Emerillon

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Emerillon

Emerillon (or Emerilon, Emerion, Mereo, Melejo, Mereyo, Teco) are a Tupi-Guarani-speaking

Tupi-Guarani languages

Tupi-Guarani is the name of the most important subfamily of the Tupi languages of South America. It includes 53 languages in 11 groups, as well as the best-known languages of this family, like Guarani language and Old Tupi....
people in French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas department of France, located on the northern coast of South America. Like the other Overseas departments, French Guiana is also an overseas region of France, one of the 26 regions of France, and is an integral part of the French Republic....
living on the banks of the Camopi

Camopi

Camopi is a Communes of France of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department of France located in South America. With a land area of 10,030 km? , it is the third-largest commune of France....
and Tampok rivers. Their subsistence is based on horticulture

Horticulture

'Horticulture' is the industry and science of plant cultivation. Horticulturists work and conduct research in the disciplines of plant propagation and cultivation, Crop , plant breeding and genetic engineering, plant biochemistry, and plant physiology....
, hunting

Hunting

Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to law....
and bow- and arrow-fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of catching fish. Fishing techniques include Fish net, Fish trap, Spearfishing, angling and Gathering seafood by hand. The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as different types of shellfish, squid, octopus, turtles, Edible frog and some edible marine invertebrates....
. As of 2001 they numbered about 400 individuals.

nomadic than the other tribes of the area, the Emerillon remained within the surroundings of the Maroni River

Maroni River

The Maroni or Marowijne is a river in South America. It originates in the Tumuk Humak Mountains and forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname....
.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Emerillon'

Start a new discussion about 'Emerillon'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Emerillon (or Emerilon, Emerion, Mereo, Melejo, Mereyo, Teco) are a Tupi-Guarani-speaking

Tupi-Guarani languages

French Guiana

Camopi

Horticulture

Hunting

Fishing

History

More nomadic than the other tribes of the area, the Emerillon remained within the surroundings of the Maroni River

Maroni River

The Maroni or Marowijne is a river in South America. It originates in the Tumuk Humak Mountains and forms the border between French Guiana and Suriname....
. Their villages, usually located at a distance from the rivers for protective the from raids, were moved frequently due to soil exhaustion, warfare, and several costumary reasons, like the death if an inhabitant. Internal warfare was common and the members of the tribe practiced canibalism as a means of revenge.

The Emerillons first contact with the Europeans occurred in the 18th century, when they numbered just about as many individuals as now. They were harassed by the Galibi Indians

Galibi

The Galibi were a Cariban languages people who lived in the Lesser Antilles and northern South America at the time of European colonization of the Americas....
who captured women and children and sold them as slaves in Surinam. By the 19th century internal and intertribal warfare had weaken the Emerillon to the point of being collective slaves to the Oyampik

Wayampi

The Wayampi are a Tupi-Guarani group located in the south-eastern border area of French Guiana at the confluence of Camopi and Oyapock River rivers, and the basins of the Amapari and Carapanatuba rivers in the central part of Amap? state, Brazil....
. This, along with the epidemics brought in by the gold prospectors greatly reduced their numbers, making them more susceptible to acculturalisation. By the late 60s, when the prospectors left the area, the Emerillon were apathetic, in a poor state of health, and consuming large quantities of rum which the prospectors supplied them in exchange of manioc flour.