Huitoto Group

By Fabio de la Peña

"... The girl was growing up. When he was a big boy was with his mother to the farm. Once he reached the chagra sat on a stick, shook his head and dropped a hair. He planted coca so because she knew that was missing from his father ... He was born this way as cocaine, so we take care of it like caring for a child, if we get sick we beat the ground. "" Story of an inhabitant Huitoto "in Amazonla, nature and culture

Huitoto, Witotoans uitoto or better. The three ways to write the name has a pejorative meaning, used by the white man to identify the indigenous population of southern Amazonian department that, by imposition, got used to be called and recognized in this way and not his real name : Murui Muinane. And they were white men, especially the English, who starred in the late nineteenth century rubber boom, one of the greatest tragedies for these people after European settlement, with major negative consequences and whose effects are still being perceived survivors in some groups, they were the main Minane Murui labor to exploit the rubber plant, the feedstock for the manufacture of automobile tires. The Peruvian Julio Cesar Arana created the company's largest operator of rubber that time in our country, known as the Casa Arana, who later called Peruvian Amazon Company, then the owner managed to lucrative contracts of sale and beneficial trade agreements with the English. He was the possessor of all crops of rubber and who retained control and dominion over the entire indigenous population of the region.

There is no exploitation of any plant that has been altered so drastically human life in such a short time. These Indians lived in the most deplorable and inhuman conditions in malaria-infested jungles and far from the villages. The employment status of slavery was subjected to poor nutrition, exposure to tropical diseases, torture, mutilation and sometimes death, as punishment when they failed to extract sufficient amount of latex that required each to 40 arrobas month. Some families tried to flee, but most were recaptured and tortured as a warning to others. This infamous industry decimated and exterminated whole tribes of wonderful Aboriginal race. It is estimated that in the first decade of the twentieth century killed about 40,000 natives of the 50,000 existing at the time. What's more, years later, in 1932, the military conflict between Colombia and Peru many more lives would charge Murui Minane people were used as cannon fodder by the two countries. The Murui Muinane With a population of approximately 6,000 people, living Muinae Murui southern Colombian Amazon, between the Putumayo, Igara Parana Karaparana and Caquetá, the different dialects, Mika, Minik, BUE and Nipoode, depends on location where they are located.

Their social organization is based on multi-family houses or longhouses, which are inhabited by the parents and their sons with their families, each with functions: singer, shaman, coca preparer apprentice tradition, unmarried daughters and other sets cie relatives.

The manager or owner of the longhouse is the highest authority of the same. This authority is based on traditional knowledge and the types of rituals that promotes. He is responsible for cosmic security group practice; to prevent disease, promote and ensure good harvests enough animals to hunt. It is the principal figure in the rituals of planting, harvesting peanuts, hunting, July 20, the day of San Rafael, patron of the tribe, the Resurrection and Christmas. All social activity has its Rafu (word), which is the condition for its smooth implementation, as mambeadero ceremony, held in the central part of the longhouse, which are ingested daily ritual as plants sacred coca and snuff. The economic system is based Huitotos in agriculture, harvesting of certain foods and fishing, with the participation of children and women, and where they used harpoons, hooks, machetes or traps, at certain times of year organize collective fishing consisting poison the water with a special plant and capture dozens of fish.

Hunting is another way to get food and is carried out by men of the tribe. Once used the blowgun, spear and other weapons for hunting, but is now increasingly used the shotgun. The hunter is generally supported by dogs during the night using flashlights, the preferred prey are the pigs, deer and small mammals such as Borugo and guara. Among the birds are obtained parrots, toucans and macaws. Around the houses and fruit trees are cultivated manioc and sweet, which is transformed into "cassava" and consumed as a beverage or domestic ritual. Also planting peppers, avocado, peanuts, alligator, and sometimes umari corn used to feed chickens and other domestic animals, with some fibers of the trees are made hammocks and woven baskets. She is responsible for planting and harvesting of products, with the exception of coca (jibiyú), the snuff and other psychotropic plants that are planted and harvested by men. The blade does speak "At night, when the shadow erase distances, when all the worlds are present, grandparents Huitotos walk the paths of waking dreams using the power plants."

Rangel Fernando Urbina, Amazon, nature and culture. Coca is stack and roasted in clay pots or metal cans, dust sifting ash is mixed with yarumo or grape leaf bush, the result is mambea and gradually dissolves, forming bulging balls on both cheeks. Every man has his bowl of coca and exchanges with its partners at the time of ritual, for its part, the snuff is consumed slurry (ambil), adults tend to carry a small bottle ambil offered at meetings . Sell ​​and buy cocaine or snuff is to desecrate a sacred rite for Huitotos. Cutting down trees and hunting animals indiscriminately, taking more than necessary or do not take into account that must be preserved, is to affect Mother Nature, that which gives life and gives us enough to live. A Muinane Murui wasted no works, uses and appreciates everything he has. "The coca and snuff are for material support Huitotos ritual activity that underlies and gives meaning to both extraordinary and everyday behavior. The need to use elements intermediaries between man and the powers that transcend filled with coca and snuff.

The ritual plants opens up a world where almost anything is possible. "Rangel Fernando Urbina. Taken from the Cultural Agenda Magazine No149, July 2003

Meeting with the children of coca KA + MAK + f + g A s + biya be nomo ka + Rafu onoit + A s + "is not a hieroglyph or a misprint. Registration corresponds to welcome the Uitotos children of coca, snuff and sweet cassava exist in their language to strangers. He wants to say, "Well come to this place where you know the cultural manifestations of ethnic Uitoto" This community, descendants of Indians who suffered the abuses of the rubber boom in 1930 , is one of the pioneers of ethnic tourism in Colombia. In 2000, armed conflict forced many of them were displaced from the Amazon and placed in Villavicencio. One of them, James Clodualdo Kuetgaje, managed in October 2005, the Centre Ethnotourism maguaré. Since then 17,758 adult school students, high school and college in the country have visited the center Ethnotourism addition of 175 foreigners. maguaré was the millennial media that Uitotos used to publicize the news of his tribe. "Maguoré is a dream born in the memory of our ancestors, to ensure the preservation of culture, the environment and secure economy in entrepreneurial families," said Kuetgaje.

Located 5 miles 86 Villavicencio and Bogota, in the village of La Potaya, this center allows visitors Ethnotourism interact with the customs of an ethnic group that is distributed in the native 6700 South. There, the Indians tell their myths, dance, share their food and clothing and expose the native tools. At night, after a ritual of spiritual strength, tourists can stay in the Maloca, a community house built by the ancient indigenous capacity for 50 people. For maguaré, ethno and eco-tourism are integrated into an eco-tour guides which outline some of the indigenous knowledge of nature inherited from their ancestors. But for those who want to experience the world view the plan Uitoto Green Vein, Vena Life allows them to penetrate the jungle. From the Chorrera, Amazonas, tourists travel by boat to Santa Rosa Indian Community, interact with the night fauna and stone walkways known, indigenous rituals and exotic landscapes. According to James Kuetgaje, maguaré Ethnotourism Center, and promote self-sufficiency for 28 families Uitoto, aims to "recover, strengthen and preserve the culture and traditions of the indigenous population and wealth of Colombia's cultural heritage."

Taken from the magazine Semana No.1346, February 18, 2008