The Cumanagoto people are a group of Native Americans in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. Their language belongs to the

Carib language family The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pockets ...

. Their territory extended originally over the ancient province of Nueva Andalucía ( Cumaná and

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

) in eastern

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, and their descendants live now in the north of

Anzoátegui State ) , anthem = '' Himno del Estado Anzoátegui'' , image_map = Anzoategui in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map = , pushpin_map_ ...

. The Cumanagotos lived in northeastern Venezuela at the time of the Spanish incursion. Since the 17th century they have not existed as a tribal or governmental unit. The Cumanagoto spoke a Cariban language, related to that of the

Palenque Palenque (; Yucatec Maya: ), also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamhaʼ ("Big Water or Big Waters"), was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. ...

. They were agricultural, growing

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated ...

, sweet potatoes, and other native crops, as well as coca trees. They also gathered wild foods, and hunting was important. Domesticated animals were uncommon, except for

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

s. Their villages often had wooden palisades for defense. Dress was minimal, consisting of a small genital covering and decorative ornaments of feathers, pearls, gold, shell, clay beads, coral beads, bones, teeth, or flowers.

Polygyny Polygyny (; from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); ) is the most common and accepted form of polygamy around the world, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any ...

was practiced by chiefs, whose wives lived together in a kind of harem. Religion centered on worship of the sun and moon. The Cumanagotos also valued frogs, as they saw the animal to be the god of waters. Therefore, they did not kill frogs, instead choosing to keep them as pets, but whipping them in the case of an extended winter or little rainfall. The short-lived ''Province of New Catalonia'' (1633-1654), founded by Joan Orpí, was also known as the ''Province of the Cumanagotos''. It was absorbed into

New Andalusia Province New Andalusia Province or Province of Cumaná (1537–1864) was a province of the Spanish Empire, and later of Gran Colombia and Venezuela. It included the territory of present-day Venezuelan states Sucre, Anzoátegui and Monagas. Its most im ...

in 1654. The name of the city of

Cagua Cagua () is a city of Venezuela, capital of the Sucre Municipality of Aragua State. Cagua is part of the metropolitan area of Maracay. History Cagua was established in 1620 as "Cagua La Vieja", a town of original Spaniards. Cagua was rebuilt ...

Aragua State Aragua State ( es, Estado Aragua, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains and jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first n ...

is said to derive from the Cumanagoto word for snail, ''Cahigua''.

References

See also