Indigenous ecological calendars and seasonal vector-borne diseases in the Colombian Amazon: an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach / Calendarios ecológicos indígenas y enfermedades estacionales transmitidas por vectores en la Amazonia colombiana: un enfoque intercultural e interdisciplinario

Traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous groups in the southeastern Colombian Amazon coincides in identifying the two main hydrological transition periods (wet-dry: August-November; dry-wet: March-April) as those with greater susceptibility to disease in humans. Here we analyze the association between indigenous knowledge about these two periods and the incidence of two vector-borne diseases: malaria and dengue. We researched seven "ecological calendars" from three regions in the Colombian Amazon, malaria and dengue cases reported from 2007 to 2019 by the Colombian National Institute of Health, and daily temperature and precipitation data from eight meteorological stations in the region from 1990-2019 (a climatological normal). Malaria and dengue follow a seasonal pattern: malaria has a peak from August to November, corresponding with the wet-dry transition (the "season of the worms" in the indigenous calendars), and dengue has a peak in March and April, coinciding with the dry-wet transition. Previous studies have shown a positive correlation between rainfall and dengue and a negative correlation between rainfall and malaria. However, as the indigenous ecological knowledge codified in the calendars suggests, disease prediction cannot be reduced to a linear correlation with a single environmental variable. Our data show that two major aspects of the indigenous calendars (the time of friaje as a critical marker of the year and the hydrological transition periods as periods of greater susceptibility to diseases) are supported by meteorological data and by the available information about the incidence of malaria and dengue.(AU)

Los conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales de grupos indígenas del sureste de la Amazonia colombiana coinciden en identificar dos principales periodos de transición hidrológica (seco-húmedo: agosto-noviembre; húmedo-seco: marzo-abril) como los de mayor susceptibilidad a enfermedades en humanos. Aquí analizamos la asociación entre el conocimiento indígena sobre estos dos periodos y la incidencia de dos enfermedades transmitidas por vectores: malaria y dengue. Investigamos siete calendarios ecológicos de tres regiones en la Amazonia colombiana, casos de dengue y malaria reportados de 2007 hasta 2019 por el Instituto Nacional de Salud de Colombia y datos diarios de temperatura y precipitación de ocho estaciones meteorológicas en la región, de 1990 a 2019 (una normal climatológica). Malaria y dengue siguen un patrón estacional, la malaria tiene un pico de agosto a noviembre, correspondiendo con la transición húmedo-seco (el "tiempo de gusano" según los calendarios indígenas), mientras que dengue tiene un pico de marzo a abril, coincidiendo con la transición seco-húmedo. Estudios previos mostraron una correlación positiva entre precipitación y dengue, y una correlación negativa entre precipitación y malaria. Sin embargo, como lo sugiere el conocimiento ecológico codificado en los calendarios indígenas, la predicción de enfermedades no puede reducirse a una correlación lineal con una sola variable medioambiental. Nuestros datos muestran que dos aspectos principales de los calendarios indígenas (el tiempo de friaje como un marcador crítico anual y los periodos de transición hidrológica como épocas de mayor susceptibilidad a enfermedades) están soportados por datos meteorológicos e información disponible acerca de la incidencia de malaria y dengue.(AU)

Evidence for the identification of Carabayo, the language of an uncontacted people of the Colombian Amazon, as belonging to the Tikuna-Yurí linguistic family.

This paper provides evidence for the identification of the language of the uncontacted indigenous group called Carabayo, who live in voluntary isolation in the Colombian Amazon region. The only linguistic data available from this group is a set of about 50 words, most of them without reliable translations, that were collected in 1969 during a brief encounter with one Carabayo family. We compare this material with various languages (once) spoken in the region, showing that four attested Carabayo forms (a first person singular prefix and words for 'warm', 'father', and 'boy') display striking similarities with Yurí and at least 13 Carabayo forms display clear correspondences with contemporary Tikuna. Tikuna and Yurí are the only two known members of the Tikuna-Yurí linguistic family. Yurí was documented in the 19th century but has been thought to have become extinct since. We conclude that the Carabayo--directly or indirectly--descend from the Yurí people whose language and customs were described by explorers in the 19th century, before they took up voluntary isolation, escaping atrocities during the rubber boom in the early 20th century.

Witoto ash salts from the Amazon.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: This article presents the results of an anthropological and ethnobotanical study of the vegetable salts used by the Witoto Indians of the Amazon. It thoroughly documents the species used, the processing of the salts, their chemical composition and their anthropological, nutritional and medicinal relevance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Salts from 57 plant species known to the Witoto were processed using the same materials and techniques employed by the Indians: burning plant material, lixiviating the ashes with water, and boiling down the brine to desiccate the salt. Chemical analyses of macroelements of 49 of the salts, and of microelements of 24, were conducted. Tests on the taste of the salts as perceived by the native persons were carried out. RESULTS: Average ratio ashes/raw material was 3.05% (from 0.71% to 10.14%); average ratio dry salt/ashes was 11% (from 1% to 37%). All the samples analyzed presented a high proportion of potassium (26.9-44.6%); contents of phosphorus, sodium, calcium and magnesium were less than 1%; contents of carbonate, chloride and sulfate varied greatly among the salts. Boron, molybdenum and vanadium were present in all or almost all the samples analyzed; copper, barium and strontium were also frequent; manganese, zinc and iron were less frequent. CONCLUSIONS: There is a correlation between the concentration of the three anions and the perceived taste of the salts, the "sweet" flavor of chloride being the preferred taste. Our research shows that the culinary function of these salts is secondary to their ritual, medicinal and cosmological meaning. The search for chloride is one of the reasons to produce and consume these salts; other reasons are also important: their alkaline pH, which liberates the alkaloid of the tobacco with which the salts are mixed; and their contents of microelements, which, although not discernible in taste, are inferred from symbolic associations of the species used.