New Compendium on Yanomami Language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

New Compendium on Yanomami Language

Humberto Márquez
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26404

CARACAS, Nov 23 (IPS) - When a Yanomami Indian dies, his or her name is
not to be pronounced for some time, so as not to soil the memory of the
deceased.

This may be a problem if, for example, someone is called Shoco, which is
also the term for Tamanduá, an anteater that is common in the jungles of
southern Venezuela and northern Brazil, where the Yanomami live.

However, the difficulty can easily be resolved thanks to the linguistic
wealth of this indigenous group that has existed for over 25,000 years,
a living testimony to the Neolithic era, the most recent period of the
Stone Age.

There are several synonyms for the names of animals, and also of some
plants. Therefore, ”aroto” means exactly the same as ”shoco”, and the
community can use that word without violating the tradition that
protects the deceased.

This explanation is provided by one of the 10,000 entries in the
”Compendio ilustrado de lengua y cultura yanomami” (”Illustrated
Compendium of the Yanomami Language and Culture”), a book by French
anthropologist and linguist Marie-Claude Mattéi that has just gone to
print.

It is more than a mere dictionary, instead serving as an encyclopaedic
manual that can be used in Yanomami schools and for outsiders studying
the Yanomami language and culture.

After 15 years of research, ”we have concentrated our efforts on
producing something more useful and rich in information than a simple
dictionary -- a book that can support the didactic measures that the
Venezuelan society and state have the obligation to undertake with
respect to the indigenous communities,” Mattéi told IPS.

Venezuela's new constitution, which was approved by voters in 1999,
dedicates an entire chapter to the rights of indigenous peoples,
including ”the right to an intercultural and bilingual educational
system that takes into account their special social and cultural
characteristics, values and traditions.”

The Yanomami or ”children of the moon”, who number around 15,000 in
Venezuela and 12,000 in Brazil, are among the 34 indigenous peoples who
mainly live along Venezuela's borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana.

According to the 2001 census, 300,000 of Venezuela's 25 million people
belong to indigenous groups.

The Yanomami comprise a majority of the population in the municipality
of Alto Orinoco, which nevertheless tends to be governed by members of
two smaller ethnic groups, the Ye'kuana and Piaroa.

Like their other indigenous neighbours, the Yanomami sometimes
incorporate the ways of mainstream society ”in an anarchistic manner.
They want speed boats and other technologies that make their lives more
comfortable. The contact may threaten their culture and language, but
that should not lead to a falsely romantic attitude, such as asking
them to live in a bubble,” said Mattéi.

Yanomami and Sanima are the most widely spoken languages among the
indigenous people of Venezuela, according to another anthropologist,
María Eugenia Villalón.

”At least seven languages -- Mapoyo, Añú, Baré, Sáliva, Yabarana, Uruak
and Sape -- are in a critical state,” Villalón, who has dedicated
herself to collecting and preserving what remains of the Mapoyo tongue,
told IPS.

A language, Villalón warns, ”is not threatened nor does it become
extinct because fewer individuals speak it, but because people stop
using it and stop passing it on from parents to children. The extent to
which it is at risk can be measured by the number of children who speak
it.” In the case of Mapoyo, that means almost none, as even adults
hardly ever use the language.

Without an effort to support indigenous peoples, ”their languages, which
have survived more than 500 years since the arrival of the Spanish and
Portuguese in the Americas, will slowly disappear, they just won't
survive,” warned another expert, Lyll Barceló, who has compiled the
myths of the Guahibo ethnic group.

Having similar concerns, Mattéi divided her Compendium into five parts,
the first of which is a history and description of the Yanomami people,
followed by a guide to comprehend and use the dictionary. ”I started
with a table of references and conjugations in order to describe the
verbal system of the language,” she explained.

The Yanomami ”use various forms of the future and past tense, and the
suffixes of verbs can vary greatly depending on the meaning,” she
stated.

”I haven't only used the information that I gathered myself, but also
utilised that of numerous books about the Yanomami,” said Mattéi. ”What
I added was a description of the use of each word, set in the ecosystem
where these people live.”

A glossary of the flora and fauna follows, which is a compendium on its
own, as well as a bilingual Spanish-Yanomami mini-dictionary ”aimed at
providing help with the greatest difficulties. For example, there are
many ways of saying 'to tie' or 'to open' in this language.”

And linguists and taxonomists (the scientists who deal with the
identification, naming, and classification of organisms) will be able
to use a glossary of the taxonomy that the Yanomami themselves use for
a number of animals, illustrated by Jacinto Serowe, a member of the
ethnic group who worked closely with Mattéi.

”There are definitely threats to their language, just as there are
threats anywhere,” she pointed out. ”But let's stop thinking that
indigenous people will remain in a bubble. Changes are inevitable and
they are not the problem.

”The problem is that they are being denied opportunities, rights
regarding health care and the preservation of their beliefs, and the
rights they have over their own territories.

”A high-speed globalisation process is taking place in the world, but at
the same time there is a revival of interest in minority groups and a
vindication of traditional ways, to keep ethnic groups from being lost.
In Venezuela, under the new constitution and the government of Hugo
Chávez, there is a desire to do something,” said Mattéi.

In 1992 and 1996, the anthropologist wrote two books about the culture
of the Panare, another ethnic group from southern Venezuela.

The Compendium on the Yanomami has been published by government agencies
in Venezuela in cooperation with the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Spanish Agency of
International Cooperation, and Spain's Santander bank.  (END/2004)