page_title: Yaruro people
section_title: Subsistence
hierarchical_section_title: Yaruro people / Culture / Subsistence
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Bulletin Identifier: bulletin1231939smit (find matches) Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Subjects: Ethnology Publisher: Washington&#160;: G. P. O. Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 123 PLATE 12 Text Appearing After Image: /. \ aruro bowman. The arrow is held to the strins between the forefinger and thumb. The middle and fourth finger help pull the string back. 2. Crocodile meat is a staple food. The legs and tail have been cut ofl' to make carrying easier. 3. Yaruros of Lagunote wearing parts of author's towels for breechclouts. Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Yaruro people are Circum-Caribbean tribe and indigenous people of Venezuela. They live in the savanna plains of Venezuela called the Llanos, located west of the Orinoco River.
  The Pumé people are divided into two subgroups: The River Pumé, living along major river drainages of the Orinoco River, and the more nomadic Savanna Pumé that reside on the Llanos.
context_section_description: The Savanna Pumé are primarily hunter-gatherers who subsist on distinctly different diets during each of the dry and wet seasons. The River Pumé are horticulturalist who also practice some fishing, hunting and wild plant collection. Savanna Pumé men hunt primarily small terrestrial game during the wet season such as armadillos, tegu lizards, other small lizards, and rabbits. Men very infrequently obtain larger game such as capybara, deer, anteaters, or caimans. All hunting by Savanna Pumé is done with bows and arrows. Women collect several wild tubers, that are the main food during the wet season. Both sexes also perform some garden work that brings in complementary manioc as a dietary supplement without reducing their foraging for wild plants. Gardening is typical of swidden systems used by many tropical peoples throughout the world, however Savanna Pumé gardens are quite small compared with those of the River Pumé or other South American groups. In the past, foraging for turtle eggs was reported but is very uncommon today, possibly because of over-exploitation during the last 200 years. Other past game animals such as hunting for manatees are recognized as potentially edible, but no recent reports of their consumption are reported by the Pumé. During the dry season, Pumé men fish using bows and arrows, hook and line, and fish poison. The dry season also offers opportunities for bird hunting and capture of small numbers of turtles and tortoises. Women, accompanied by some men, collect feral mangos in prodigious quantities during the dry season as well as a few other species of small fruits that are much less important. River Pumé have less seasonal variation in their diet. They rely more on a diversity of cultivated crops, can fish year round in the major rivers, hunt and gather some foods, and may work in wage labor jobs for the local Criollos. River Pumé successfully raise small numbers of chickens and pigs, animals rarely husbanded by Savanna Pumé for more than a couple months before being consumed during periods of hunger
caption: River Pumé men, dry season camp (Plate 12 from Petrullo, 1939)
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