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

Cary Elwes considered Taruma residents of the village of Wanawanatûk, where he
had a church built in 1922, to have been generally unhealthy (Butt Colson and Morton
1982: 240), and they appear to have been decimated by a 'flu epidemic in the years
following his visit. Roth reports that by 1925 the population there had declined to
eight adult men, all of whom were married to Waiwai women (Roth 1929: IX). The
only other Taruma population known to Roth at this time was a group of nine adults
resident in the Wapishana village of Baidannao. Peberdy later confirmed the
postulated fate of these tribes, reporting that by the late 1940's both the Taruma
and Atorads had ceased to exist as distinct groups, but that survivors had
intermarried with the Wapishana (Peberdy 1948: 18). More recent accounts have
reported the presence of people who consider themselves Taruma resident among
the Waiwai (Guppy 1958: 57; Yde 1960: 84). Results obtained in the present study
show that to this day their extinction is not quite complete: one family in Maruranau
is reported to be of Taruma descent, and a small number of individuals in this lineage
identify themselves as Taruma speakers.
Archaeological evidence of the close connection between Taruma, Waiwai and
Wapishana histories is provided by the analysis of petroglyphs located on the Upper
Essequibo and Kassikaityu rivers. These are presumed to be of Taruma origin, and in
connection with contemporary observations of the use of fish trap technology
represented therein among Waiwai and Wapishana people, suggest shared cultural
traits related to fish exploitation among all these groups (Williams 1979a: 136,
1979b: 146).
Riviere provides evidence that, although too sketchy to be definitive, suggests
the assimilation of several other tribal groups by the Wapishana, including the
Amaripa and Paravilhana (Riviere 1963: 260-1). The latter are known from only a few
reports, having apparently been the major victims of the descimentos, but are
reported to have originally been settled over a huge area stretching from the Rio
Negro as far east as the Essequibo (Riviere 1963: 199-202). Farabee suggests the
Parauien, presumably the same people, to be an extinct sub-tribe of the Taruma
(Farabee 1918: 135-136). A colonial representative visiting the Rupununi region in
1769 reported 'Parhavianes' and Wapishana to be settled in close proximity in the
vicinities of the Kanuku Mountains and Maho River (Harris and de Villiers 1911: 616-
9). This occasion, incidentally, appears to be the first recorded instance of direct
contact between Wapishana people and any representative of the British colonial
government. The extent of Atorad settlement, similarly, is impossible to determine
exactly, but populations were reported in Guyana from the Brazilian border as far