Kãkwã, Cacua or Bará-maku is an indigenous people living in northwestern
Amazonia
The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses , of which are covered by the rainf ...
, between
Vaupés, Querarí and
Papuri rivers, in
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, close to the border with
Brazi
Brazi is a commune in Prahova County, Muntenia, Romania. It is composed of six villages: Bătești, Brazii de Jos, Brazii de Sus (the commune centre), Negoiești, Popești, and Stejaru.
Its name translates to "firs" as in the tree.
In 1948, t ...
l, within Vaupés
indigenous Resguardo. The Kãkwã are approximately 250 people, who speak their
own language, which is part of the
Macu family and is closely related to the
Nukak language
The Nukak language () is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the macrofamily Puinave-Maku. It is very closely related to Kakwa.Gustavo Politis, ''Nukak: Ethnoarchaeology of an Amazonian People,'' Left Coast Press, Walnut Cre ...
.
Each kãkwã is part of an exogamous patrilineal clan. The clans engage in marital exchanges and consider themselves "baih", brothers-in-law or bilateral cross-cousins.
[Silverwood-Cope, Peter L. (1990). ''Os Makú: Povo cazador no noroeste da Amazònia''. Universidade de Brasília. ]
Originally nomadic
hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
s, later subjected to the neighboring ethnic groups, but currently established in the towns of Wacará and Pueblo Nuevo, their main activity is agriculture, although they continue to hunt and fish.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kãkwã People
Indigenous peoples in Colombia
Indigenous peoples of the Amazon