firemen
on the archipelago Tierra del Fuego Several groups of Indians lived: Selknam (she), Alakalufy, Yamana (Yagany). These tribes were among the most backward tribes in the world.
Representatives of the first group of Indians - the Selknam - lived in the northern and eastern parts of the archipelago, hunted llama-guanacos and gathered fruits and roots of wild plants. Their weapons were the most primitive bows and arrows. In the western part of the archipelago, the Alakalufs lived, who were engaged in fishing and collecting shellfish. These tribes spent most of their lives in search of food. They traveled in wooden boats along the coast.
The Yamana tribe lived by collecting shellfish, fishing, hunting for seals and other marine animals, as well as birds. In sea fishing, a bone harpoon with a long belt served as a tool. In addition, tools made of bone, stone and shells were used. The main social unit of the yaman was the genus, called ukur. This word denoted both the dwelling and the community of relatives that lived in it. In the absence of members of this community, their hut could be occupied by members of another community. Communities gathered together extremely rarely, sometimes in the case when dead by the sea whale. Provided with food for a long time, yamana arranged festivities. Everyone in the community was on an equal footing. A special place was occupied only by healers who cured diseases, and they were also credited with the ability to influence the weather.
pampa indians
The Pampa Indians (Patagonians) are a tribe of wandering hunters on foot. They hunted mainly guanacos, which were the main source of food. Pampa Indians hunted with bola - a bunch of belts with weights attached to them.
The main social unit was a group of equal relatives, which united 30-40 marriage couples with their offspring. Each community had a leader, but his power was reduced to the right to give orders during transitions and hunting. The leaders hunted together with its other members, and the hunt was of a collective nature.
Pampa hunters did not lead a settled way of life and they did not have permanent settlements. Shed tents made of 40–50 guanaco skins, which were built in temporary camps, served as housing for the entire community. Guanaco skin also served as a material for making clothes. The main part of the costume was a fur coat, which was tied at the waist with a belt.
Religious beliefs were based on animistic beliefs. The Patagonians peopled the world with spirits. The cult of dead relatives was especially developed.
The Araucans lived in southern Chile. They were engaged in agriculture and bred llamas, which made it necessary to lead a sedentary lifestyle. Among the Araucans, the manufacture of fabrics from the wool of the llama-guanaco, pottery and silver processing were developed. The southern tribes were also engaged in hunting and fishing with the help of the simplest devices.
Indians of Eastern Brazil
On the territory of Eastern and Southern Brazil, the tribes of Botokuds, Canella, Kayapo, Sharavants, Kaingang and other, smaller ones, who belonged to the tribal group, lived . These tribes were engaged in hunting and gathering, while making transitions from one place to another in search of game and edible plants.
The main weapon with which they hunted were bows and arrows. They hunted not only small animals, but also fish. The men did the hunting, and the women did the gathering.
The dwelling of the Botokuds was the simplest barriers from the wind, covered with palm leaves. Barriers were built for the entire nomad camp. Wicker baskets were used as dishes.
A peculiar decoration of the botokuds were small wooden discs inserted into the slits of the lips - “botok” (Portuguese word). Hence the Botokud tribe got its name.
The Botokud tribes had a group marriage and the relationship between the sexes was regulated by the laws of exogamy. When the Europeans discovered the Botokuds, they had a primitive communal system supported by a matriarchy. The Botokuds had a maternal kinship account.
Indians of the Amazon and Orinoco rainforests
Northeast and central part South America It was inhabited by numerous tribes belonging to different linguistic groups, mainly Arawaks, Tupi-Guaranis and Caribs.
These tribes lived settled and their main occupation and source of livelihood was agriculture. They grew cassava, maize, sweet potato, beans, tobacco, and cotton. Agriculture was slash-and-burn. The land was cultivated with tools made mainly of wood. However, there were also polished stone axes, which were one of the main items of intertribal exchange. Bone, shells, shells of forest fruits were also used to make tools. Arrowheads were made from animal teeth and pointed bone, and bamboo, stone, and wood were also used. The arrows fledged. In hunting, an arrow-throwing tube, the so-called sarbakan, was also used.
In addition to farming and hunting small animals, the source of the Indians' livelihood was also fishing, for which boats were built from tree bark and dugouts. In fishing, nets, nets, tops and other gear were used. The fish were speared and shot at with bows.
At the core public structure lay a tribal community. The community led a common household and usually occupied one large dwelling, which was the village. Such a dwelling was a round or rectangular structure, covered with palm leaves or branches. The walls were made of pillars intertwined with branches. They were covered with mats and smeared. Having achieved great skill in weaving, these tribes used a wicker bed - a hammock. This invention, under its Indian name, spread all over the world. In the dwelling, each family had its own hearth. Most of the tribes were dominated by the maternal clan, but a transition to the paternal clan was already outlined. Each village was a self-governing community. Each community had an elder leader.
The rainforest tribes practiced slash-and-burn agriculture. At the same time, sections were first prepared. Trees were cut at the roots with stone axes, and when they dried up, they were felled and fires were made. Ash, in turn, served as a good fertilizer. Landing time was determined by the position of the stars. After the site was ready for planting, women began to work: they loosened the ground with knotty sticks or sticks with small animal bones and shells planted on them.
The artistic creativity of the described tribes was expressed in dances performed to the sounds of primitive musical instruments - horns, pipes, as well as in games based on imitation of the habits of animals and birds. The bodies were painted with complex patterns, for which the juices of some plants were used. Special elegant dresses were made from multi-colored feathers, teeth, nuts and seeds.
To the Indians of the tropical forests of South America, mankind owes the discovery medicinal properties cinchona bark and ipecac vomit.
Ancient peoples of Mexico and Central America
That part of the Western Hemisphere which is now known as Mexico and Central America consists of a belt of land 2,500 miles long and 1,000 to 50 miles wide. This belt connects two large continents - North and South America. The main part of its northern, wider half, is a plateau, which rises in gentle steps to the south and is bordered by two mountain ranges. On the slopes of the mountains and on the plateau, the climate is temperate. In the north, water is scarce, but further south, the rainy season sets in during the summer months, and the land is fertile. The climate within this area is the most diverse, and all kinds of plants can be found there, from tropical banana trees and palms to pines that cover the upper slopes of the mountains. A large part of this territory is a tropical jungle covered with swamps and forests, where jaguars and alligators are found and macaws and parrots are found. Mountains and lack of navigable rivers make communication difficult.
Archaeological data, finds of stone tools and the skeleton of a fossil man indicate that a man appeared on the territory of Mexico 15-20 thousand years ago. The peoples of the country, called the Indians by the European conquerors, were divided into big number different tribes who spoke different languages and independent in politically from each other.
In the valleys of New Mexico, in the basins of the Sonora and Sinaloa rivers, and near the lakes of the Jalisco region, several tribes lived who switched to agriculture and had the beginnings of civilization. But the Indians of most tribes roamed the mountains and deserts of the interior, eating cactus leaves or the meat of wild animals and sleeping in tents made of skins. In the south lived the tribes engaged in agriculture. Some tribes already stood at a fairly high cultural level.
Society was still theocratic. Each tribe had its own separate gods. There was no common cult. The individual was not freed from the power of the priests.
To the east, along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, lived the Totonacs. The fish-rich lakes of Michoacana belonged to the tarascans. In the mountains of Oaxaca, the related tribes of the Misteks and Zapotecs lived. Beyond Oaxaca, in the regions of Chiapas and Yucatan, the Maya lived. However, in the XV century, all these tribal groups in the military and cultural relations were below the Nahua tribe, which owned the Anahuac Valley and the territories adjacent to it. And the most powerful of the Nahua tribes were the Aztecs, or Mexicans, whose city of Tenochtitlan was built on an island in the middle of a lake in the middle of a valley.
Despite linguistic and political differences, the Indian peoples of Mexico had the same racial origin and were similar physically and intellectually. They were distinguished by brown skin, wide cheekbones, straight black hair on the head and slight hairline body.
American Indians in the majority belong to the Mongolian branch of the human race. Physically and spiritually, they resemble the inhabitants of East Asia.
For 12-14 thousand years, the inhabitants of America remained hunters or gatherers of fruits. The first and decisive step along the path of civilization - the cultivation of maize - was probably taken 4,000 years before our era. This crop was to play the same leading role for the Americans as wheat and barley for the crops of the Eastern Hemisphere. The cultivation of cereals led to the regulation of property rights to land and water, to the observation of the seasons and the invention of the calendar, to religious rites, the purpose of which was to increase the harvest, and to create a caste of priests and a certain form of government.
Sometimes a group of related tribes formed a confederation or united under the leadership of a dynasty of powerful caciques (cacique is a Cuban word imported into Mexico and used by the Spaniards in relation to Mexican tribal leaders). But there was no real political unity among the tribal groups.
By nature, the inhabitants of Mexico and Central America were a peaceful people, but the lack of fertile land forced many tribes to fight with each other.
The archaeological period of the so-called Early cultures (until the 3rd century BC) was the time of the Neolithic, the period of gathering, hunting and fishing, the dominance of the primitive communal system. During the period of the Middle Cultures (3rd century BC - 4th century AD), agriculture arose. During this period, differences in the development of tribes and peoples of different parts of Mexico and Yucatan begin to appear.
Mayan
In the southeast of the Central American region, on an area of about 350 thousand square meters. km, which included the Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco and the east of Chiapas, Quintanaroo, the Republic of Guatemala, Belize, the west of Honduras, 1500 years ago there were many city-states. Their inhabitants spoke almost the same language, worshiped the same gods and reached the highest level cultural development. The specific features of these cities emphasized the close relationship that connected them. It was the world of the Maya - the most prominent people on the planet. The Maya are the only American people to have left written records.
In the southern part of the Yucatan and northeast of Lake Petenica, the first city-states began to form at the beginning of our era. The oldest known monument - a stone stele in the city of Washaktun - dates back to 328 AD. The cities of Yaxchilan, Palenque, Copan and Quirigua later arose. The inscriptions here date back to the 5th and early 6th centuries. Dated inscriptions break off from the end of the 9th century - just then ancient cities Maya ceased to exist, and the further history of this people developed in the north of Yucatan.
Each Mayan city-state was headed by a halach-vinic, which means " great person". It was a hereditary title passed down from father to eldest son. In addition, he was called ahav - "lord, lord." Halach-vinik owned the highest administrative authority, combined with the highest priestly dignity. The supreme leaders, priests and advisers (ah heap cab) formed something like state council. Khalach-vinik appointed from among his blood relatives - Batabs, leaders of the villages, who were dependent on him. The main functions of the batabs were to maintain order in the subordinate villages, the regular payment of taxes. They could be officials or heads of clans, like the calpullecs of the Aztecs or the curacas of the Incas. Like those, they were military leaders. But in the event of war, the right of command was given at last. There were also less important positions, among them holpop - "the head of the mat." There was also a whole priestly clergy, but the most common name for a priest was akh kin.
The Ahkin kept the highly developed science of the Maya - astronomical knowledge about the movement of the stars, the Sun, the Moon, Venus and Mars. They could predict solar and lunar eclipses. Therefore, the power of the priests over collective beliefs was considered absolute and supreme, sometimes pushing even the power of the hereditary nobility.
At the base of the social pyramid were masses of community members. The inhabitants of the Mayan village formed a neighboring community. Usually its members were people with different generic names. The land belonged to the community. Each family received a plot of land cleared from the forest, and after three years this plot was replaced by another. Each family harvested and stored separately. She could have exchanged it. Apiaries and plantings of perennial plants remained the permanent property of individual families. Other works: hunting, fishing, salt extraction were carried out jointly, but the products were shared.
The rural community performed duties in relation to noble tribesmen and priests. It was the communities that created ceremonial centers, pyramids with temples, astronomical observatories, palaces, ball stadiums, paved roads and other structures. They mined huge blocks of stone for the construction of those monuments that have survived to this day. They were wood carvers, sculptors, porters, performing the functions of pack animals that did not exist at that time. In addition to performing such work, the people paid tribute to the halach-vinik, brought gifts to the local Ahavas, donated maize, beans, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, fabrics, poultry, salt, dried fish, honey, wax, jade, corals and shells to the gods.
The Maya had another social category - slaves - pentakoob. A community member could become a slave in the following cases: being born from a slave, being captured in a war, being an orphan, being sold on the market. Some of the slaves were sacrificed to the gods. There was also the conversion of criminals into slavery, as well as debt slavery of fellow tribesmen. The debtor remained a slave until his relatives redeemed him.
The society's economy was based on agriculture. The Maya's main type of production was slash-and-burn agriculture: the forest was first cut down with stone axes, and thick trees were only cut down or stripped of their ring-shaped bark, and the trees dried up on the vine. Then the dried and fallen forest was burned out before the onset of the rainy season. Before the rains began, the fields were sown. The land was not cultivated. The farmer only made a hole with a sharp stick and buried grains of corn and beans in it. Crops were protected from birds and animals. corn on the cob tilted down to dry on the field, after which they were collected.
Every year the harvest was reduced more and more, and on one plot it was possible to sow no more than three times in a row. The abandoned area overgrown, and after 6-10 years it was burned again, preparing for sowing. The abundance of free land and the high productivity of corn provided the farmers with considerable prosperity with such a primitive technique. However, the Maya still knew how to get the highest return from the earth. Terraces in mountainous regions and canals in river valleys, which increased irrigated areas, also helped in this. The length of one of these channels, which brought water from the Champoton River to Etsna, a city in the west of the Yucatan, reached 30 km.
It is generally accepted that maize accounted for 65% food of the Mayan Indians. It was also cultivated with a slash-and-burn system. However, the diet was replenished with beans, pumpkin, yuca (an edible root plant from the cassava genus), tomatoes, jicama, camote, and for dessert - tobacco and numerous fruits. The Maya were not vegetarians: they consumed turkey and the meat of specially grown dogs. They liked Bee Honey. Hunting was also a source of meat products, which were seasoned with pepper and salt when eaten. Pepper was grown in gardens, and salt was mined in special salt mines. The Maya were good fishermen. They also hunted birds. Hunting was carried out with the help of throwing pipes that fired clay balls.
There were no ores in the Mayan country and metallurgy could not arise. From Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Peru, art and decorations were delivered to them - gems, shells and metal products. The Maya made fabrics from cotton or agave fibers on a loom. Balls were made for the ritual game. The fighting weapons were flint-tipped darts. Mayan bows and arrows were borrowed from the Mexicans. From Mexico, they received copper hatchets.
Although fabrics and vessels were made mainly by farmers, there were already specialist craftsmen, especially jewelers, stone carvers, and embroiderers. There were also merchants who delivered goods over long distances by water and land with the help of porters.
In what is now the state of Tabasco, there was traditional barter between the more northern Aztecs and the Maya. They exchanged salt, wax, honey, clothing, cotton, cocoa, jade jewelry. Cocoa grains and shells acted as a "currency coin".
The city-states were interconnected by dirt roads, trails, and sometimes paved highways - like the one that stretches for 100 km between Iashkhun (near Chichen Itza) and Coba on the east coast. Rivers also served as means of communication.
At the beginning of the 16th century, ancient Mayan beliefs receded into the background. The priests had already created a complex religious system with cosmogonic myths, made up their pantheon and established a magnificent cult. The personification of the sky - the god Itzamna was put at the head of a host of celestials along with the goddess of fertility. Itzamna was considered the patron saint of the Mayan civilization. He was credited with the invention of writing. According to the teachings of the Mayan priests, the gods ruled the world in turn, replacing each other in power. This myth reflected the real institution of the change of power by birth.
The religious beliefs of the Maya included primitive figurative ideas about nature. There were cults of simple deities of nature.
Providing rains and fertility, chaks continued to exist, cunning and always friendly to people alushi frolicked in the fields. Ish Tabai continued to appear during the day in the form of forest seiba - yashche, and at night turned into a beautiful and fatal woman - siguanabana. The names of several major and less significant deities of the Mayan pantheon have come down to us: the lord of heaven Itzamna, the god of rain Chak, the god of maize Ium Kaash, the god of death Ah Puch, the Polar Star - Shaman Ek, the patron saint of cocoa Ek Chuah, etc. Rising above everyone, headed the pantheon Hunab Ku - the supreme ruler, the father of Itzamna. According to the name index to the texts of the Chilam-Balam books, more than a hundred divine beings appear in divinations alone.
Cosmogony was a complex system based on the theory of three creations: two of them were destroyed by floods, then the third, real, came. In the view of the Maya, the universe had square shape- its corners were supported by bakaby brothers. Vertically, it consisted of 13 celestial spheres, each of which had its own patron. The earth was considered the lower sphere. At the bottom there were 9 more planes with their patrons. At the very bottom were the possessions of the Lord of the Dead - Mintal.
From the 6th or 7th century, the Maya established civil year in 365 days. The Mayan year consisted of 18 months of 20 days each. In the Maya language, the periods of time were called: 20 days - Vinal, 18 Vinal Lei - Tun. A tun was equal to 360 kins (days). For alignment solar year 5 days were added, called mayeb, literally "unfavorable". It was believed that in this five-day period “the year dies” and therefore in these last days the ancient Maya did nothing to avoid getting into trouble. The Maya skillfully combined two calendars: Khaab - solar, consisting of 365 days, and Tzolkin - religious, of 260 days.
The Maya created a perfectly designed counting system, vigesimal. Both the decimal system we use and the twenty-decimal Mayan system are based on single principle, according to which the sign in itself does not mean anything, but, accompanied by another number, becomes the basis for mathematical conversion, which made it possible to accomplish all the achievements of modern sciences. This sign is zero, whose property is to increase the number combined with it ten times in our system and twenty times in the Mayan system by positional movement of the indicated number. Our decimal system has nine digits and zero. Mayan consists of only two: a dot with a line and a zero.
The hieroglyphic writing of the Maya is an undeniable fact. Mayan writing uses three kinds of signs: phonetic - alphabetic and syllabic, ideographic - denoting whole words, and key - explaining the meaning of words, but not readable.
Only 3 Mayan books have survived to this day. One of them is in Paris (dimensions: 1 (45 m long, 23.5 cm high, page width - 12.5 cm); the other is in Madrid (its length is 6 m, page size - 23 x 14, 4 cm) - in total there are 56 such accordion-folded pages with 3200 characters; the third - in Dresden (length - 3.56 m, page size - 20.5 x 9 cm) All known Maya manuscripts are made of paper made from ficus bast This material is intermediate in texture between papyrus and paper. written monuments Mayan stories are inscriptions carved on stone walls, which the Maya erected every twenty years, as well as on the walls of palaces and temples.
The history of the Maya is mainly learned today from the writings of the Spanish chroniclers of the 16th and 17th centuries. It is they who report that in the 5th century there was a "small invasion" on the east coast of Yucatan. The "people from the east" came here. At the turn of the 5th-6th centuries, the city of Chichen Itza was founded in the center of the northern part of the peninsula. In the 7th century, the inhabitants left this city and moved to the southwestern part of the Yucatan. In the middle of the 10th century, their new homeland was attacked by immigrants from Mexico. After that, the "Itza people," as the chronicle calls them, returned to Chichen Itza. It was already a mixed Maya-Mexican group, formed as a result of the invasion of the Toltecs - precisely those conquerors, because of whom they were forced to leave their lands. Chichen Itza for about two hundred years was the largest cultural center where majestic architectural monuments were erected.
Not far from Chichen Itza, in the 10th century, another city-state arose - Mayapan, which did not experience Toltec influence. Hunak Keel, who seized power in the Maya Pan, invaded Chichen Itza in 1194 and captured the city. The Itza people rallied their forces and captured Mayapan, where they settled down, mingling with their recent opponents. According to the chronicle, "they have been called the Maya ever since."
Later, in the 15th century, a period of civil strife began. city rulers different parts countries "made each other's food tasteless." So, Chel (one of the rulers), having occupied the coast, did not want to give either fish or salt to Kokom (the dynasty of Mayapan rulers), and Kokom did not allow game and fruits to be delivered to Chel.
After 1441, Mayapan was significantly weakened, and after the epidemic of 1485, it was completely empty. Part of the Maya settled in the impenetrable forests near Lake Peten Itza and built the city of Tah Itza, which remained inaccessible to the Spaniards until 1697. The rest of Yucatan was captured in 1541–1546 by European conquerors.
P Correctly, very correctly, they called the giant river of South America the Amazon, and the vast expanse of its basin Amazonia. Because the Amazons roughly in the sense in which the ancient Greeks used the word, were and are there. There were if we mean various Indian tribes with a clear bias towards matriarchy, now either disappeared or switched to a different way of life. There are if we keep in mind the Kuna Indians True, this people settles much north of the Amazon on the Panama Islands of San Blas, which lie in the Caribbean Sea. (However, this does not really change the essence of the matter.) On the other hand, the Kuna Amazons are not warlike, they do not attack those who come, they do not fight with the mainland people, and in order to make it more convenient to shoot from a bow, they do not cut off their right breasts, as they did according to ancient Greek legends their mythical predecessors, and men are not killed, because they can be useful in the household. Everything else is correct. The San Blas Islands are ruled exclusively by women.
Where this tradition came from is clear from the ancient times of matriarchy. But why it has been preserved in our age of relative parity between the strong and weak sexes is hard to say. This is a task for historians and ethnographers; there is no final decision yet.
But first, let's talk about the archipelago itself. It consists of about 350 islands, stretching over a vast distance from the San Blas Peninsula to Cape Portogandy. In fact, the archipelago on most maps is called Las Mulatas, but the Kuna Indians, in addition to their self-name, also have a name given by Europeans, sanblas, hence the duality in the name
The first European to visit the archipelago was none other than Christopher Columbus himself. These places became fatal for him. It was here that the great Genoese realized that his fourth, Higher Swimming "El Alto Viaje" was unsuccessful and it would not be possible to find a way to India through any passage. But there was very little to the Pacific Ocean - 40 miles by land, if you count from the place where Columbus anchored on the new year, 1503 (now there is Big City, named Colon in his honor.) Then the ships went south along the coast, maneuvering between the San Blas Islands but alas! The sailors began to grumble. Columbus suffered severely from malaria and arthritis, and the navigator had to decide to turn north. And his two remaining ships, exhausted by storms and devoured by carpenter worms, headed for the previously discovered Jamaica.
And Columbus most likely did not see the Kuna Indians. For him, the San Blas Islands were deserted, and therefore useless. The Indians appeared there much later, while they settled on the coast, along the mouths of the rivers. The era of the conquest began. AT New World predators Cortes, Pizarro, Balbao appeared (it was he who first went to Pacific Ocean dry and realized that sea route there is no passage to India, as we know, the passage “appeared” here only four hundred years later.) The Indians went into the thickets, they were afraid of the sea, from where death came and where the aliens, greedy for such ordinary gold, prowled.
Only when the times of conquest and piracy ended did the Kuna master the islands, which from now on became their home. And a blessed home fertile soil, lush vegetation, sea breeze, which was so lacking in the stuffy tropical forest. One misfortune on the islands there was always a lack of drinking water, and even now one has to go to the mainland to get it. The Kuna have long been engaged in fishing and farming. This has developed a certain anthropological type of Sanblas - short stature, a rather large head on a powerful neck, highly developed rib cage and shoulders, comparatively short legs and small feet. But these features are physical. In spiritual terms, they have long been famous for cordiality, meekness, pronounced pride in their matriarchal system and some carelessness (why bother especially when nature is so generous here?) "Were famous." And now? Times change. But more on that later...
Nature is truly generous on the San Blas Islands, but you still have to get there to appreciate it. The way to the islands, for example, from Panama is short, but involves some risk to life. The fact is that the connection is only aviation, fly from Tocumen airport to the island of El Porvenir the only island of the archipelago where there is an airfield, less than an hour, but on the way high mountains, planes there often fall into terrible air pockets, and below is a virgin, completely untouched by man a tropical forest. So untouched that they have never been able to find the remains of crashed passenger planes here - a needle in a haystack, but not to break through the "stack".
But when the plane crosses the mountain range and ends up above the San Blas Peninsula, an amazing picture of a chain of green islands stretching beyond the horizon opens up to the eyes of passengers. El Porvenir itself is a relatively small island. Those who boarded it on a plane say that from a small height it looks like a sieve - water is everywhere. The island is dissected by narrow channels, channels, dotted with spots of small reservoirs (as we know, alas, not fresh) Similar to El Porvenir and other main islands of the archipelago Obigantupo (Bathing Island), Pico Feo (Toucan Island), Nalu Nega (House of Pagre*) , Karti Suitipo (Crab), Naraskantupu Tumad (Big Orange Island). And palm trees, palm trees, palm trees everywhere.
*. Pagre local name not big fish up to 40 centimeters in length, the meat of which is considered a delicacy.
The Kuna harvest approximately 25 million coconuts a year—more than 1,500 for each of the 15,000 islanders, including children and the elderly. The export of nuts mainly to North America brings the Indians the main income. Not very big for every family, but enough to buy essentials. In addition to coconut palms, the Kuna grow bananas, cocoa, sugarcane, oranges (as can be seen from the name of one of the islands.) They also fish in the open sea, hunt iguanas and crabs. In general, you can live. Each family has its own hut, its own canoe, its own piece of land. It is often said about San Blas that there are neither rich nor poor here, on average, everyone is not rich. Tourists who flock here last years, claim that San Blas is “one of the last edens on Earth, where technological civilization has not yet reached, subtle, wonderful and clean! sand of beaches, gently rustling coconut groves, gentle sea wind, hospitable natives...». Let's leave sentimentality to tourists and turn to the Kunas themselves not those who once came out of continental forests, crossed narrow straits and reached the promised land, but modern ones, living in the 20th century, during the period of active operation of the Panama Canal (before it Blas is at hand) and the American presence in Panama.
Here it is time to return to matriarchy.
His traditions on San Blas have always been firm, unshakable and severe. A man, having married, immediately leaves his home and enters his wife's house. Of newborns, girls are preferred, while boys are looked upon with indifference. No wonder the old saying says: “He who has a daughter will always have a son.” This is not an allegory, but a direct statement of the fact that over time a man, the daughter’s husband, will definitely come to the house. It is customary among the kun that it is not the grooms who choose their brides, but, on the contrary, the brides of the grooms. As soon as a girl reaches 14 years old, she immediately cuts her hair short - a sign that it's time to get married - and begins to look closely at young people. Finally the choice has been made. The girl's father (it is he, the mother does not deal with such trifles) goes to the parents of the chosen one and demands does not ask! son's hand. And try the young man refuse! They won't understand him. It will not be Kuna already, but some kind of moral freak!
Marriage among the San Blas Indians is holy and indissoluble. Divorce is out of the question. About how the couple quietly, peacefully disperse, too. So to speak, "from the crown to the grave end." Cases of polygamy are rare, but there are things to do if several girls liked one young man at once ?! But polyandry is practically excluded, if a woman has several husbands, then her friends and neighbors will look askance at her: “Look, how many helpers she got in the household!”
Basically, all economic social issues kuna decide together at meetings led by leaders "caciqs", this role is still assigned to men. But the role is nominal, although according to the rules, a decision is considered adopted if the majority of those present voted for it. It would seem, democracy, or at least gender equality? No. Quite often, Kuna-Amazons render and successfully! pressure on the assembly. The man speaks briefly and definitely so accepted. A woman for example, the wife of the same cacique may speak vaguely, but for hours, and this is also accepted. It is not surprising that sometimes the meeting disperses in a somewhat stunned state, how is it that everything seemed to be clear from the very beginning, but they voted for something completely different?
How are responsibilities distributed among the kun? Men provide food for the family, go hunting and fishing, work on coconut palm plantations, harvest bananas, cocoa beans, cut sugar cane. Further wood is harvested in the forest for firewood and for the construction of huts, they are brought from the mainland fresh water, carve out a canoe. However, Kuna matriarchy does not mean that the leaders of the islands sit around and push around the men. Women have a lot of other troubles - they process the same coconuts and cocoa beans, squeeze sweet juice out of the cane and evaporate it into sugar, and besides, they have to run a household and raise children. And what kind of weavers and embroiderers they are is known throughout Central America. Bright red head scarves with golden ornaments from the San Blas Islands are in unprecedented demand. They do honor to the expositions of many museums of folk art. Sometimes tourists fly to El Porvenir just because of these scarves.
Stop tourists. That's probably where it all started.
Kuna traditions prescribed strict rules for the behavior of men and women. No foreigner has ever dared to spend the night on the islands - that's what the mainland is for. If a woman gave birth to a son or daughter with traits atypical for the Kuna - even if it was only a hint of a connection with a foreigner - the child was immediately destroyed. Now visitors are day and night on San Blas, the law has become more tolerant, and morality leaves much to be desired.
Tourists, as a rule, are wealthy people, and the Indians have for some time begun to feel the power of money. Oh, how you want to have a small amount of dollars or break a decent jackpot in balboa! * Then you can go to Colon and buy whatever your heart desires. Thus, commerce began to intrude sharply into the life of the San Blas Indians.
*. Balboa currency unit Panama.
Foreigners have always admired the San Blas "mola" - women's cotton blouses, in front of which is decorated with a sewn piece of patterned fabric with bright intricate ornaments. In recent years, it is enough for a tourist to just point a finger at a “mola” and ask how much this can cost, as an Indian woman at the souvenir market immediately takes off her blouse and hands it to the buyer for a decent bribe, not at all embarrassed by public undressing. And this is with the strictest customs here! (True, rather quickly the weavers figured out the situation and put the production of "mole" on stream, but the changes in ethics turned out to be irreversible.)
Often, wives tear their husbands away from their usual work and force them to carve almost completely real darts, spears and arrows from wood - this is also a popular souvenir item.
The law on overnight stays of strangers on the islands is one side of the coin. The other side no kuna could ever afford to spend the night on the mainland (there is a own house). However, when the Indians were invited to work in the Canal Zone—mainly in the service of the Americans—they accepted. This was a violation of two rules at once about spending the night on the mainland and that any service of the kuna can only be provided in exchange for another, of equal value. The Americans, of course, were not going to be hired by the Kuna.
The tradition was not bypassed immediately. The cunning Amazons consulted and turned to the powerful "nele" shamans. And those under pressure endured such solomonic solution: “Although it is established that among the kuna a service must be repaid by another service, nevertheless, in this case the situation is different, because the opposing side is the Americans, and they are not kuna. Therefore, the established order is not valid”
The Indians have been working in the canal zone for a long time, but they return to the archipelago, of course, different people. People who have been "in the big world."
It is not known whether a technological civilization will be able to bestow its benefits on the Sunblas and at the same time preserve best traditions original patriarchal excuse me, unique matriarchal culture, or this culture will completely disappear under the onslaught of monetary civilization.
The influence of the Nele is still extremely strong on the islands. But not only because the Kuna believe in evil spirits, they even leave oil lamps burning in their huts all night long so that the light drives away obscure shadows and, most importantly, bats - the embodiment of spirits, not only because they give shamans magical powers, able to resist evil spells, and also because there are very few doctors on the archipelago, but there are some experienced healers. Bleeding is stopped with the bark of local trees, rheumatism is treated with crocodile fat, pain is relieved with the help of tincture of coca leaves.
As before, the Kuna regard death only as a meeting with the ancestors. The dead are buried on the mainland (the soil is too wet on the islands) in common graves and items are placed there that are essential on a long journey to afterworld necessarily a hammock (what is a kuna without a hammock?!), a few clean shirts, a decent headdress. Sorrow for the dead is not in the rules of the kun, and to talk about the recently deceased is to reveal a surprisingly bad upbringing.
Indian children are educated in a kind of tribal school. A four-year-old boy is already an excellent swimmer, at the age of eight he knows how to steer a canoe, hit a fish with a harpoon or hook it. At the age of ten, from the lips of his father, he learns everything about the traditions of his people. A fifteen-year-old youth can skillfully carve a canoe out of a tree trunk with a machete and adze, and having traveled to Colon and looking with one eye at another life, he gets the right to participate in general meetings. And finally, by this time, having entered into adulthood the Indian learns to obey women in everything.
This is the school of life. For young Kuna necessary.
And by the way, since there are no others the only one.
