Pemon language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pemon (in Spanish: Pemón) is a Cariban language spoken mainly in Venezuela, specifically in the Gran Sabana region of Bolivar State. According to the 2001 census there 15,094 Pemon speakers in Venezuela. Other names used in the literature to describe Pemon speakers are: Pemong, Arecuna, Aricuna, Jaricuna, Kamarakoto, Camaracoto, Taurepan, Taulipang, Makuxi, Macuxi, Macushi.
The Makuxi, who are also Pemon speakers, are found in Brazil and Guyana in areas close to the Venezuelan border.
[edit] Myths
The Pemon have a very rich mythic tradition which continues to this day, despite the conversion of many Pemon to Catholicism or Protestant religions spread by missionaries.
The first person to seriously study Pemon myths and language was the German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg, who visited Roraima in 1912.
Important myths describe the origins of the Sun and Moon, the creation of the tepui mountains, which dramatically rise from the savannahs of the Gran Sabana and the activities of the creator hero Makunaima and his brothers.
[edit] Further reading
- Theodor Koch-Grunberg 1917 - "Vom Roraima Zum Orinoco" ("From Roraima to the Orinoco")
- David John Thomas 1982 - "Order Without Government: The Society of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela" (University of Illinois Press)
[edit] External links
 |
This Indigenous languages of the Americas-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
