Barasana

Take, for example, this child of Barasana in Northwest Amazon, the people of the anaconda who believe that mythologically they came up the milk river from the east in the belly of sacred snakes.

Wade Davis on endangered cultures 2003

Take, for example, this child of Barasana in Northwest Amazon, the people of the anaconda who believe that mythologically they came up the milk river from the east in the belly of sacred snakes.

Wade Davis on endangered cultures 2003

Take, for example, this child of Barasana in Northwest Amazon, the people of the anaconda who believe that mythologically they came up the milk river from the east in the belly of sacred snakes.

Wade Davis on endangered cultures 2003

Thus the rivers of the Vaupés were created and populated, with the Desana people coming into being on the Río Papuri, the Barasana on the upper Piraparaná, the Tukano on the Vaupés, the Makuna on the Popeyacá and lower Piraparaná.

One River Wade Davis 1996

There were Barasana and Tatuyos still living there and other Indians in the area: Taiwanos farther upstream, Makuna twenty miles below on the Caño Komeyaká, and Barasana and Bará on the Caño Colorado, a small affluent that enters the Piraparaná just above the mission.

One River Wade Davis 1996

Schultes had collected it twice in 1952—once on the Popeyacá and again among the Barasana on the Caño Timiña.

One River Wade Davis 1996

Long sacred to the Makuna, Barasana, Tatuyo, and Taiwano, the image commemorates the visit of Father Sun when he first gave yagé to the people.

One River Wade Davis 1996

To the north of the Caquetá is the Río Apaporis, a black water river 1,350 miles long dissected by spectacular rapids and gorges that have long isolated several groups of Indians; Taiwanos on the Río Kananarí, and farther downstream on the Río Piraparaná, Makuna, Barasana; and the curious Makú, a nomadic people once employed as slaves by their sedentary and more powerful neighbors.

One River Wade Davis 1996

One of these was Sabicea amazonensis, known to the Barasana as kana.

One River Wade Davis 1996

A wild coca grew near the rapids, and the Barasana maintained that it was the coca of their fathers.

One River Wade Davis 1996