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The Aguaruna (or Awajún, their endonym) are an indigenous people of the Peruvian jungle. They live primarily on the Marañón River in northern Peru near the border with Ecuador and several of the Marañón's tributaries, the rivers Santiago, Nieva, Cenepa, Numpatakay and Chiriaco, . Currently, they possess titled community lands in four of Peru's regions: Amazonas, Cajamarca, Loreto, and San Martín. A significant Awajún population also lives in the Alto Mayo river basin in the Department of San Martín. According to Peru's 1993 Census the Aguaruna numbered approximately 5,000. World Census data for 2000 lists their population at just over 8,000. The Awajún resisted efforts to incorporate them into the Inca and Spanish empires. Their reputation for fierceness and the difficult terrain in which they live prevented them from being incorporated into Peruvian national society until the late 1950s—and later still in some parts of their territory. The real origin of the Aguaruna people is still a mystery. In accordance with the racial characteristics of the majority, some anthropologists suppose that they came down the Andes centuries ago and adapted themselves to the geographical conditions of the region. Others believe that they are emigrants of Central America who came either by the coast or through rivers. They established themselves in a zone much wider than the one they occupy now. Apparently this zone also included the actual Jaén. It is also said that they were influenced by cultural groups that were immigrants from the islands of Melanesia. They have always had the reputation of being brave warriors, standing out for their skills in war. Physically there are differences between the aguarunas and the other inhabitants of the Peruvian rainforest. Their average height is taller – especially between men – and their physical constitution denotes strength. The Aguarunas have a traditional, ideological and material culture, and they communicate with each other in their own language. For this reason, there is a book called the ''Vocabulario aguaruna del Amazonas'' (Aguaruna's Vocabulary of the Amazon) written by Mildred L. Larson and published by SIL International in 1966. The Aguarunas are located in the geographical area of the Marañón river, that is to say on the banks of the Marañón river and of its tributaries, the rivers Santiago, Nieva, Cenepa, Numpatakay and Chiriaco. ==Customs== Living arrangements Awajún families, either monogamous or polygamous, traditionally lived in dispersed neighborhoods of kin related through descent and marriage. Road construction and the establishment of bilingual schools and health posts has led to a more clustered settlement pattern and in some cases the appearance of densely populated hamlets. Examples of Awajún towns include Yutupiza on the Santiago River and Japaime on the Nieva. The towns for which there exists a pattern of nucleate population are called "yáakat" in their native language, and do not have streets, footpaths, or squares, but rather are constituted of houses of traditional construction. These houses are distributed in a kind of asymmetric form and the tendency is usually to place them in a linear form along the river. Among the Awajún there is a traditional institution of mutual aid known in their language as ''ipáamamu'', which can be seen in action primarily when they are constructing housing for young couples, clearing fields and, with less frequency, sowing yuca and peanuts. The Awajún were traditionally a seminomadic population, relocating on a regular basis as soil fertility and wild game populations declined in the immediate vicinity of their houses. Such relocations have become rarer as Awajún find their range of movement increasingly confined to titled community lands, which in some cases are now surrounded by the farms and villages of non-indigenous colonists. Hunting, gathering and agriculture Major species of animals that are hunted by the Aguaruna include the ''sajino'', the ''huangana'', the Brazilian tapir (''sachavaca''), the little red brocket, the ocelot and the ''otorongo'' (jaguar). Species which are less commonly hunted include the ''majaz'', the ''ronsoco'', the ''achuni'', the ''añuje'', the ''carachupa'', the otter, diverse classes of monkeys and birds. The animals that they hunt not only provide meat; the skin, feathers, teeth and bones are also used. Hunting therefore has a double purpose: for dietary needs and also for making handicrafts, medicines and items used in witchcraft. Traditionally, the tribe hunted with a spear perfected with ''pijuayo'' (a palm tree of very hard wood) and the blowpipe. At present the spear has been almost completely displaced by the pellet shotgun but they also continue using the blowpipe. They gather the wild fruit of some palm trees, like the uvilla some shrubs, and buds of palm trees, as well as stems, bark, and resins. They extract ''leche caspi'' and gather the honey of wild bees, edible worms (suris), coleopterous, medicinal plants and lianas. They use everything that they gather either for food, crafts, traditional medicine, in witchcraft or as fuel, adhering to an ancestral pattern of self-sufficiency. The Awajún are known among naturalists for their sophisticated knowledge of rainforest flora and fauna, which has been the focus of extensive studies by ethnobotanists and ethnozoologists. As agricultural instruments, they use the traditional ''wái'' (a stick with a sharp end, made from the wood of the palm tree ''pijuayo''), along with the axe, the machete and the shovel. Other activities The principal crafts are masculine activities like ropemaking, basketry, the construction of canoes, and textiles; and feminine activities like ceramics and making necklaces from seeds, insects' small wings and beads. The men make headdresses of exquisite feathers as well as cotton ribbons on the ends of which they place feathers and human hair. These adornments are kept in bamboo cases. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Aguaruna people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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