Baniwas are south american indians belonging to the Arawak linguistic family. They live in the Amazon Region, on the borders of Brazil with Colombia and Venezuela, along the Rio Negro River tributaries. Baniwa indians rely, basically, on the manioc cultivation and fishing for subsistence. They are also known by the fine basketry they skilfully produce. The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for cassava flour), was used to designate the friendly Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in the Caribbean. ... The name Amazon may refer to several concepts: The legendary Amazons, women renowned in antiquity for their prowess in battle. ... The Negro (Spanish: black) River, the great northern tributary of the Amazon River and the largest blackwater river in the world, has its sources along the watershed between the Orinoco and the Amazon basins, and also connects with the Orinoco by way of the Casiquiare canal. ...
Jump to: navigation, search Indigenous peoples in Brazil (povos indÃgenas in Portuguese) comprise a large number of distict ethnic groups who inhabited the countrys present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500. ...
External links
Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (Instituto Socioambiental)
Further reading
Robert Wright 1998 - Cosmos, Self and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn
Theodore Koch-Grünberg 1909 - Zwei Jahre unter den Indianern: reisen in nordwest-brasilien 1903-1905("Two years among the indians")
Besides production for community use, the Baniwa have always exchanged their craft for products such as salt, soap, gunpowder and clothing, dealing with missionaries and riverbank traders who exploited the Indians by buying the basket ware cheap and selling it later at a huge profit.
At the same time the organization sought means to avoid an exodus of Indians from their communities, due to the lack of work opportunities.
The Baniwa have proved willing to learn, overcoming operational and logistic problems such as how to transport large quantities of products through the rivers and rapids of the Amazon’s interior.
The Baniwa are also mentioned in Portuguese sources of the same period as having been brought as slaves, probably by the Manao people of the middle Rio Negro, from the upper Rio Negro to the Fort of Barra at the mouth of the river.
The Baniwa had barely survived by the end of the 18th century but, with the disorganization of the colonies, they returned to their homelands on the Içana and sought to rebuild their society.
According to the narratives that the Baniwa and other peoples of the upper Rio Negro tell even today, Kamiko preached the strict observance of fasts, cerimonial chants, and the total avoidance of social and economic relations with the Whites (especially, the military), as the means to obtain salvation in the promised paradise.
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