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AMERINDIANS
Permission requested to use information from Country
Studies
The Amerindians are the descendants of the indigenous
people of Guyana; they are broadly grouped into coastal and interior
tribes. The term tribes is a linguistic and cultural classification
rather than a political one. The coastal Amerindians are the Carib,
Arawak, and Warao, whose names come from the three language families
of the Guyanese Amerindians. The population of coastal Carib in
Guyana declined in the nineteenth century, but Arawak and Warao
communities can be found near the Pomeroon and Courantyne rivers.
The interior Amerindians are classified into seven
tribes: Akawaio, Arekuna, Barama River Carib, Macusi, Patamona,
Waiwai, and Wapisiana. The Barama River Carib, Akawaio, Arekuna,
and Patamona live in river valleys in western Guyana. Two Amerindian
groups live in the Rupununi Savannah region: the Macusi in the northern
half and the Wapisiana in the southern half. The Waiwai live in
the far south of the country, near the headwaters of the Essequibo
River. All of the interior Amerindians originally spoke Carib languages,
with the exception of the Wapisiana, whose language is in the Arawak
linguistic family.
By the 1990s, all of the Amerindian groups had undergone
extensive acculturation. The coastal Amerindians were the most acculturated,
sharing many cultural features with lower-class Afro-Guyanese and
Indo-Guyanese. There had been considerable intermarriage between
coastal Amerindians and Afro-Guyanese. The Waiwai and the Barama
River Carib were probably the least acculturated of the Amerindians.
Nevertheless, most Amerindians spoke English (or near Brazil, Portuguese)
as a first or second language. Almost all Amerindians had been affected
by missionary efforts for many decades. Finally, most Amerindians
had been integrated in one way or another into the national economic
system, though usually at the lowest levels.
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