Yagua Chief

Yagua Chief, originally uploaded by jto_.

This Yagua (Yahua) Chief has put some kind of natural red dye on his face to ward off evil spirits.

The Yahua Indians are a large, widely-distributed indigenous tribe who live mainly in the western Amazon basin near Iquitos, Perú.
The Yahua people live a simple but demanding lifestyle supported by slash and burn agriculture, fishing, and hunting.

The Yahua are skilled craftworkers. The men make nice wood carvings of animal figures, decorative blowguns and bows and arrows.

Traditional male Yahua dress consists of skirts made of chambira palm fiber.

The women typically wear skirts of red cotton cloth. Girls often have their first child at fourteen or fifteen years of age.

The Yahua culture functions as a large extended family, with each member accepting a role of responsibility to the welfare of the tribal group.

The Yahua were historically expert blowgun hunters of monkeys, tree porcupines, pacas, sloths, birds and other small rainforest animals.
The darts are made of palm-leaf midrib and tuffed with kapoc fiber. They are carried in a quiver made from pleated palm leaves.

A small huingo "gourd" attached to the quiver holds a supply of kapoc fiber to tuft the darts.

Text by The International Biopark Foundation

Photo by James, New York - USA.