The Waikerí or Guaiqueríes were an indigenous people of northern

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. The word means "men" or "people". They may have been related to the

Warao people The Warao are an Indigenous Amerindian people inhabiting northeastern Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname. Alternate common spellings of Warao are Waroa, Guarauno, Guarao, and Warrau. The term ''Warao'' translates as "the boat pe ...

, or to the

Arawak The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), w ...

s or Cumanagotos. The Waikerí lived primarily on Venezuela's coastal islands of

Isla Margarita Margarita Island (, ) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the north west coast of the country, in the Caribbean Sea. The capital city of Nueva Esparta, La Asunción, is located on the island. History ...

, Cubagua and Coche, as well as in the nearby coastal areas of the mainland, such as the Araya Peninsula.

Language

According to

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

, the Waikerí said that their language and that of the Warao were related.Humboldt, Alexander: Reise in die Äquinoctial-gegenden des Neuen Kontinents (1991). Insel Verlag. Primer Tomo. Pág. 229. .

Social organization

The Waikerí is a society founded on the

matrilineal Matrilineality, at times called matriliny, is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which people identify with their matriline, their mother's lineage, and which can involve the inheritan ...

kinship principle. They used to recognize only the family line from the mother's side, but nowadays they are able to identify with both their mother's and father's sides of the family. Waikerís usually establish their homes in the bride's parental house.

References

Indigenous peoples in Venezuela Extinct Indigenous peoples of the Americas Coche Island {{SouthAm-ethno-group-stub