The Impact of Missionaries on the Joti Tribe of Venezuela

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Sanford

Tyler Sanford

Mrs. Hall

English 11 W H

9/27/11

Missionaries

     In Venezuela, South America, lives a native Indian tribe that was the last of thirty tribes found in Venezuela in 1969 (Zent).  They had been completely and totally isolated from the rest of the world before their discovery.  Soon after, missionaries were able to move in and begin to attempt to help these people.  Missionaries around the world have an impact not only on religious beliefs but on everyday life, such as in personal hygiene, literacy, medicinal and health care, as well as in education and farming.  One example of a missionary’s impact would be the work of missionaries in the Jotї tribe of Cano Iguana in Venezuela.

     The Jotї, after first being found, were then included in the 1970 census as having a population of 300.  That number has now officially climbed to 767 due to a better all-around lifestyle.  They live in central Venezuela in two groups: one northern group is on the Kaima River, which is a tributary of the larger Cuchivero River in the state of Bolivar; the other, a more isolated southern group, is in the state of Amazonas on the Iguana, which is a tributary of the Asita River.  This southern group is also on the Parucito, a tributary of the Manapiare River.  These people are actually known by at least nine different names almost interchangeably.  The Chicano, Chikano, Hoti, Jodi, Jotї, Waruwaru, Yoana, Yuana, and the Yuwana.  Their language is unclassified, meaning that little is known about it by the intellectual community (Lewis).

     Some facts about the Jotï lived in rectangular or round houses with thatched roofs and mud and pole walls or in temporary lean-tos that were made up of several upright posts with a stick framework to support the cover of palm fronds.  Their economy is based on agriculture, hunting, gathering, and fishing.  Some of their crops include bananas, maize, pumpkins, pineapples, sweet potatoes, sugarcane and peppers, they also cultivate cotton, which is used to make thread and then hammocks or loincloths, and they grow tobacco.  To hunt with they use either spears, blowguns with darts, or even the missionary-introduced bow and arrow, which they did not have beforehand.  The spears now have iron tips that are received from the missionaries, and the darts often have tips dipped in poison derived from a plant that acts as a muscle relaxant to cause the animals to fall instantly.  The division of labor is split between both genders with the duties like hunting, reserved mainly for males and cooking for females.  The genders share many responsibilities as well (Wilbert).  For clothing, most of the people in Cano Iguana have begun to wear clothing, while some other Jotï still do not wear any.  Young children tend not to were anything except for a string around the waist and a bead necklace, which are actually considered signs of modesty.  Adult men wear loincloths woven from cotton along with the bead necklace, and adult women wear similar loincloths with their necklaces or wear shirts received from the missionaries.  The Jotї do practice marriage and normally have only one spouse.  They also don’t generally have a tribal chief; it is actually frowned upon to tell anyone else what to do or to assert any authority over anyone else.  Their culture has caused them to have a huge problem with authority and has even made disciplining their children a struggle for Jotї parents. 

     Before the missionaries arrived, the Jotї also believed in many crazy things and also a few logical ones.  For instance, every Jotї was afraid of the water, believing that it was the gate to the underworld.  The people also believed that the sun and moon were spirits (Sanford).  In the Jotї world view, the earth, or where they lived was made up of three levels.  The top level was a paradise with fertile land and endless wildlife to hunt; it was also filled with Jotї ancestors.  The middle layer was the place they lived in the rainforest by themselves with nature and wildlife.  The bottom consisted just of an abyss of water.  All of it was held up by trees and  vines on the outside surrounding the circular layers. Even with those crazy beliefs, they also believe   in a worldwide flood that killed everyone many years ago.  In their story of Noah’s flood, they believe that a god named Ikyeka Han,who watches over the world, decided to chop down the trees and the vines holding up the levels and let the middle level fall into the abyss of water on the bottom layer.  Everyone died in this story that they tell from generation to generation, which  is the same as we do in our society except with a much different explanation for it all (Sanford).

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The Jotї people also believe in an afterlife, which basically consisted of their going to the third level of the world and entering paradise to live forever in excellent hunting conditions with a wife that they won’t ever get tired of.  To reach this “paradise,” the Jotї person must have a stick pierced through nasal septum, which separates the two nostrils and then it must be left there for life.  It is actually quite difficult to tell that all of the adults have one of these.  The only way to tell is to look up their noses; it is invisible from ...

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