Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1986 A Cultural Geography of the Embera and Wounan (Choco) Indians of Darien, Panama, With Emphasis on Recent Village Formation and Economic Diversification. Peter Harry Herlihy Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Herlihy, Peter Harry, "A Cultural Geography of the Embera and Wounan (Choco) Indians of Darien, Panama, With Emphasis on Recent Village Formation and Economic Diversification." (1986). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 4299. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/4299 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 8710562 Herlihy, Peter Harry A CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE EMBERA AND WOUNAN (CHOCO) INDIANS OF DARIEN, PANAMA, WITH EMPHASIS ON RECENT VILLAGE FORMATION AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Col.Ph.D. 1986 University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1987 by Herlihy, Peter Harry All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V . 1. Glossy photographs or pages i / ^ 2. Colored illustrations, paper or print______ 3. Photographs with dark background ^ 4. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE EMBERA AND WOUNAN (CHOCO) INDIANS OF DARIEN, PANAMA, WITH EMPHASIS ON RECENT VILLAGE FORMATION AND ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Geography and Anthropology by Peter H. Herlihy B.S., Syracuse Universit-', 1975 M.A., University of Vermont, 1979 December 1986 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©1987 PETER HARRY HERLIHY All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowl edgemer.ts I would like especially to acknowledge the love, advice, and support of my parents and family who have always been understanding of my somewhat d if f e r e n t career and interests. I wish also to thank the governments of the United States and Panama for awarding my Fulbright Grant and the Geography and Anthropology Department at L S U for my Robert C. West Field Research Award. In the United States, William V. Davidson, as my advisor at L S U, has provided constant advice, support, and criticism of my work, believing in me as a student and my work as a part of geography. Both Dr. Davidson at L. S. U. and Dr. Daniel W. Gade, my advisor at the University of Vermont, have set good examples for me and made my graduate student experience rewarding. For the review of my study, my thanks go also to my dissertation committee. Miles E. Richardson, Sam B. Hilliard, Nigel J. R. Allan, and especially Donald E. Vermeer. I also thank Clifford P. Duplechin for the superb job of the final drafts of my maps. In Panama, the support of the In s t it u t o Nacional de Cultura is gratefully acknowledged as is Lie. Pedro L. Prados (Museo de Hombre), who provided me w ith l e t t e r s of endorsement for officials in Panama City and Darien. Ursula Teresita Alpin of the United States Information Service i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. administered my Fulbright Grant in Panama and provided me with letters of endorsement from U. S. and Panamanian military authorities. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute allowed the use of their library and facilities while in Panama City, and Dr. Olga Linares and Carol Jopling gave freely of their time and energies to make my stay more pleasant and p roductive. Marcela C. Cooke a t the Archivo Nacional was also very helpful. Among those to be thanked in Darien, I would especially like to acknowledge the support of the new Choco leaders: Cacique General Sr. Isidro Guaynora, Cacique Regionales Sr. Reneiro Guaynora, and Sr. Jose Id asio Teucama. The help and support of other Choco leaders, Hon. Franklin Mesua, Ansel mo Lino Guaynora, and Daniel Castaneda was also welcomed. The cooperation of the National Guard in Darien was essential for the successful completion of my research. (In early 1983, I spent one afternoon with General Parades explaining my work and Choco c u ltu re when he paid an unprecedented visit to my village of Lajas Blancas.) Students and professors of the Universidad Popular Del Darien provided me with rides, food, and friendship when I seemed to need them most along the Pan-American Highway. The C ath o lic missionaries in Yavisa, in particular Padre Mario Artavia and Joaquin Arnaiz, gave me food, shelter, and moral support when my travels in interior Darien seemed most desolate, i i i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. most debilitating. But, without the extensive support of the Dari in Choco themselves, t h is s to ry would not have been written. They trusted me, a foreigner, to give an accurate account of their culture, something they feel has not yet been done. Most of all, I want to thank them. I hope that I have not let them down. To all, I convey my deepest gratitude. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Preface The r a tio n a l fo r studying a d is ta n t, little -k n o w n region or culture group and the logistics of how to do it, regardless of the outcome (Denevan 1980), can, in some ways, be as instructive as the results of the research itself. In 1981, from the writings of a number of field geographers, especially Charles F. Bennett, Burton L. Gordon, and Robert C. West, I knew the Choco Indians as a remote rain forest group. At that time, I had just finished my M. A. thesis at the University of Vermont under Daniel W. Gade on Amazonian fis h poisoning p ra c tic e s and I had worked as an a s s is ta n t on his project about pet-keeping practices in Amazonia (Gade 1985). With Gade, I had developed many in te r e s ts in the New World tro p ic s and I wanted to le a rn more about ra in fo re s t Indians. The Choco seemed to be an ideal group. According to what I had read, they lived intimately with their surroundings and practiced agriculture and animal husbandry adjacent to their isolated river bank settlements. As a doctoral student in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University, my interests included Indian subsistence and culture history, especially in Amazonia and the Maya area. I noticed, with insights provided by my advisor at L S U, William V.