Waiwai

The Waiwai people speak Karib. Their population was dispersed over time in the territory between the Essequibo River, in Guyana, the Anauá and Jatapuzinho, in Roraima, the Jatapu and Nhamundá, in Amazonas, and the Mapuera, in Pará. Today they live in the Trombetas-Mapuera Indigenous Lands, alongside other such groups as the Karapawyana, Hixkaryana, Mawayana, Xereu, Cikiyana, Tunayana, Yapîyana, Pianokoto, and Waimiri-Atroari. The Waiwai language is the one most used by the communities, coexisting with others introduced by the presence of other Indians who married Waiwai or who migrated to their territory between 1950 and 1980, in the phase of their centralization in large villages. Today there are around 2,900 Waiwai Indians.

Their subsistence activities are based on hunting, fishing, slash and burn agriculture, and gathering wild products. This gathering, especially of Brazil nuts, represents an important dietary supplement for the group; they also sell the nuts, along with manioc meal and handcrafts.

The production of craft items has grown according to the Waiwai’s need to acquire industrialized goods. The women make the pottery items, manioc graters, loincloths and seed necklaces, among others. The men make such objects as baskets, combs, feather adornments, bows, arrows, and stools; the general characteristics of these pieces are very similar to those of other ethnic groups in the region. A good part of their production is sold in Boa Vista, but can also be found in Manaus and in Parintins during the Festa do Boi celebrations.

Missionary activity has had an important influence on the Waiwai. Significant examples are the two great festivities, the Christmas Festivity, or Kresmus (the Waiwai pronunciation of the English word Christmas), and the Easter Festival, when there are often baptisms. It is questionable as to whether evangelization has effectively replaced Waiwai cosmological conceptions and philosophy or if what occurs is a transformation of traditional beliefs to a selection of evangelical beliefs as a way of adapting them to the group’s ancient traditions.

Through dances, games, and jokes, the Waiwai translate the outside world: in this way, their relations with animals and their powers is ritualized in the “dances of the animals”; the feather work is related to celestial forces; indigenous and Christian spiritual powers are mobilized in music and invocations.