The Amahuaca or Amhuaca are indigenous peoples of the southeastern

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

in Peru and Brazil. Isolated until the 18th century, they are currently under threat from ecological devastation, disease and violence brought by oil extractors and illegal loggers. In 1998 they numbered about 520. The largest community of the Amahuaca is in Puerto Varadero, a jungle community on the Peruvian–Brazilian border.

Ayahuasca

The Amahuaca are one group of the Amazon that uses a drug called ayahuasca. They believe that Ayahuasca gives them supernatural powers, sending them into a state of mind that makes them feel superhuman.

History

The Amahuaca are desentants of the Polynesian populations that might have migrated to the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

of South America. When they were first sighted in the 18th century, they were threatened by illegal logging, diseases and habitat loss.

Name

The Amahuaca are also known as: Amaguaco, Amawaca, Amawáka, Amawaka, Amenguaca, Ameuhaque, Ipitineri, Sayaco, Sayacu, or Yora people. In the early twentieth century they were sometimes referred to as the Huni Kui.F. Bruce Lamb, ''Wizard of the Upper Amazon: The Story of Manuel Cordova-Rios,'' North Atlantic Books, Berkeley CA, 1971.

Language

As of 2000, approximately 220 Amahuaca spoke the Amahuaca language, a

Panoan language Panoan (also Pánoan, Panoano, Panoana, Páno) is a family of languages spoken in Peru, western Brazil, and Bolivia. It is possibly a branch of a larger Pano–Tacanan family. Genetic relations The Panoan family is generally believed to be relat ...

. The language is written in the Latin script, and a grammar has been published. From 1963 to 1997, portions of the Bible were translated into Amahuaca.

Economic development

Amahuaca people hunt, fish, farm, and work in the lumber and oil industries or as domestic servants. They harvest and process Brazil nuts.

Notes

External links

Amahuaca art
National Museum of the American Indian

Countries and Their Cultures Indigenous peoples of the Amazon Indigenous peoples in Brazil Indigenous peoples in Peru {{Brazil-stub