Asháninka

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

For the languages known as Ashaninka see: Asháninka language or Ajyíninka Apurucayali which is also sometimes called Ashaninka.

The Asháninka or Asháninca (previously also called "Campa" or "Kampa") are an indigenous people of eastern Perú and western Brazil.

The name generally refers to a people who live in an area that spans parts of the southwest Amazon Rainforest along the Apurímac, Ene, Perené, Tambo rivers and tributaries along the Cordillera Occidental of the Andes. Their ancestral lands are in the forests of Junín, Pasco, Huanuco and part of Ucayali.

Contents

[edit] Population

The Asháninka (their name means: a brother to all) are estimated between 25,000 and 55,000. Only a few hundred of these live on the Brazilian side of the border. That means that among the 300,000 native people from 65 different ethnic groups in the Peruvian Amazon, the Asháninka are the largest indigenous group.

The nation is made up of seven different groups who live scattered in more than 200 communities along the jungle valleys: the Cutivireni, the Perené Asheninga, the Atsiri, the Nomatsiguenga, and the Caquinteo.

[edit] Language

See: Asháninka language.

[edit] Subsistence

The Asháninka is a nation which is dependent on subsistence agriculture. They use the slash-and-burn method to clear lands and to plant yucca roots, sweet potato, corn, bananas, rice, coffee, cacao and sugar cane in biodiversity-friendly techniques. They live from hunting and fishing, basically using bows and arrows or spears, as well as from collecting fruit and vegetables in the jungle.

[edit] History

The Asháninka were known by the Inkas as Anti or Campa. The Antis, who gave their name to the Inca province of Antisuyu, were notorious for ferocity and cannibalism.

[edit] Traditional dress

Their traditional dress was a robe with holes for the head and arms known as a kushma (a word from Quechua). Traditionally, their long hair hangs down over the shoulders, and round their necks toucan beak or a bunch of feathers is worn as an ornament.

[edit] Threats

For more than a century now, the Asháninka have suffered from intruders into their territories, - from rubber tappers, loggers, Maoist guerrillas, drug traffickers, colonisers, and oil companies. The Ashaninka are known historically to be fiercely independent , even garnering a paragraph from the Spanish conquistadors for their "bravery and independence". They had successfully managed to resist acculturation and outside influence for centuries. But since the "internal violence" during the 80's and 90's which forced the communities to look outside for help, or starve and die, their struggle has become more difficult.

During the rubber boom (1839-1913), the Asháninka were enslaved by rubber tappers and an estimated 80% of the Asháninka population were exterminated.

Since the 1950s, the Ashínanka's settlements have been destroyed systematically, their territories reduced and the families pushed further into the jungle. Some Ashaninka fled to Brazil and a small community of 600 or so have landrights in Acre, Brazil.

During the "internal armed conflict" in Peru, Ashaninka garden plots "chacres" were burned to the ground , any legal papers they had were also destroyed, some Ashaninka were forced on pain of death, to themselves or their families, to join the Shining Path others were taken as slaves. Many fled into the interior and others gathered in the thousands in small areas for protection. A move that caused much disturbance, Ashaninka communities are usually very small. They could neither hunt nor fish effectively due to the danger posed by armed groups in the forest, thus malnutrition became an increasingly worrisome problem. Malaria is on the rise in Ashaninka communities due to logging and the illegal clearing of tracts of lands by loggers and colonists, as are other diseases bought in by "outsiders".

Precise data does not exist, but of the estimated 55,000 Asháninka in Peru, internal armed conflict during the 1980’s and 1990’s resulted in massive displacement, disappearance and death in the Asháninka communities located in the Ene, Tambo and Perene valleys in the Vilcabamba Mountain range. “…10,000 Asháninka were displaced, 6,000 Asháninka died, 5,000 Asháninka were taken captive by the Shining Path, and between thirty and forty Asháninka communities disappeared” from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, August 2003, Peru

However, a few years ago the Ashaninka succeeded in getting legal title to a portion of their lands which they had mapped using GPS technology, these lands are now a National Park and a Reserved Zone, Otishi National Park. To date most Ashaninka have returned to their ancestral lands, some from as far afield as the Urubamba river. The Ashaninka are involved in new capacity building projects, and projects that seek to support the Ashaninka in their quest to record, maintain and strengthen their culture for future generations and address the problems and threats from the "outside".

Current threats (either directly or indirectly) are from oil companies, drug trafficker's, colonists, illegal lumberer's, illegal roads, conservation groups, and disease. Roads are being built into the forest to extract the prized Mahogany and Cedar trees, often from the primary forest, to be exported to markets in the USA and Europe despite an international embargo. Religious missionary groups who are intent on changing Ashaninka culture and belief systems, and some other groups who are exploiting problems within the communities that are a direct result of the violent upheavals of the communities over a decade ago. Some Conservation programs in the area have also been less than fair to the Ashaninka, in their move to create Conservation zones in this "important ecologically diverse area" choosing plants and animals over the Indigenous rights, and it remains to be seen if this will pose a threat to their lives and land in the future.

Other Ashaninka have moved further into the interior, choosing voluntary isolation rather than have any more contact with the world beyond their lands. See article http://otishi.org/aislados_vol_ing.htm

For a list of Indigenous Organisations and NGO's that work with the Ashaninka in The Cordillera Vilcabamba - see http://otishi.org/orgarea_ing.htm

[edit] References

  • Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
  • Solís Fonseca, Gustavo. (2003). Lenguas en la amazonía peruana. Lima: edición por demanda.

[edit] External links

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/s/h/Ash%C3%A1ninka.html"