Mythologies of the Piaroa/Wothuja Tribe

The Piaroa tribe, known among themselves as the Huottüja or De'aruhua, are a South American indigenous ethnic group of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Colombia and Venezuela, living in an area larger than Belgium, roughly circumscribed by the Suapure, Parguaza (north), the Ventuari (south-east), the Manapiare (north-east) and the right bank of the Orinoco (west). Their present-day population is about 15,000, with an estimated 2,500 living on the left bank of the Orinoco River, in Colombia, in several reservations between the Vichada (north) and the Guaviare (south). Since the Piaroa (Huottüja or De'aruhua) were discovered by missionaries and explorers around 1780 they have been an autonomous society with many individual small self-governed villages scattered over a very wide area. Ethnologists and linguists from the 18th century misidentified the Huottuja as three different tribes belonging to the Saliban family, the Ature, Piaroa, and Quàqua, in actuality were three different regional dialects of the same Piaroa ethnic group from the north, center and south. In recent years populations living within the traditional territory began to reclaim their cultural heritage and sovereignty by designating official leaders, establishing an admiralty court (tribunal), creating laws that protect their environment, and mapping their villages, rivers, creeks, trails, cemeteries, mountains, valleys, monuments, protected areas, community centers, and conucos (familiar garden patches) in their own language and in Spanish. Under pressure of unlawful incursions into their territory during 2016 through 2019 in the North, South and West by ex-FARC and ELN guerrilla groups from Colombia engaged in illicit activities such as mining and deforestation and due to the failure of the national government under the Venezuelan Constitution, Chapter VIII: Rights of Native People to protect their people or defend their territory, the Piaroa established a Special Indigenous Legal Jurisdiction which includes all of their people that live in the original territory and the traditional sovereign territory. In 2020, Piaroa living on the Catañiapo River successfully and peacefully removed over 200 armed Colombian non-state actors and called an assembly of indigenous jurisdiction officials.

About 14,000 Piaroa Indians live in or near tropical forests to the east of the Middle Orinoco River in Amazonas State, Venezuela. They used to be shifting cultivators but they now live in permanent communities inside their traditional territory, in nearby areas, and at other scattered locations in Venezuela and Colombia. The Piaroa used to subsist on shifting cultivation, fishing, hunting, gathering and trading craft products, but in recent decades their economy has grown more complex. They now live in more stable settlements where they accept modernizing trends, grow crops in permanent gardens, raise livestock, earn money through wage labor, buy modern consumer goods, and get educations so they can become nurses, teachers, or other professionals. Some Piaroa who live near enough to the Amazonas State capital, Puerto Ayacucho, take produce and goods into the city to sell on market days. A news story in 2012 reported how one Piaroa community is trying to prevent forest fragmentation, minimize soil erosion, preserve river banks, support the use of indigenous crops, and help retain traditional land use practices. The Piaroa believe in a violently creative mythic past when their gods achieved material and technological prosperity only through competition, violence, greed, arrogance, and lust, traits that, they believe, poisoned peaceful relations within and between communities. Their present society fosters its creativity by controlling that mythic period and by focusing on individuals who live peacefully together—the antidote to those past excesses of wanton wildness. Their communities, in fact, are almost completely peaceful, but they still face the threatened violence of their mythic past. In order to control that violence, the shaman chants every night and blows his words into water and honey which, consumed the next morning by adults and children, will keep them safe for another day. The Piaroa shamans also consume several psychoactive drugs for several purposes, including an anti-depressant that helps keep the people peaceful. The Piaroa believe that the ideal meal is composed of meat and manioc bread, the product of a man’s hunting and a woman’s garden. Their ideal for both men and women is tranquility and control—a mastery of the emotions. They are quite strongly egalitarian and supportive of individual autonomy.

The Piaroa people, known among themselves as the Huottüja or De'aruhua, are a South American indigenous ethnic group of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Colombia and Venezuela, living in an area larger than Belgium, roughly circumscribed by the Suapure, Parguaza (north), the Ventuari (south-east), the Manapiare (north-east) and the right bank of the Orinoco (west). Their present-day population is about 15,000 (INE 2002), with an estimated 2,500 living on the left bank of the Orinoco River, in Colombia, in several reservations between the Vichada (north) and the Guaviare (south). Since the Piaroa (Huottüja or De'aruhua) were discovered by missionaries and explorers around 1780 they have been an autonomous society with many individual small self-governed villages scattered over a very wide area. Ethnologists and linguists from the 18th century misidentified the Huottuja as three different tribes belonging to the Saliban family, the Ature, Piaroa, and Quàqua, in actuality were three different regional dialects of the same Piaroa ethnic group from the north, center and south. Piaroa is a term of unknown origin (probably Latin) which became the name of the language and thus the common name (exonym) for the Huottüja De'aruhua people. The ethnic group officially refers to themselves the "Huottüja" (English spelling) some, mostly men are also known as De'aruwa or De'aruhua (masters of the forest). In their language the Uwottüja, Huottöja, or Wothuha means "knowledgeable people of the forest", usually spelled Huǫttųją (NTM spelling) and Wötʰïhä (IPA spelling), or De'atʰïhä (guardians of the forest).

The Piaroa's also called the Wothuja, are indigenous people of the Amazonia, traditionally living along the middle course of the Orinoco river, and the middle and upper course of the Sipapo and Cuao rivers in the Vichada Department. They currently inhabit the Gran Selva de Matavén Reserve, where the San Luis de Zama and La Urbana communities are located. The Piaroa first came into contact with white men around the 1940s, and since then they have gone through a process of adaptation and establishment of external relationships. The communities that form the Piaroa people of Colombia make their living mainly from fishing, growing yuca (family-size plots), and gathering wild fruits. The Piaroa have kept their traditions and beliefs, even throughout the most intense period of colonization of the last few decades. Largely influenced by evangelical groups during the mid-20th century, many of their customs and traditions were transformed by the process of evangelization.

"Piaroa" is not an aboriginal name, and its etymology is open to speculation. The native terms "De'arua" (owners of the forest), "Wõthhã" (knowing people), "De'athhã" (forest people), and "Thhã" (people) are all self-designations, the form used varying according to audience and situation. The traditional territory of the Piaroa lies on the right bank of the Río Orinoco within the geographical coordinates of 4° to 6° N and 66° to 68° W in what is today the Territorio Federal Amazonas, Venezuela. The approximate boundaries correspond to the middle Río Parguaza in the north, the lower Rio Ventuari in the south, the Orinoco in the west, and the Rio Manapiari in the east. The area is predominantly tropical forest habitat, with the terrain broken by abrupt sandstone mountain formations in the interfluves and headwaters. The major river basins settled were those of the Autana, Sipapo, Cuao, Samariapo, Guayapo, Cataniapo, Manapiari, Parguaza, and Marieta. Out-migration since the 1950s has extended the geographic frontiers in all directions: west into Colombia, up the Mataveni and Zama rivers; south, up the Orinoco as far as the evangelical mission station of Tamatama; and north to the lower Parguaza, upper Suapure, and Guaniamo rivers. The official Indian Census of 1982 counted 7,030 Piaroa in Venezuela, although several hundred Mako were lumped in with this figure. Another 300 to 600 Piaroa are estimated to be living in Colombia. Population size in past eras is unknown but was probably smaller than that of today. Recent geographic expansion—the takeover of lands occupied by neighbors, the neardefunct Mapoyo and Yabarana—suggests that the Piaroa population is increasing. The Piaroa language belongs to the small Salivan Family. Dialectal differences are considerable and have a regional basis, but they have not been systematically documented. Variations in pronunciation distinguish speakers of at least three regions: Sipapo-middle Orinoco, upper Cuao-Parguaza, and Ventuari-Manapiari.

The Piaroa not only eat giant spiders that they find in the forests of southern Venezuela, they use them for their shamanic purposes. A European TV channel that specializes in culture and arts programing, the Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne (ARTE), sent a crew to Venezuela in order to broadcast last week a program in German featuring the Piaroa and their big tarantulas. The Goliath bird-eating spider, or Goliath birdeater (Theraphosa blondi), is considered to be the largest arachnid in the world. It inhabits upland forests in northern South America where it lives in burrows and comes out at night to forage. According to an article in the Wikipedia, it is an important part of the cuisine in some communities. After the hairs have been singed off, it is roasted in banana leaves to bring out the shrimp-like flavor. The beast is so-named because an early naturalist explorer of the region, Maria Sibylla Merian, depicted it in one of her copper engravings as eating a hummingbird. Shamans, usually older men, have played an important role in Piaroa culture, according to numerous references cited in past news stories. For instance, one reported that the tranquility and harmony of the Piaroa community is based partly on the social values of the people and at least to some extent on the protective work of the shamans. But the role of the bird-eating spiders in their lives is also interesting. Fortunately, a scholarly article by Melnyk and Bell (1996) provided some good information that amplifies the ARTE story. In their article, the authors described how the Piaroa in a couple villages they studied integrate their horticultural activities with hunting, fishing, and gathering plant products from the surrounding forests. Piaroa who live close to market communities, such as the state capital, Puerto Ayacucho, will sell both their excess agricultural produce and such forest products as fish, plant materials, and arthropods in the town markets. The authors did not specify what species of insects and/or spiders were included in their “arthropods” category.

Huottuja-De’aruhua is the English endonym of the Piaroa People which is an exonym designated during colonial times. The Huottuja are also known as the Huottüją, Huottöja, Huottųją and Wothuha, Uwottüja, Uwotjüja, Uwotjuja or Uwottuja, also Wotiheh, Uhothuha, Wóthuha is most popularly written as Huottuja or Piaroa (in American English), are also known as the De'aruhua or De'aruwa, or with the universal phonetic alphabet Wötʰïhä or De'atʰïhä. The Huottuja Foundation was developed to serve the sustainable development and economic social needs of the Piaroa People of Colombia and Venezuela across a vast territory of over 33,000 square kilometers. The foundation was formed as a commission of Globcal International providing the commissioners (members of the Piaroa Tribe) with extrajurisdictional authority under Ecology Crossroads in the United States as their program sponsor. The idea of self-governance and an offshore foundation has caught on as the best method for Indigenous Peoples to exercise their natural and civil rights as legal corporations. The organization is established specifically to address the sustainable development goals partnership as an offshore corporation because of the political instability and sanctions imposed against Venezuela, which the Indigenous Huottuja are exempt from as Amerindians and as a non-governmental entity of the state. The organization supports demarcation and delineation of sovereign Indigenous territory to distinguish it from national parks, national monuments, state roads property, private property, mapping programs, and land use projects operated by trained conservation and wildlife officers; on a community by community basis addresses water and sanitation projects; also each community is eligible for conservation grants.

The Piaroa are an indigenous American ethnic group living along the banks of the Orinoco River and its tributaries in present day Venezuela, and in a few scattered locations elsewhere in Venezuela and in Colombia. The Piaroa number at a population of about 14,000. Seeing competition as spiritually evil and lauding cooperation, the Piaroa are both strongly egalitarian and supportive of individual autonomy. The Piaroa are also strongly anti-authoritarian and opposed to the hoarding of resources, which they see as giving members the power to constrain their freedom. In the past few decades, the Piaroa culture has nearly vanished. They are famed for their lack of hierarchy in their social structure. They are also regarded as one of the world's most peaceful societies. Their traditions and culture remains much of a mystery to us as little has been recorded. However for those with a genuine interest in Piaroa culture, the research of Joanna Overing, maybe of interest. We are grateful to her work and devotion to this beautiful culture. Please visit Shamanism and the Amazonia Collection to view their sacred objects, masks and other items.

In the past few decades, the Piaroa culture has nearly vanished. They are famed for their peaceful society and lack of hierarchy in their social structure. Their traditions and culture remains much of a mystery to us as little has been recorded. However for those with a genuine interest in Piaroa culture, the research of Joanna Overing, maybe of interest. We are grateful to her work and devotion to this beautiful culture. Please visit our Shamanism page for more information about the Piaroa culture. The most important Piaroa ritual is the Warime. It is a fertility ceremony practiced every three years. For this ceremony, the Piaroa summon their mythical ancestors. They make sacred objects like the masks shown, musical instruments, and special clothing. The masks represent the báquiro, the white monkey, and Re’yo (the evil spirit of the bee). The Wrime is a complex ritual and ceremony which symbolizes the origins prctica the world with a return to the days of the beginning of mankind, to be inserted back into human activity with strength and vitality. It is usually performed once a year to celebrate the abundance of crops alimentaciny and its celebration depends on the decision of Viejome-chamn ruwa or principal, based on the physical conditions and spiritual power needed to run the event and in the dreams and visions he experiences in this regard. The Me-ruwa is the owner of the song, directed rituals and assumes responsibility as the Owner of the party: the organization and invites the entire community Piaroa. The Me-ruwa knows all the myths, leads Wrime actions, knows the meaning of clothing and the sounds of instruments, as well as how to prepare and can drive social actions in their community. A Me-ruwa Wrime organized with the assistance of a WHO Dzuww or Meri, who are the masters of breath. The Me-COOPERATION ruwa Meri and reflects the work of the heroes mitolgicos.

The Piaroa Tribe began to reacknowledge and recover its Indigenous cultural heritage and intellectual property when it was understood that we were responsible from the 1600s until the 1800s for much of Venezuela's cacao and thus chocolate production. Further investigations in 2021, revealed that our people and several other tribes had been collaborating with Spanish missionaries to harvest wild (naturally occurring) cacao 200 years before the territory was called Venezuela, Gran Colombia or New Spain. Since the 1990's it has been suggested by botanists, ethnologists and paleontologists that the most complex original evolutionary genome of Theobroma cacao came into existence more than 10 million years ago in the upper river valleys of the Guiana Shield before the Andes emerged from the sea. The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas have been using cacao to make chocolate since at least the ancient Mayo-Chinchipe culture 5,300 years ago in the upper Amazon region of Ecuador. Then approximately 4,000 years ago Theobroma plants were transplanted to the ancient Olmec culture in Central America and domesticated according to anthropologists and researchers. Chocolate played an important cultural, political, spiritual and economic role in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, which ground roasted cacao beans into a paste that they mixed with water, vanilla, chili peppers and other spices to brew a frothy chocolate drink.