NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Wichi

The Wichí are an indigenous people of South America. They are a large group of tribes with very primitive material culture, ranging about the headwaters of the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, in Argentina and Bolivia. South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... The Bermejo River is a river in South America that travels a total of 1450 km from Bolivia to the Paraguay River in Argentina. ... The Pilcomayo is a river rising in the Bolivian Andes, east of Lake Poopó, flowing over 700 miles across Chaco into the Paraguay River near Asunción. ...

Notes on designation

This ethnic group was named by the Spanish settlers and is still widely known as Mataco, a word of obscure etymology but which is cited in several sources as derogatory, and considered thus also by the Wichí. Their own word for themselves, Wichí, is pronounced /wi'ci/, and for their language, Wichí Lhamtés /wi'ci ɬam'tes/.

There is a pronunciation variant in some areas of Bolivia, /wikˠiʡ/, where the self-denomination of the group is Weenhayek wikˠi, translated by Alvarsson (1988) as "the different people" (pl. Weenhayey). Weenhayey informers of Alvarsson state that the old name was Olhamelh (/oɬameɬ/), meaning simply us. The subgroups within Wichí have been indentified and received different names in literature: Nocten or Octenay in Bolivia, Véjos or (perhaps more properly) Wejwus or Wehwos for the Western subgroup(s), and Güisnay for the Eastern subgroups of Argentina. The latter corresponds to Tewoq-ɬelej, "the river people".

Population

At present, a number of Wichí groups can be found in Argentina and Bolivia, distributed as follows:

Chaco is an Argentine province located on the north of the country, near the border with Paraguay. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words Ï‡Î¯Î»Î¹Î± (khilia) = thousand and Î¼ÎÏ„ÏÎ¿ (metro) = count/measure). ... Formosa Province is in northeastern Argentina, part of the Gran Chaco Region. ... Salta is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. ... Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. ... The Pilcomayo is a river rising in the Bolivian Andes, east of Lake Poopó, flowing over 700 miles across Chaco into the Paraguay River near Asunción. ...

Wichí language

The total number of speakers can only be estimated; no reliable figures exist. Comparing several sources, the most probable number is from 40 to 50,000 individuals. The Argentine National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) gives a figure of 36,135 for Argentina only. For Bolivia, Alvarsson estimated between 1,700 and 2,000 speakers in 1988; a census reported 1,912, and Diez Astete & Riester (1996) estimated between 2,300 and 2,600 Weenhayek in sixteen communities. National Statistics and Censuses Institute (Spanish: Instituto Nacional de EstadÃstica y Censos, INDEC) is the Argentine government agency responsible for the collection and processing of statistical data. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

According to Majlis (1968) and Gordon (2005), three main dialects can be distinguished in the Wichí group: southwestern or Vejós (Wehwós), northeastern or Güisnay (Weenhayek) and northwestern or Nocten (Oktenay). Tovar (1981) and other authors claim the existence of only two dialects (northeastern and southwestern), while Braunstein (1992-3) identifies eleven ethnical subgroups.

The Wichí language is predominantly suffixing and polysynthetic; verbal words have between 2 and 15 morphemes. Alienable and inalienable possession is distinguished. The phonological inventory is large, with simple, glottalized and aspirated stops and sonorants. The number of vowels varies with dialect (five or six). Suffix has meanings in linguistics, nomenclature and computer science. ... Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i. ... Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, one of which possesses (owns, rules over, has as a part, has as a relative, etc. ... See also Glottalic consonant Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a member of a class of speech sounds that are continuants produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

History

Much of the information available about the history of the Wichí comes from Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries. The first mission came in 1690, but it was unsuccessful. In 1756 the Jesuit mission of San Ignacio de Ledesma on the Grande River found a better reception. However, with the decline of the Spanish power these missions also fell into decay. Seal of the Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (Societas Iesu (S.J.) in Latin) is a Christian religious order of the Roman Catholic Church in direct service to the Pope. ... The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ... Since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, a widely-accepted definition of a Christian mission has been to form a viable indigenous church-planting movement. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Events Giovanni Domenico Cassini observes differential rotation within Jupiters atmosphere. ... 1756 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Rio Grande is a left tributary of the Paraná River in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo. ...

The Wichí territory does seem to have changed since the 18th century, when the first precise informations on their existence and location were known. Their neighbors in the Pilcomayo River area were the Toba, and their lands on the Bermejo River extended from the current town of Embarcación, Salta, to a region north of current town of Castelli in the Chaco Province. The Toba are an ethnic group in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. ...

According to Father Alejandro Corrado, a Franciscan of Tarija, the Wichí were nomadic; their houses were light structures scattered in the jungle. Corrado claims the Wichí lived chiefly upon fish and algarroba, that is, the fruit of the local algarrobo tree (usually identified with Prosopis alba or South American mesquite), as well as honey-locust, but "they ate anything that was not poisonous, even rats and grasshoppers". From the algarroba they were said to prepare an intoxicating liquor (this is probably aloja, produced by fermentation of the sugar-loaded patay paste inside the fruit). The ripening of the algarroba was celebrated by a ceremony. Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... Binomial name Prosopis alba Griseb. ... Species Many; see text. ... Binomial name Gleditsia triacanthos L. The Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is a deciduous tree native to North America. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Families Grasshoppers are herbivorous insects of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. ... Spirits redirects here. ... Fermentation in progress Fermentation typically refers to the conversion of sugar to alcohol using yeast. ...

Also in Corrado's words, among the Wichí "everything is in common". He claimed that there was a division of tasks, the men occupying themselves with fishing or occasional hunting with bow or club, and the women doing practically all the other work. Fishing is the activity of hunting for fish. ... A hunter on horseback shoots at deer or elk with a bow. ...

As for religious belief, Corrado wrote that the Wichí medicine men fight off disease "with singing and rattle", that the Wichí believe in a good spirit and a bad spirit, and that the soul of the deceased is reincarnated in an animal. Fishers of Men, oil on panel by Adriaen van de Venne (1614) Various religious symbols Religion is a human phenomenon that defies easy definition. ... Medicine man is an English term used to describe Native American religious figures; such individuals are analogous to shamans. ... A disease is an abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person afflicted or those in contact with the person. ... The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. ... The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. ... Past Lives redirects here. ...

Current threats

Wichí have traditionally lived from hunting, fishing and basic agriculture. Since the beginning of 20th century, significant portions of their traditional land have been taken over by outsiders, and what was once a grassland became desertified by deforestation, introduction of cattle and, more recently, by the introduction of alien crops (soybean). A study made in 1998 by Clark University, Worcester, MA based on satellite photo surveys showed that between 1984 and 1996 20% of the forest has been lost. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... An Inner Mongolian Grassland. ... Ship stranded by the retreat of the Aral Sea Desertification is the degradation of land in arid, semi arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors including climatic variations and human activities. ... Deforestation is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (called cows in vernacular usage, kine archaic, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Binomial name Glycine max (L.) Merr. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Clark University, in Worcester, Massachusetts in the United States, is a private teaching and research institution founded in 1887 by the industrialist Jonas Clark. ... Nickname: The Heart of the Commonwealth, The City of the Seven Hills, Wormtown, Woo-town, Wortown (war-town), The City of Diners, Paris of the Eighties Settled: 1673 â€“ Incorporated: 1684 Zip Code(s): 01608 â€“ Area Code(s): 508 / 774 Official website: http://www. ... A satellite is any object that orbits another object (which is known as its primary). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

The Wichí were affected by the recession that lasted from 1999 to 2002, but their relative economic self-sufficiency, their physical isolation and the lack of recognition on the part of the authorities largely diminished the impact of the crisis, which was circumscribed on inflation in the price of certain goods they cannot produce (such as sugar and red meat, replaceable by wild honey and fish) and on problems with the supply of medicines and healthcare. The Argentine economic crisis was part of the situation that affected Argentinas economy during the late 1990s and early 2000s. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

For many years, the Wichí have been struggling to get legal titles to the land they traditionally own, constantly seized and fenced by non-indigenous cattlers and farmers. Their main claims are centered in two large public land areas in eastern Salta, known as Lote 55 (about 2,800 km²) and Lote 14. The Wichí rights to that land have been recognised by law, but no practical enforcement actions have been taken by the Salta provincial government. Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ...

At the beginning of 2004, the government of Salta decided to lift the protected status of the General Pizarro Natural Reserve, an area of 250 km² in the Anta Department inhabited by about 100 Wichí, and sell part of the land to two private companies, Everest SA and Initium Aferro SA, to be deforested and planted with soybean. After months of complaints, legal struggle, and a campaign sponsored by Greenpeace, on 29 September 2005 (after an exposure in a popular TV show) a group of Argentine artists, actors, musicians, models, environmental groups and Wichí representatives arranged a hearing with Chief of Cabinet Alberto Fernández, Director of the National Parks Administration Héctor Espina and President Néstor Kirchner himself. The national government promised to discuss the matter with Salta governor Juan Carlos Romero. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Binomial name Glycine max (L.) Merr. ... Greenpeace is an international environmental organization founded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1971. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... (born 25 February 1950) is the current President of Argentina. ...

On 14 October 2005 the National Parks Administration and the government of Salta signed an agreement to create a new national protected area in General Pizarro. Of the approximately 213 km² comprised by the new reserve, the Wichí will have the right of use of 22 km², and they will own 8 km². October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in Leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Wichí society

Wichí, as other hunter-gatherer peoples, were semi-nomadic. Even today and despite transculturation, there is a fairly large number of montaraces (nomadic) communities or clans. Each Wichí village has its own territory, but usually a few communities share the use of the overlapping areas. Each community consists of one or more clans. Wichi society is matrilocal, i.e., people belong to their mothers' clans; upon marriage, men move to their wives' villages. Individuals and families of some of the neighboring peoples like the Iyojwaja (Chorote), Nivaklé, Qomlek (Toba) and Tapy'y (Tapieté) often live amongst the Wichí, sometimes marrying into their society. In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Kazakh nomads in the steppes of the Russian Empire, ca. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... A marriage is a committed relationship between or among individuals, recognized by civil authority and/or bound by the religious beliefs of the participants. ... The Toba are an ethnic group in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. ...

They build small mud houses with roofs made of leaves and branches, well adapted to the high temperatures of summer that can reach 50 °C (120 °F). During the dry season (winter) they depend on fishing in the Bermejo and Pilcomayo rivers, and cultivate corn, pumpkins, beans and watermelons during summer. Throghout the year the Wichí hunt deers (Cervidae) like "guasuncho" (Mazama goauzoubira) and "corzuela roja"(Mazama americana), armadillos (Dasypus, Tolypeutes and Euphractus genii), rabbits ("tapetí", Sylvilagus brasiliensis), several types of iguana and peccaries (Tayassu albirostris, Tayassu tajacu); search for wild honey and gather fruits. For centuries they have used the strong fibers of chaguar (Bromelia serra, Bromelia hieronymi) for weaving nets, purses and other textile objects; some communities base a substantial part of their economy in selling chaguar handicrafts. The degree Celsius (symbol: Â°C) is an SI derived unit of temperature. ... Fahrenheit is a temperature scale named after the German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686â€“1736), who proposed it in 1724. ... Binomial name Zea mays L. Maize (Zea mays ssp. ... Pumpkins Pumpkin attached to a stalk A pumpkin is a squash fruit, most commonly orange in colour when ripe, that grows as a fruit (gourd from a trailing vine of the genus Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae). ... Binomial name Citrullus lanatus (Thunb. ... Subfamilies Capreolinae Cervinae Hydropotinae Muntiacinae A deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. ... Genera Dasypus Calyptophractus Chaetophractus Chlamyphorus Euphractus Zaedyus Cabassous Priodontes Tolypeutes Armadillos are many of several small placental mammals of the family Dasypodidae, mostly known for having a bony armor shell. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, found in many parts of the world. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Species Tayassu tajacu Tayassu pecari Catagonus wagneri The peccaries (also known by its Spanish name, javelina or pecarÃ) are medium-sized mammals of the family Tayassuidae. ... Honey honey comb A capped frame of honeycomb Honey is a sweet and viscous fluid produced by honeybees and other insects from the nectar of flowers. ... Tweed loom, Harris, 2004 Weaving is an ancient textile art and craft that involves placing two sets of threads or yarn made of fiber called the warp and weft of the loom and turning them into cloth. ...

The most popular game among the Wichí is a team sport called `yaj ha`lä, which resembles lacrosse. Games usually last from dawn to dusk without interruption, and are agreed between clans. The magical significance of the game is lost, but it is still a subject of heavy gambling: rival clans bet animals, clothes, seeds and horses on the outcome of the game. For other uses, see Lacrosse (disambiguation). ... Slot machines in Las Vegas, Nevada. ...

References

External links

Categories: Derived from Catholic Encyclopedia | Indigenous peoples of South America | Indigenous peoples in Argentina | Languages of Argentina | Matacoan languages The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Catholic Encyclopedia (also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia today) is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The Encyclopedia Press, designed to give authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. // History The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11... National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (Spanish Instituto Nacional de EstadÃstica y Censos, INDEC) is the Argentine state institution responsible for the recolection and processing of census and statistical data, created in 1968. ... The Washington Times[1] is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. ... August 13 is the 225th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (226th in leap years), with 140 days remaining. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

Contents

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