Editing Pemon

{{Short description|Indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana}}
{{for|the language|Pemon language}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{infobox ethnic group|
| group      = Pemon
| image      = Niño Pemón.jpg
| caption    = Pemon boy, Venezuela
| population = {{circa}} 31,440
| region1    = {{flag|Venezuela}}
| pop1       = {{nowrap|30,148 (2011)}}
| ref1       = <ref name="census">{{cite web|url=http://www.redatam.ine.gob.ve/Censo2011/ |title=Censo 2011 -  Estructura poblacional indígena |website=2011 Census Venezuela |access-date=8 February 2022|language=es}}</ref>
| region2    = {{flag|Brazil}}
| pop2       = 792 (2014)
| ref2       = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Taurepang |title=Taurepang |website=Socio Ambential |access-date=8 February 2022}}</ref>
| region3    = {{Flagcountry|Guyana}}
| pop3       = {{circa}} 500
| ref3       = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/14356/GY |title=Pemon, Arekuna in Guyana |website=Joshua Project|access-date=8 February 2022}}</ref>
| rels       = traditional tribal religion, [[Roman Catholicism]]<ref name=every>[http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Tajikistan-to-Zimbabwe/Pemon.html "Pemon: Introduction, Location."] ''Every Culture.'' (retrieved 30 June 2011)</ref>
| langs      = [[Pemon language|Pemon]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
| related    =
}}
The '''Pemon''' or '''Pemón''' (Pemong) are [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous people]] living in areas of [[Venezuela]], [[Brazil]], and [[Guyana]].<ref name="CNT">See pp.112,113 and 178 of ''Venezuela: the Pemon'', in ''[[Condé Nast Traveler]]'', December 2008.</ref> The Pemon people are divided into many dialects and traditions, which are '''Arekuna''', '''Kamarakoto''', and '''Taurepang.'''<ref name=every/>

==People==
The Pemon are part of the larger [[Cariban language]] family, and include six groups including the Arekuna, [[Ingarikó]], Kamarakoto, Tualipang, Mapoyo and [[Macushi people|Macushi]]/Makushi (Macuxi or Makuxi in Brazil). While ethnographic data on these groups are scant, Iris Myers produced one of the most detailed accounts of the Makushi<ref>{{cite journal|last=Myers|first=Iris|title=The Makushi of the Guiana-Brazilian Frontier in 1944: A Study of Culture Contact|journal=Antropologica|date=1993|volume=90|pages=3–99}}</ref> in the 1940s, and her work is heavily relied upon for comparisons between historical and contemporary Makushi life.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Schacht|first=Ryan|title=Cassava and the Makushi: A Shared History of Resiliency and Transformation| url=https://www.academia.edu/3333665/Cassava_and_the_Makushi_A_Shared_History_of_Resiliency_and_Transformation | journal=Food and Identity in the Caribbean|date=2013|pages=15–29}}</ref>

The Pemon were first encountered by westerners in the 18th century and converted by missionaries to [[Christianity]].<ref name="CNT" /> Their society is based on trade and considered egalitarian and decentralized, and in Venezuela, funding from petrodollars have helped fund community projects, and ecotourism opportunities are also being developed.<ref name="CNT" /> In Venezuela, Pemon live in the [[Gran Sabana]] [[grassland]] plateau dotted with tabletop mountains where the [[Angel Falls]], the world's highest waterfall, plunges from [[Auyantepui]] in [[Canaima National Park]].<ref name="CNT" />

In Brazil, Pemon live among other Indigenous people near the borders of Venezuela and Guyana in villages within the Terras Indígenas São Marcos and Raposa Serra do Sol. There are 792 Pemon according to a 2014 estimate.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Taurepang - Indigenous Peoples in Brazil|url=https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Taurepang|access-date=2021-03-03|website=pib.socioambiental.org}}</ref>

The [[Makuxi]], who are also Pemon speakers, are found in [[Brazil]] and [[Guyana]] in areas close to the Venezuelan border.

== Lifestyle ==
The Pemon language and people have been extremely affected by tourism and historical events like the establishment of the Canaima camp founded by the Boulton family nearby the Canaima town, where the demographic concentration of Pemon people is established. Many Pemon people work in hotels and tourism. This deeply affected the tradition of the Pemon people, as they turned out to be a Catholic majority population, and left behind their ancestral language and belief, still, many Pemon people, known as "Chamanes" still practice the ancestral religion, mostly for healthcare.

==Language==
[[Pemon language|Pemon]] (in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]: Pemón), is a [[Cariban languages|Cariban]] language spoken mainly in [[Venezuela]], specifically in the [[La Gran Sabana|Gran Sabana]] region of [[Bolívar (state)|Bolívar State]]. According to the 2001 census there were 15,094 Pemon speakers in [[Venezuela]]. It is divided into three principal dialects, which are; Arekuna, Kamarakoto, and Taurepang.<ref name="every" />

== Myths ==
[[File:Three Pemon Men.JPG|thumb|325px| Three Pemon youths]]
The Pemon have a very rich mythic tradition which is merged into their present Christian faiths. Pemon mythology includes gods residing in the grassland area's table-top mountains called ''[[tepui]]''.<ref name="CNT" /> The mountains are off-limits to the living, as they are also home to ancestor spirits called ''mawari''.<ref name="CNT" /><!-- what? Among the Indians of Guiana: being sketches, chiefly anthropologic from the interior of British Guiana, etc.", which includes detailed observations of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela. --> The first non-native person to seriously study Pemon myths and language was the German ethnologist [[Theodor Koch-Grunberg]], who visited [[Monte Roraima|Roraima]] in 1912.

Important myths describe the origins of the sun and moon, the creation of the ''tepui'' mountains – which dramatically rise from the savannahs of the [[Gran Sabana]] — and the activities of the creator hero Makunaíma. Makunaíma is described as an individual or a group of brothers, sons of the sun ''Wei'' and a woman made of clay. He goes searching for his father who had been captive of malevolent spirits. After finding his father, Makunaíma finds the "tree of the world", which he cuts down and the resulting stump becomes [[Mount Roraima]]. The falling of the tree caused a great cataclysm, with floods and fire, and humans were recreated by Makunaíma. Makunaíma also turned people and animals into stone that are a part of Pemon description of the natural world.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Taurepang - Indigenous Peoples in Brazil|url=https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Povo:Taurepang#Cosmology|access-date=2021-03-03|website=pib.socioambiental.org}}</ref>

Missionary work among Amerindians has impacted Pemon belief; and ''Jechikrai'' is the Pemon adaptation of Jesus Christ.<ref name=":0" />

=== Religion ===
Pemon have polytheistic beliefs. Mythological figures like Makunaima, Kanaima, Iwarrika and Sigu are an important part of their culture. The most important god is Makunaima because, in their opinion, he created the tribe. Furthermore, they associate some natural phenomena to some divinities like Iwarrika who is blamed for flooding the earth. The Shaman plays an important part in their religious practice. He meets the god during hallucinogenic rituals when tobacco and a specific diet are used.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.native-languages.org/akawaio.htm|title=Akawaio Language and the Akawaio Indian Tribe (Akawayo, Kapon, Kapong, Waika)|website=www.native-languages.org|access-date=2019-06-21}}</ref>

=="Kueka" stone controversy==
In 1999, Wolfgang Kraker von Schwarzenfeld arranged the transport of a red stone boulder, weighing about 35 metric tons, from Venezuela's Canaima National Park to [[Großer Tiergarten|Berlin Tiergarten]] for his "global stone" project. Since that time, a dispute had been ongoing of the Pemon trying to get the stone back, involving German and Venezuelan authorities and embassies.<ref>Spiegel online, 10 July 2011: [http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,790358,00.html The Kueka Stone – A Venezuelan Indigenous Group Battles Berlin]</ref><ref>Universidad del Zulia & FundaCine, 2007: [http://vimeo.com/9667544 Etapontok Ro Etomo (La lucha continúa)] (Spanish)</ref><ref>Berliner Zeitung, 9 August 2000: [http://www.globalstone.de/presse/07BerlinerZeitung.pdf Indios wollen "göttlichen Stein" zurück haben] (German, "Indigenous people want to get back sacred stone")</ref>

On 16 April 2020, the Kueka stone was finally returned to Venezuela.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sacred Venezuelan stone back home after hiatus in Berlin|url=https://apnews.com/b35de405e281e58e1e69a84be593f13a|date=2020-04-17|website=AP NEWS|access-date=2020-05-02}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Pemon conflict]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[Theodor Koch-Grunberg]] 1917 – "Vom Roraima Zum Orinoco" ("From Roraima to the Orinoco")
* David John Thomas 1982 – "Order Without Government: The Society of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela" (University of Illinois Press)

==External links==
*[http://venezuelanindian.blogspot.com/2007/08/angel-falls.html Pemon Myths and Legends]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120326105445/http://www.pemonhealth.org/projects.php Pemón health]

{{Indigenous peoples of Brazil}}
{{Ethnic groups in Guyana}}
{{Ethnic groups in Venezuela}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pemon People}}
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of the Guianas]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Brazil]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Guyana]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Venezuela]]