Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

groups also comprise the majority indigenous population in the country's more
remote Northwest District. Akawaio settlement overlaps Lokono settlement in the
case of a single community on the lower Demerara river, but is otherwise
concentrated in the west of the country along the Mazaruni rivers. Guyana's only
Arekuna village is also located in this region, adjacent to the Venezuelan border.
Further south, Patamona settlement is concentrated in the Pakaraima mountains.
These descend south into the Rupununi savannahs, whose northern part is populated
mainly by Makushi people, the south savannahs being dominated by the Wapishana.
Finally, the Sierra Acarai range in the extreme south of the country is home to a
single village of Waiwai, who include descendants of remnant groups of survivors of
several tribes otherwise thought to be extinct. Two isolated Amerindian groups have
been located in Guyana (Bahuchet 1995: 111). One is resident in the New River
triangle in the southeast of the country, and is thought to be affiliated to the Waiwai
(Anselmo and Mackay 1999: 20). Another is located in a remote part of Waiwai
territory, and was apparently founded by a group of Wapishana who, disillusioned with
the changes they observed around them, decided to live in a self-imposed isolation
from the national society.
2.2 Amerindian Relations With Wider Guyanese Society
The geographical remoteness of most of Guyana's Amerindian population is mirrored
in their status as people socially, culturally and economically peripheral within a nation
state dominated by other ethnic groups. As is the case elsewhere in the English-
speaking Caribbean, indigenous contributions to national identity and cultural diversity
have rarely been acknowledged in the mainstream of national consciousness (Palacio
1995). There have been concerted efforts to remedy this situation in recent years,
most notably in the government's designation of September as Amerindian heritage
month and the organisation of associated events concerned with celebrating and
raising awareness of Amerindian culture. However, it remains the case that the
attention of most coastal Guyanese is focused north towards the Caribbean islands
and North America. Few have visited the interior regions, levels of ignorance and
prevalence of misconceptions about which remain high among the general public.
Economic activity is also focused overwhelmingly on the coast, and most
Amerindian communities are affected by a severe lack of income-generating
opportunities. Although the use of conventional economic indicators can be
somewhat misleading in communities in which the greater part of the economy is
based upon subsistence or barter (Fox and Danns 1993: 99-100), high levels of