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Sharanahua [archive]

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Sharanahua

Location: The Sharanahua are located along the upper Envira River, a tributary of the Tarauaca and in Peru in the Upper Perus River area.

History: The name Sharanahua means "Good People". (This is their preferred name. Some of the other tribes call them the Disinahua which means "stinking people") The early history is somewhat vague because, like most tribes, there is no written language. All knowledge is passed down through stories, memory, and tradition. Some history can be traced through language similarities with other tribes. By tracing the language, it is believed that the Sharanahua once shared a single language with other tribes and that about one thousand years ago, the people split and went their separate ways. The Sharanahua changed very little until the late 1800's and early 1900's when colonists began to settle along the rivers, pushing the Sharanahua and other groups further into the forest and changing their way of life forever. Once a numerous people, by the 1950's, one-half to two-thirds of the people had died of diseases like measles and the whooping cough brought on by the colonists.

Language: Sharanahua (A variation of Panoan)

Daily Life: Today, the Sharanahua tribes are loosely based on ties of kinship and language. A hunter-gatherer society, they depend on the river for water and fish, and on the forest for everything else from wild foods, to materials for weapons, clothing, and housing. Everything they need, the forest provides. Each day, the men go out to fish and hunt while the women are left to gather foods and do chores. The houses consist of thatched roofs and bark walls attached to attached to heavy vertical poles sunk straight and deep into the ground. In areas that tend to flood, the houses are built four to six feet abouve the ground. Their is also a separate cooking house that is tended to communally by the women. Every houshold keeps few emaciated dogs for protection and hunting compaions and a few keep chickens and ducks as well. Men, women, and children alike paint their faces with red of black dye and older people passed twenty have pierced noses and lips. The typical dress for a man consists of shirts and slacks while the women wear cotton dresses that they trade for with the traditional woven skirt underneath. The Sharanahua have also been able to recooperate from the devestating loss of life brought on by foregin diseases. In 1989, the population totaled between 850 and 950.

Sources

Siskend, Janet. To Hunt in the Morning. Oxford University Press. New York, 1989 Web Site: http://www.sil.org/lla/braz_ig.html

Additional Reading

Sharanahua
Languages in Peru
South American Indigenous Tribes

Sharanahua [archive]

Sharanahua

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