Waujá

The Wauja (formerly known as Waurá) are a traditional people of the Upper Xingu, living today in the Xingu National Park. They speak a Maipure language of the Arawak family and comprise, along with the Mehinako, Yawalapiti, Pareci, and Enawene Nawe, the group of central Maipure. Approximately 270 people reside in a single circular village, with the typical Xingu system of a central plaza with a house of flutes in the middle.

The Arawak speaking Xingu peoples (Wauja and Mehinako) are direct descendants of various groups originally from the southwest of the Amazon basin who established the first Xingu villages from between A.D. 800 and 900. Archaeological research shows that between the years 1000 and 1600, these peoples were more populous and lived in large circular villages interconnected by roads and encircled by ditches, palisades, and raised walkways.

The Wauja are renowned for their ancient pottery and are responsible for supplying pots and bread platters to all the groups living in the Upper Xingu. Besides pottery, many other items from their material culture continue to be made, including those that could easily be replaced by industrialized goods but which for symbolic reasons continue to perform a role in Wauja culture. This is the case with wooden stools, which follow an aesthetic similar to that of the pottery vessels in the form of animals, with a head or tail of the depicted species at each side. As well as pottery and woodcarvings, the Wauja are known for the designs on their basket ware, their feather work, and their large ritual masks.

One of the most traditional Wauja rituals is the one for the apapatai, spirits that cause harm and make people ill. During the ritual, these spirits, personified by large painted straw masks, are offered food and entertainment, in exchange for a cure mediated through the shaman. In general, the ceremonies demand the making of several ritual objects, which can be beiju scoops, masks, flutes, clarinets, manioc shovels, pestles, baskets, pans, arrows etc.

Wauja material culture has been disseminated to the outside world, not only in the system of exchange in the Xingu National Park, but also in the Brazilian indigenous craft market. Today pottery is of extreme importance in their economy.