Espaço Ameríndio (Dec 2008)
THE DELTA INDIGENE. THE GUARAÚNOS OF THE ORINOCO AT ETNOGRAPHY OF THE LORD SPIRITUAL TURRADO.
Abstract
Typical of the positivist ethnographer from the beginnings of XX century, Ángel Turrado Moreno (1903-1961), missionary and bishop of Asso, had an essencialist vision of culture. For him, cultures had a lot of similar and comparable aspects which he tried to underline: marriage, family, authorities, deities, etc. Though Turrado did not carry out a deep analysis of cultural productions, he made a considerable effort to register the dimensions of daily life of Orinoco´s guaraunos with notable ethnographic rigor. Despite of all their biases, these community studies are important documentary sources today to comprehend these societies. This article intends to summerize the material conditions of life, the social organization and the symbolic cosmovision of gauraunos using the work of this missionary, as well as to give ethnographic logic that is lacking in some parts of his text. Guarauno lexicon used here corresponds to the phonetic adjustments handled by Turrado.
