Yabarana Indians

Lourdes Giordani

The Yabarana are an Orinoquian indigenous group of Amazonas State, Venezuela. Most live along the banks of the Parucito River in villages with a male leader or in the town of San Juan de Manapiare. But the Parucito River is their stronghold. The Indigenous Census of 1992 reported a total of 319 Yabarana, a figure that may not be accurate as that census was fraught with conceptual and methodological difficulties. The previous census (1982) listed 155 Yabarana. Although linguistic, cultural, and historical specifics place the group within the broader Carib-speaking family, contemporary Yabarana are the product of ethnogenesis that led to the merging of neighbors and refugees. The various ethnonyms used for them echo this story, (for example, Wökiare, Yawarana, and Orechicana). The Yabarana have intermarried with members of nearby groups such as Piaroa, Panare, Ye'kuana, Hiwi, and a handful of non-Indians. However, Piaroa– Yabarana marriages are the most common. ...

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