Ashninka

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Ashninka

Total population

(between 25,000 and 45,000)

Regions with significant populations

Peru, Brazil

Languages

Ashninka

The Ashninka or Ashninca (also known by the exonym "Campa" or "Kampa", which is
considered derogatory[1]) are an indigenous people living in the rainforests of Peru and in
the State of Acre, Brazil.

Their ancestral lands are in the forests of Junn, Pasco, Hunuco and part of Ucayali.

Contents
 [hide]

1Population

2Language

3Subsistence

4History

5Traditional dress

6Threats

7Notes

8References

9External links

Population[edit]

Ashninka men in house, Acre, 2010

The Ashninka (their name means: our kinsmen) are estimated between 25,000 and 45,000.
Only a few hundred of these live on the Brazilian side of the border. That means that among
the 300,000 native people from 65 different ethnic groups in the Peruvian Amazon, the
Ashninka are the second largest indigenous group, the Quechua being the largest. The
Ashaninka communities are scattered throughout the central rainforests of Peru in the
Provinces of Junin, Pasco, Huanuco and a part of Ucayali, and the state of Acre in Brazil. After
Brazil and New Guinea, Peru is believed to have the highest number of uncontacted tribes in
the world.[6]

Language[edit]
See: Ashninka language.
Subsistence[edit]
The Ashninka are mostly dependent on subsistence agriculture. They use the slash-and-burn
method to clear lands and to plant yucca roots, sweet potato, corn, bananas, rice, coffee,
cacao and sugar cane in biodiversity-friendly techniques. They live from hunting and fishing,
primarily using bows and arrows or spears, as well as from collecting fruit and vegetables in
the jungle.

History[edit]

Ashninka man with woven palm crown

The Ashninka were known by the Incas as Anti or Campa. The Antis, who gave their name to
the Inca province of Antisuyu, were notorious for their fierce independence, and their warlike
skills in successfully protecting their land and culture against intrusion from outsiders.

Ashannka tribal societies have faced overwhelming obstacles in disputes over territory and
culture against the immigrating Spanish culture and neighboring tribal societies culture. Among
12,000 17,000 BP the first official tribal settlers, hunters, and foragers following the post-
glacial climate change settled into the Peruvian section of the Tropical Andes. (Bodley [2] ) The
Tropical Andes is one of the three major Biodiversity Hotspots in the entire Peruvian Amazon.
Until about 10,000 years ago everyone in South America apparently lived by hunting, fishing,
and collecting wild foods in a continent-wide tribal world. (Bodley) Biodiversity is the
establishment of the Ashannka way of life, so they treat this biodiversity hotspot as their
natural capital. (Bodley[3] ) In AD 1542 the European invasion began breaking apart native
Amazonian cultures like the Ashannka, and the Matsigenka tribal societies. The invasion of the
Europeans caused a mass destruction of numerous tribal societies cultures since they did not
have natural immunity to the foreign illnesses brought along with the Europeans. The
European settlers pushed to overtake the natural territories of the Ashannka due to the vast
aquatic river system as well as large areas of savanna or scrublands. (Bodley [4] ) This invasion
of foreigners caused chaos for a short amount of time, forced migrations from the traditional
ashaninka territories to new ones, eventually some ashaninka people reached Brazil.
Repeated encroachments on their lands have long threatened the survival of the Ashannka as
a people. Yet theirs is a history of resistance, and despite their suffering, this recent
victory[which?] demonstrates that they are still opposing the many external forces that threaten
them.

In more relevance to todays time in 1752 Ashannka, their former indigenous inhabitants had
reclaimed Amuesha and Piro territories. (Bartholomew[5] ) The Gran Pajonal region now
remained beyond the reach of colonial and republican state presence until the 1868
establishment of the city of La Merced, which marked the eventual incorporation of the region
into the national and global economies (Bartholomew). In the most relevant time frame of
historical events for the Ashannka, between the 1980s and 2000s, the Ashannka home is in
the Peruvian section of the Tropical Andes are now swathed by newly created national parks,
protected areas, and communal reserve juxtaposing to a biodiversity hotspot or their "natural
capital". "In 2003, the Ashannka of the Ene River valley in Peru were granted Communal
Reserve rights to a portion of their ancestral lands, in the form of Otishi National Park. In June
2010, however, the Brazilian and Peruvian governments signed an energy agreement that
allows Brazilian companies to build a series of large dams in the Brazilian, Peruvian, and
Bolivian Amazon." (Bartholomew) The problem with the 2,000-megawatt Pakitzapango Dam is
that it has a permanent location that is proposed to be located in the heart of Peru's Ene valley
could displace as many as 10,000 Ashannka. These encroaching problems have not only
extremely changed the generational culture of the Ashannka tribal societies, but has also
changed landscape of what we call modern-day Peru.

Traditional dress[edit]
The Ashninka traditional dress, commonly known as a kushma (a word from Quechua), is a
robe made from cotton that is collected, spun, dyed and woven by women on looms. Typically
the robes are dyed either brown or a bright royal blue. The shoulders of the garments are
ornamented with seeds. A full length robe can take up to three months to complete.

Traditionally, women wear their hair long, and over the shoulder, While typically men wear their
hair short or in "bowl" cuts below the ear. Around their necks they wear a large variety of
necklaces and bracelets made with seeds, the teeth of tapir, peccary and monkeys, and
brightly colored feathers. Traditionally the Ashninka men, women and children paint their
faces in a variety of designs using the bright red crushed seeds of Achiote (Bixa orellana)
(annatto) fruits. For ceremonial purposes, the men also wear woven circles of palm leaves
decorated with feathers on their heads, and the women wear a woven cotton head dress.

It is increasingly common to see Ashninkamen more than womenwearing castoff western

clothes, particularly in areas where western Christian missionaries have been able to exert
influence.

Threats[edit]
Ashninka girl with face paint, Acre, 2010

Ashninka boys with face paint, Acre, 2010

The Ashninka are known historically to be fiercely independent, and were noted for their
"bravery and independence" by the Spanish conquistadors. During the rubber boom (1839
1913), the Ashninka were enslaved by rubber tappers and an estimated 80% of the
Ashninka population was killed.

For over a century, there has been encroachment onto Ashninka land from rubber
tappers, loggers, Maoist guerrillas, drug traffickers, colonisers, and oil companies. For much of
their history, they resisted acculturation and outside influence. Since the 1950s, Ashninka
territories have been reduced and their settlements have been systematically destroyed,
resulting in a retreat by Ashninka people into the jungle. Some Ashninka fled to Brazil, and
now a small community of 600 or so have land rights in the state of Acre.

During the 1980s and 1990s, internal conflict in Peru caused massive displacement,
disappearance, and death among the Ashninka communities located in the Ene, Tambo and
Perene valleys in the Vilcabamba Mountain range. In this period Ashaninka chacres (garden
plots) were burned, Ashninka legal papers were destroyed, some Ashninka were forced on
pain of death to join the Shining Path, and others were enslaved. Many fled into the interior
and others gathered in the thousands in small areas for protection. Because Ashninka
communities are usually very small, this caused great disturbance. They could neither hunt nor
fish effectively due to the danger posed by armed groups in the forest, thus malnutrition
became increasingly threatening. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
10,000 Ashninka were displaced, 6,000 Ashninka died, and 5,000 Ashninka were taken
captive by the Shining Path during this time, and thirty to forty Ashninka communities
disappeared.

Malaria is on the rise in Ashninka communities due to logging and the illegal clearing of tracts
of lands by loggers and colonists, as are other diseases brought in by "outsiders".

In the mid-2000s, the Ashninka gained legal title to a portion of their lands which they had
mapped using GPS technology; these lands are now a National Park and a Reserved
Zone, Otishi National Park. To date most Ashninka have returned to their ancestral lands,
some from as far afield as the Urubamba river. The Ashninka are involved in new capacity
building projects and projects that seek to support the Ashninka in their quest to record,
maintain and strengthen their culture for future generations and address the problems and
threats from the "outside".

Current threats (either directly or indirectly) are from oil companies, drug traffickers, colonists,
illegal lumberers, illegal roads, conservation groups, missionary groups, and diseases brought
by outsiders. Roads are being built into the forest to extract mahogany and cedar trees for
export to markets in the United States and Europe despite an international embargo.

Religious missionary groups are intent on changing Ashninka culture and belief systems, and
some other groups who are exploiting problems within the communities became worse as a
direct result of the violent upheavals of the communities over a decade ago. Some
Conservation programs in the area have also been less than fair to the Ashninka in their
move to create Conservation zones in this "important ecologically diverse area", choosing
plants and animals over the Indigenous rights, and it remains to be seen if this will pose a
threat to their lives and land in the future.

Other Ashninka have moved further into the interior, choosing voluntary isolation rather than
have any more contact with the world beyond their lands.

Notes[edit]
1. Jump up^ Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge,
London, Phoenix, 1999, pp. 25, 169

2. Jump up^ Bodley, John (1994). Cultural Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
pp. 175.

3. Jump up^ Bodley, John (1994). Cultural Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
pp. 175.

4. Jump up^ Bodley, John (1994). Cultural Anthropology. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
pp. 175.
 5. Jump up^ Bartholomew, Dean. "Salt of the Mountain:Campa Ashaninka History and
Resistance in the Peruvian Jungle". University of Kansas. Retrieved 27 Sep 2013.

References[edit]
Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America.
New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.

Gagnon, O.F.M., Friar Mariano, with Hoffer, William and Marilyn. (1993). "Warriors in Eden."
New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-11796-1.

Narby, Jeremy. (1999). The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. London:
Phoenix. ISBN 9780753808511

Sols Fonseca, Gustavo. (2003). Lenguas en la amazona peruana. Lima: edicin por demanda.

External links[edit]
Asociacion Cutivireni working with the Ashninka for nearly two decades

Project collaboration with the Ashaninka

Cool Earth

Ashninka Photo Essay

The Rainforest Foundation UK

Ashninka Photo Gallery

The Truth & Reconciliation Commission 2.8. LOS PUEBLOS INDGENAS Y EL CASO
DE LOS ASHNINKAS P.24

Brazilian Foundation teaching Video to Indigenous people Includes award winning

videos from the Ashninka of Brazil

The Ashaninka Photography Project photography as a tool for education and

conservation

Asociacion Central Ashaninka del Rio Ene

Ashninka art, National Museum of the American Indian

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh,
ed. (1911). "article name needed". Encyclopdia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
 [show]

Indigenous peoples of Brazil

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Ancestry and ethnicity in Peru

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Categories:

Indigenous peoples of the Amazon

Ethnic groups in Peru
Ethnic groups in Brazil
Indigenous peoples in Peru
Indigenous peoples in Brazil