Andoque (or Andoke) are an

indigenous people in Colombia Indigenous peoples of Colombia, are the ethnic groups who have inhabited Colombia since before the European colonization, in the early 16th century. According to the last census, they comprise 4.4% of the country's population, belonging to 115 d ...

. They live along the Aduche tributary of the

Japurá River The Japurá River or Caquetá River is a river about long in the Amazon basin. It rises in Colombia and flows eastward through Brazil to join the Amazon River. Course The river rises as the Caquetá River in the Andes in southwest Colombia. Th ...

Language and culture

The

Andoque language Andoque is a language spoken by a few hundred Andoque people in Colombia, and is in decline. There were 10,000 speakers in 1908, down to 370 a century later, of which at most 50 are monolingual. The remaining speakers live in the area of the A ...

is a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

and is extinct in Peru. The culture values "sacred plants" and a ritual called "Yuruparí." The "Yuruparí" ritual concerns their transcendent vision of cosmology. The Yuruparí ritual makes men initiates "die" then be "reborn" as members of the tribe.

Religion and oral history

The various bee species originated from the nasal bone of Heron-of-the-Center when he was consumed by fire while wearing a jaguar-skin. Tapirs of various colors originated from "the star people, who are bees and wasps", when they ate the body of a honey-drinking old man, who "fell into a trap" which had been dug by his own son.Jara 1995, p. 157

Notes

References

Fabio Jara : "Bees and Wasps : Ethno-Entomological Notions and Myths among the Andoke of the Caquetá River". In :- ''LATIN AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES JOURNAL'', Vol. 11 (1995) Indigenous peoples in Colombia Circum-Caribbean tribes Witoto {{SouthAm-ethno-group-stub