Maloka

The origin of the word "maloka" is unknown, perhaps this word comes from the Tupi language mar'oca ("house of war", "military corps", "Native American farm") ^[3] . Probably, "maloka" comes from the Mapuche language malocan (chit. "Malokan", trans. - "quarrel") ^[4] . Earlier, in Brazilian Portuguese , Argentinean Spanish, and Uruguayan Spanish , the word maloka was used in the meaning of “unexpected attack of the Indians” by the Mapuche against maloki of other tribes (17 - early 19th centuries) ^[2] . The change in meaning from “attack” to “housing” probably followed the pacification of the indigenous people of the Argentine pampas and spread to the north ^[2] .

After the European conquest, the meaning of "malok" appeared among Europeans (mainly Portuguese ) as "an armed expedition to capture the Indians for their enslavement", probably this change of meaning occurred in the phrase Isp. ir - expedicionar - a la maloca ("campaign - expedition - to maloka").

Other use

In particular, in Rio Grande do Sul the term "maloka" was widely used until the end of the 1990s to refer to dwellings built from improvised materials that were unusual in design, from wood to cardboard and canvas.

Maloca offset

Maloka is a sacred space conceived as a “Belt of the formation of a being”, “Woman of Wisdom” or “house of the Universe”, also called Kansa Maria, Ungum, Chumsua, Bogio, Tambo, etc., depending on the name given to each ritual space, ethnicity, culture, or indigenous peoples. All maloka is built for the community and represents "life itself." There, in utmost simplicity, in perfect cardinal orientation, through male and female ritual elements (fire, the natural essence of tobacco and vegetable salt), mamba sheets of ground coca, kaguanna and cassava, - sweet yucca starch with fruits, kasabi - sweet tortilla from yuki, tikupi and karama, traditional chili and mani), the order of the cosmos is recreated daily. In malok, leaders, elders, shamans meet every night; women, children, youth and adults - the whole community as a whole. Maloka recreates the word of life and unity, spiritual advice, the word of the Father-Mother (cosmos-earth). This vital act, or mambeo, is a space-time in which the community expresses itself among all envy, evil, deception, jealousy, bad thoughts, a bad word, everything that causes discomfort and disharmony in coexistence and the environment.

In malok, the heart is cleansed collectively, and the spirit is freed; stories, myths, ceremonies, customs and traditions are transmitted orally, advice is given to children, youth and adults; learn to work with chagra (orchard), native language, hunting, crafts; the positive and negative aspects of daily work are analyzed and discussed; wisdom is planned, organized, and pervasive; the body, mind and spirit of people and the environment are healed; legislation and restorative justice are well placed.

In its structural part, the posts and beams are the skeleton of the Mother Ancestor, built from a eucalyptus tree (from the Botanical Garden ), the moorings are made from the Yaro vine (Vein of the Ancestral Mother), brought from the Amazon; royal palm (Leather of the Ancestral Mother) used for the cover brought from Guamo , Tolima . Traditionally, Maloka does not think without its owner or Spiritual authority, which acquires this dignity due to the heritage of its origin, the experience of managing the knowledge of ancestors, direct communication with the spirits of the territory and an example of family and social life. Thus, the community knows that spiritual power is always at the disposal of everyone who approaches his malok.

Maloki were discovered in the middle of the 19th century ^[2] in Guiana , northwestern Amazon and in some regions to the south in the area of ​​the Purus and Guapor rivers ^[5] . The first mention was found by Alfred Wallace (1823–1913), a naturalist, theorist of evolution, and a social critic ^[2] . The text mentioned: Brazilian Portuguese maloca or Bolivian Spanish, Argentinean Spanish, Colombian Spanish, Venezuelan Spanish maloki, and also Indian settlements living in one or several buildings ^[2] .

For many years, these long houses were targeted by Jesuit missionaries .

Maloka is a traditional hut of the indigenous forests of the Amazon , a Native American communal high structure ( long house ) with a large open space inside, supported by four racks ^[6] . Houses, for example, of the Tupi people reach a length of 20-30 meters ^{[5] [6]} , up to 25 m high ^[6] . Maloka is made only of biodegradable materials, mainly from rough wood , rectangular, oval or round in plan ^[6] with a gable or conical roof covered with palm leaves or grass ^[5] . On the south and east sides of the roof, as a rule, reach the ground ^[6] . The only entrance is the door facing the side of sunrise.

The construction of maloki is not a quick, difficult and very laborious task, they are built on the ground, which is being prepared for construction by each member of the group living inside ^[7] . This is a multi-generational building in which the whole life of the group flows.

Among the Yanomamo people, maloka is a continuous ring of canopies ( shabono ) around the central square ^[6] . In the area of ​​the Brazilian Highlands and in the South Amazon, maloka is huge round or horseshoe-shaped in terms of structure with a central area inside which a male house is sometimes built ^[6] . Among the people of the Whitoto group, rectangular maloks symbolize the masculine principle, round and oval - the feminine ^[8] .

In marshy places houses are built on stilts, for example, the people of Varao ( Varrau ) and other Venezuelan Indians, sometimes piles are found among tribes in drylands and savannas ^[5] .

Homes reflect economic organization and social structure; buildings range from simple shelters from the rain of gaujaki and the wind of nambicuara to large communal houses of malocas ^[5] . In the 19th century, up to 200 or more people (the whole tribe) lived in the communal hut of the malok ^{[5] [6]} . The modern family community of some indigenous peoples is from 10 to 100 people living together in one malok. A village consists of one or more small ones, sometimes small shelters (shacks) are built near them ^[9] .

The Indians live on the rivers Madeira , Purus and Guato (in the upper river Paraguay ), they spend most of the year on rivers and lagoons , fish and prey on aquatic creatures, turning their canoes into dwellings. At other times, they live in small huts at the water's edge ^[5] .

Maloka in the worldview of the Indians of Amazonia is an image of the universe, separate parts of the building correspond to a separate part of space. The construction of the building has been ritualized and involves the entire community. Several families with patrilineal relationships live together in malok, located along the perimeter of a long house in different compartments. There are no walls in small ones, the internal space is divided in accordance with social differences, each family is given a certain place, sometimes each of its members ^[5] . The leader of the local group ( leader ) lives with everyone, closer to the back wall of the long house. Certain building locations are used for shamanistic spells ^[10] .

The furniture is very simple; Indians sleep on whatnots , also use hammocks ^[5] . Each family has its own stove. Maloka sometimes serves as a sundial: through special cracks in the roof, the time of day is determined by the positions of the sun's rays on the wall ^[11] . In small ones, to the right of the entrance, kouumu drums are installed - two hollow logs suspended on vines between pillars dug into the ground ^[12] .

During festivals and formal , with the participation of men in dances, the space of the long house is being rebuilt; the center of the long house is the most important area where the dance takes place. For different nations, each maloka has one entrance, sometimes two entrances: for men and women. Married men and women sleep together, unmarried adolescents sleep separately, as do young girls and unmarried women.

Residents of Malok are very nature-oriented. They feel like actors of nature and do not put themselves above other living beings. Maloka represents their connection with nature and is considered sacred to all its inhabitants. The four pillars that support maloka determine the place where family members will be buried after moving to another locality where the maloka will rebuild.

These Amazonian tribes, being nomads, when they decide to move, they destroy the malok. Thus, they do not desecrate nature by their presence on the territory. When the wooden structures of the structure begin to rot , the community changes the region and begins to build a new maloca, leaving the land, rivers and forests to restore its resources for at least ten years before the tribe can return.

Maloka is traditionally surrounded by two gardens: the inner one, called the garden (plants such as bananas , papaya , mango and pineapple are grown ), and the cassava garden, where a tropical tuberous plant of cassava (yuka) is grown. The surroundings of Maloki are weeded to protect the place from animals, spirits and possible enemies, and are also freed from branches and trees that may fall.

Currently, the indigenous peoples of South America have developed the religious cult of the communal large house (Maloki, Churuata , Baaheha ^{[~ 1]} and others), located in the center of cities located buildings are used as meeting places, meeting buildings and religious rites of the local community ^[14] , and also housing the leaders ^[8] . During ritual ceremonies (Yurupari), men play the sacred flutes and forges, at which time the entrance to the Maloki women is closed ^[14] . Initiation of boys and girls, various holidays ^[14] are carried out in the milk (for example, the feast of the fertility of the peach palm and other fruits, the construction of a new maloca, etc.) ^[8] . Shamans of various degrees (the highest - kumu) use narcotic and hallucinogenic substances during rituals, such as: coca , tobacco , ayahuasca , yopo ( Anadenanthera peregrina ) ^[14] , cassava chichi ^[8] , mamba ( smoking mix , collective name as and spice ^[15] ) and others.

Traditional buildings

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  The Maloki Plan of the Yanomamo Indian Tribe

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  Indian mythical maloki ( Vaupes , Colombia )

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  Maloka ( Craxi Mitu , Colombia)

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  Photography maloki

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  From Maloki as part of Amazonas in Colombia

Modern buildings

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  Modern wooden maloka ( Pucallpa , Peru )

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  Malok option

• Yanomamo is a group of related Indian tribes.
• Maloca is also synonymous with Spanish. , meaning " Mapuche raid."

Comments

Footnotes

1. ↑ LITTLE // Big Encyclopedic Dictionary / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov . - 1st ed. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia , 1991. - ISBN 5-85270-160-2 .
2. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4 5 6} maloca . - Oxford Dictionary .
3. ↑ maloca (port.) - meaning of the word.
4. ↑ Ferreira, ABH “New Dictionary of the Portuguese Language” // “ ”. - Segunda edição. - Rio de Janeiro : , 1986.
5. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9} South American forest Indian . - article from Encyclopædia Britannica Online . Circulation date May 19, 2019.
6. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8} INDIANS / Berezkin Yu. E., Borisov G. B. et al. // Plasma Radiation - Islamic Salvation Front [Electronic resource]. - 2008. - P. 203. - (The Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004-2017, vol. 11). - ISBN 978-5-85270-342-2 .
7. ↑ Matusovsky A., 2019 , p. eighteen.
8. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4} WITOTO / A. A. Matusovsky // Television Tower - Ulan Bator [Electronic resource]. - 2016. - S. 724. - ( Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 32). - ISBN 978-5-85270-369-9 .
9. ↑ "Maloka". Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia , vol. XIV (Magdalena - Mexico). - Vilnius : Institute of Scientific and Encyclopedic Publications, 2008.
10. ↑ Fontaine Laurent. “A night to learn. Yukun night shamanism of the Colombian Amazon ”= fr. La nuit pour apprendre. Le chamanisme nocturne des Yucuna d'Amazonie colombienne / Société d'ethnologie. - Paris, 2014 .-- S. 84-95. - 144 p. - ISBN 978-2-36519-005-3 .
11. ↑ La maloca comme cadran solaire "négatif" (Colombie) (French) .
12. ↑ Matusovsky A., 2019 , p. 19.
13. ↑ Matusovsky A., 2019 , p. 16.
14. ↑ ^{1 2 3 4} TUKANO / A. A. Matusovsky // Television Tower - Ulan Bator [Electronic resource]. - 2016. - P. 478. - (The Great Russian Encyclopedia : [in 35 vols.] / Ch. Ed. Yu. S. Osipov ; 2004—2017, vol. 32). - ISBN 978-5-85270-369-9 .
15. ↑ Olivia Solon. “Studies of hallucinogenic mushrooms” (Russian) = “Study finds mushrooms are the safest recreational drug.” - The Guardian , 2017 .-- May 23.

In Russian

• Matusovsky A. A. "Among the Indians of the Western and North-Western Amazonia." - 440 ill. - "Publishing Solutions", 2019. - 480 p. - ISBN 9785449646033 .
• Gordienko S. V. “Maloka. Travel to Peru. " - il. - Almaty : TST Company, 2010 .-- 190 p. - 1,000 copies. - ISBN 978-601-06-0330-1 .

In other languages

• Carsten, J. & Hugh-Jones, S. Chapter 11. Inside out and back: the androgynous house in northwestern Amazon // About the house: Levi-Strauss and Beyond = About the House: Lévi-Strauss and Beyond. Chapter 11. Inside-Out and Back-to-Front: The Androgynous House in North-West Amazonia. - ill., Rep. - Cambridge , New York : Cambridge University Press , 1995. - S. 226-252. - 300 s. - ISBN 0521474213 . - ISBN 0521479533 . - DOI : 10.1017 / CBO9780511607653.011 .

Articles

• “La maloca, la vie, la terre” (French) (“Maloka, life, earth”) - on the website www.amazonie.arte.tv.
• La Maloca de los Sabedores (Spanish) - from Oscar Freire.
• Kaj Árhem (Kai Archem). “Macuna in the Cultural History of the Amazon” (Spanish) = “Los Macuna en la historia cultural del Amazonas”: Boletín . - 1991 .-- 1 julio ( n ^o 30 ). - P. 86 .

Videos

•   Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Revealed For The First Time In Vale do Javari - Brazil - The first unregistered Amazon tribe was shown in , Brazil . A YouTube video showing Maloka in its original form in a tribe discovered in 2017.
•   La maloca del Amazonas y su estructura - Ministerio de Cultura, República de Colombia.