Maku (Macu, Máku, Mácu, Makú, Macú) or Maco (Mako, Máko, Macó, Makó) is a pejorative term referring to several
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
peoples of the upper Amazon, derived from an
Arawakan
Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...
term ''ma-aku'' "do not speak / without speech". Nimuendajú (1950), for example, notes six peoples of Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil that are known as 'Maku'. In linguistic literature, the term refers primarily to:
* the
Nadahup languages
The Naduhup languages, also known as Makú (Macú) or ''Vaupés–Japurá'', form a small language family in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. The name '' Makú'' is pejorative, being derived from an Arawakan word meaning "without speech". ''Na ...
, a small language family in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela, sometimes disambiguated from other Maku languages as ''Makú'' or ''Macú'', though those forms can apply to any of the languages, or as ''Makuan''. Such languages include
Hup, spoken by
Hupda, (''Hupdá Makú'', ''Makú-Hupdá'', ''Macú De'') and
Guariba Maku
* the closely related
Nukak Makú and
Kakwa (''Macu de Cubeo'', ''Macu de Desano'', ''Macu de Guanano'', ''Macú-Paraná'')
* the
Maku-Auari language, the 'Maku' of Roraima and the Auari River, a possible language isolate of Brazil and Venezuela (also known as ''Mácu,'' ''Máko'' or ''Maku of Auari''; endonym ''Jukude'')
* the
Wirö dialect of Piaroa (sometimes disambiguated as ''Mako'' or ''Maco'') Maco-Hoti
It has also been used for various other languages and peoples in the area, such as:
*the
Cofán language
''Aingae'', commonly known as Cofán or Kofán, is the primary language of the Ai (Cofán) people, an indigenous group whose ancestral territory lies at the interface between the Andean foothills and Amazonia in the northeast of Ecuador (Sucumb� ...
a.k.a. Mako, Cofán-Makú, or Maco-Cuyabeno. Maco-Cuyabeno was an unattested language that may have been a dialect of the
Cofán language
''Aingae'', commonly known as Cofán or Kofán, is the primary language of the Ai (Cofán) people, an indigenous group whose ancestral territory lies at the interface between the Andean foothills and Amazonia in the northeast of Ecuador (Sucumb� ...
(Pérez 1862:475), and was spoken on the
Cuyabeno River
The Cuyabeno River is located in Sucumbios, Ecuador. The river starts in the high part of the Cuyabeno Reserve and ends in the Aguarico River. In the Siona - Secoya language, Cuyabeno means "Kindness River"".Reserva de Producción Faunística Cuy ...
near the headwaters of the
Aguarico River
The Aguarico River ( es, Río Aguarico, meaning "rich water") is a river in northeastern Ecuador. It is the main river of the Sucumbíos province. In the last part of its course it is the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. It empties into the Napo Riv ...
in southeastern Colombia.
[Hammarström, Harald. (2011]
A Note on the Maco (Piaroan) Language of the lower Ventuari, Venezuela
''Cadernos de etnolingüística'' 3(1). 1-11.
*the
Piaroa language
The Piaroa people, known among themselves as the ''Huottüja'' or ''De'aruhua'', are a pre-Columbian South American indigenous ethnic group of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Colombia and Venezuela, living in an area larger than Belgium, ...
a.k.a. Maco-Ventuari. Maco-Ventuari was an extinct language variety spoken on the
Ventuari River
The Ventuari River is the largest tributary of the Orinoco in southern Venezuela. The Ventuari flows from south-central Venezuela in the Guiana Highlands southwest into the Orinoco River. It is long and its major tributary is the Manapiare River.
...
in Venezuela that was closely related to the
Piaroa language
The Piaroa people, known among themselves as the ''Huottüja'' or ''De'aruhua'', are a pre-Columbian South American indigenous ethnic group of the middle Orinoco Basin in present-day Colombia and Venezuela, living in an area larger than Belgium, ...
spoken today.
It was documented in a 38-word list by Humboldt (1822:155-157).
*the
Puinave language
Puinave, Waipunavi (Guaipunabi) or Wanse ( pui, Wãnsöhöt) is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela. It is generally considered to be an unclassified language.
Varieties
Varieties listed by Mason (1950):
*Puinave (Epined)
**Western ...
along the Negro and
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 ...
s a.k.a. Mácu, Macú, Makú
[Migliazza, Ernesto (1978). "Makú, Sapé and Uruak languages. Current status and basic lexicon", AL 20/3: 133–140.]
*the
Achagua language
Achagua, or Achawa ( aca, Achawa), is an Arawakan language spoken in the Meta Department of Colombia, similar to Piapoco. It is estimated that 250 individuals speak the language, many of whom also speak Piapoco or Spanish
Spanish might refer to ...
a.k.a. Makú-Achagua
*the
Arutani–Sape languages
Arutani–Sape, also known as Awake–Kaliana or Kalianan, is a proposed language family that includes two of the most poorly documented languages in South America, both of which are now extinct. They are at best only distantly related. Kaufman ( ...
*the
Yanomaman languages
Yanomaman, also as Yanomam, Yanomáman, Yamomámi, and Yanomamana (also Shamatari, Shirianan), is a family of languages spoken by about 20,000 Yanomami people in southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil (Roraima, Amazonas).
Subdivision
Ferr ...
a.k.a. Macú-Yanomami
*the
Carabayo language a.k.a. Macú-Carabayo
*the
Marueta people
In a tribe called Marueta, located in Venezuela, 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 no ...
of Venezuela
See also
*
Puinave–Maku languages
Macro-Puinavean is a hypothetical proposal linking some very poorly attested languages to the Nadahup family. The Puinave language is sometimes linked specifically with the Nadahup languages and Nukak- Kakwa group, as Puinave–Maku. Paul Rivet ...
, a proposed family of Nadahup and various other Maku languages
*
Dorobo
Dorobo (or ''Ndorobo'', ''Wadorobo'', ''dorobo'', ''Torobo'') is a derogatory umbrella term for several unrelated hunter-gatherer groups of Kenya and Tanzania. They comprised client groups to the Maasai and did not practice cattle pastoralism.
Et ...
, a pejorative term for hunter-gatherers living among the Masai
*
San people
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...
, a pejorative term for hunter-gatherers living among the Khoekhoe
References
{{Reflist
*Francois Correa
Introducción a la Colombia Amerindia
Pejorative terms for hunter-gatherers