Tikunas

The ticunas are an indigenous people who live longitudinally between Peru and Brazil (State of Amazonas), and latitudinally between the Putumayo River (or Içá) and the Amazon River, thus encompassing the Amazonian Trapeze in Colombia, and also including the lower Caquetá (or Japurá) river. They call themselves Düum ("people" or "person"). Formerly they were called tecuna or tucuna, from the Tupí taco-una, which means "men painted black"), due to their custom of painting their entire body with the juice of the fruit of the huito tree. There are currently more than 67 thousand people.

History

The expansion of the omaguas (Cocamas), a Tupi-Guaraní people, linked to the slave trade for the Portuguese and Dutch colonizers, forced the Ticuna to retreat into the interior of the jungle, but with With the decline of the omaguas, who were settled in small enclaves, the Ticuna returned to the banks of the large rivers. Episodes such as the rubber fever or the coca trade have caused temporary retreats, but currently the ticuna are once again occupying their traditional territory,

Territory

They are considered to originate from the Évare igarapé, a tributary of the Amazon River. Their territory extends from the mouth of the Atacuari River, in Peru, and the mouth of the Jutaí River, in Brazil. The total population of the Ticuna in that territory is distributed as follows: 55% in 58 settlements in the municipalities of Tabatinga, Japurá, São Paulo de Olivença and Santo Antonio do Içá, in Brazil; 27% in 33 settlements that are located in the Amazon trapezium sector, in the municipalities of Leticia and Puerto Nariño, in Colombia; and 18% in 15 settlements in the Ramón Castilla, Yavarí and Putumayo districts, Loreto department in Peru.

Social organization

In the past they lived in large oval-shaped communal houses. Currently they live in villages or towns with single-family houses. They practice fishing, itinerant horticulture, hunting, gathering, trade and crafts. The crops or chagras are close to their homes and are planted after slashing and burning, cassava, banana, corn, chili and fruit trees. They fish for gambitana (Colossoma brachypomus), pirarucú (Arapaima gigas), palometa (Mylossoma duriventre), pintadillo (Brachyplatystoma spp.). i>) and piranhas.

They have excellent knowledge of the habits and life cycles of the animals they hunt, as well as the territory, which is why they are successful hunters, especially of tapirs, peccaries, deer, monkeys, different species of birds, various rodents and turtles. The crafts they produce are highly appreciated and sought after in the market, especially wood carvings, and the elaboration of bark and fibers.

They conceive the person, society and culture, as part of nature in intimate relationship with it, so that the nature-culture interrelation weaves the social system.

Its social organization is based on the existence of exogamous patrilineal clans or Kiá. Because there are several clans in each village, well-defined exogamous moieties are formed within them that establish marital alliances between bilateral cross cousins.

Language

The Ticuna speak a tonal language, which shares several typological features with languages of the region, although it has not been possible to detect a clear phylogenetic relationship with the other languages of the region, which is why most experts consider it a isolated. However, some have tentatively associated it within the macro-Arawakano or with the macro-Tukano.

However, most specialists consider that this classification is highly speculative, given the little evidence available. Recent studies have proposed grouping Ticuna with the Yurí language.