but a different threat to their security has also arisen. A news story early in November and another last week report that the problem of guerilla violence has arisen in the borderlands with Colombia. The Economist reported […]
Piaroa Fear Destructive Effects of Proposed Mining
Back in April, the Piaroa, and other Indian groups of southern Venezuela, issued a statement protesting a recent national mining policy that threatens their forest. News stories in the last few weeks indicated they are getting more insistent—they want to be heard. According to a report early last week, the group Coordinadora de Organizaciones Indígenas […]
Protecting the Piaroa Environment
The Piaroa, and the other indigenous groups in Venezuela, are speaking out in opposition to a national mining policy which they feel threatens their lives, their environments, and their cultural values. The Venezuelan Association for the Advancement of Science announced on its website last week that the Coordinadora de Organizaciones Indígenas del Estado Amazonas (COIAM), […]
Piaroa Agroforestry
Since the Piaroa settled into permanent communities and stopped shifting their garden plots from one tract to another, the farms they established have tended to degrade the land and deplete the forests. The people in the village of Gavilán, Amazonas State, Venezuela, are working to improve the situation. The Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the […]
Piaroa Frustrations with Government
Carlos Morales Peña, assistant coordinator of OIPUS, is frustrated. The leader of the Piaroa organization has been trying for three years to get the government of Venezuela’s Amazonas state to respond to its requests for the demarcation of their lands in Autana municipality. The government does not answer. Last week he told El Nacional, a […]
Symphony Orchestra at a Piaroa Village
The Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela (OSV) is continuing its program of outreach into the nation’s schools, but it is evident from a news story last week that their February visit to a Piaroa village has been a highlight of the past year. The orchestra launched its “The OSV at My School” program early this year […]
Piaroa Aesthetic Values on Tour
A Venezuelan news story last week suggests the possibility that traditional Piaroa aesthetic values, essential aspects of their peacefulness, may be spread more widely in coming years. The Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela (OSV), visited a Piaroa village, Caño Grulla, on February 15 and 16 as part of its “OSV at My […]
Severe Health Problems in a Piaroa Community
A news report last Friday indicated that living conditions in some remote, peaceful Piaroa villages visited by a medical team recently are deteriorating. A medical group from the University of Carabobo, in Valencia, Venezuela, visited a couple Piaroa communities in August and found that some of the people had tuberculosis and parasite infections. Others were […]
Piaroa Social Interactions, Past and Present [anthology chapter review]
Stanford Zent describes the ethnic boundaries and inter-group relationships of the Piaroa during their pre-colonial, postcolonial, and modern historical periods as generally, though not always, peaceful. His essay, published last year in an edited volume on indigenous mobility and migrations in Amazonia, provides a useful history of Piaroa inter-tribal social relations. After establishing the theoretical […]
Social Uses of Ayahuasca by the Piaroa [journal article review]
Although many South American indigenous societies employ ayahuasca preparations for shamanic and social purposes, a recent journal article describes some unique ways that the Piaroa use the plant mixtures. Robin Rodd, the author, points out that portions of the Banisteriopsis caapi vine are used in combination with other compounds by peoples throughout the Amazon region […]
