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In the first reports of the chroniclers and travelers, it is possible to find comments regarding wide networks of relations and circuits of exchanges that, throughout the region of the Guianas, inter-connected initially only the indigenous groups of the region, but then later progressively began to incorporate segments of the surrounding non-indigenous society. The indigenous groups were found connected to each other through diverse modalities of relations – wars and shamanic aggressions, exchanges of goods, intermarriages, fusions and fissions –, among which specialized commercial transactions stand out as important, in which monopoly of production and/or supply of a certain item was attributed to each group, established through individualized and exclusive formal trade partnerships. Besides that, due to the large number of exchange routes that crossed through the territories of the groups, the specialized pattern of production and supply of goods, and mainly, a larger strategy of diversifying and guaranteeing alliances, each group was found connected to several others at the same time.

The present makeup of the Aparai and Wayana groups (both resulting from the fusion and integration of several other smaller groups), the close relation and high degree of intermarriages between these groups in Brazilian territory, the fact of sharing a vast lexicon of which several words are of Tupi origin indicate the intensity of contacts and inter-relations between these groups and with other groups of the region.

One must also consider that the available information on the participation of the Aparai and Wayana in these networks of relations, like all historiography of these networks, is mixed with the increasing introduction of European merchandise in these systems of relations during the colonial period, by means of commercial transactions between the Europeans and the Indians of the coast, in the region of French Guiana and Surinam, above all, in the 17th and 18th centuries. European merchandise and industrialized goods which the Aparai and Wayana are familiar with and have been dependent upon for a long time.

Black Maroons

In the 18th Century, there occurred a massive migration of ex-slaves from the sugar plantations of the then ‘Dutch Guiana’ (present-day Surinam) to the forests in the south of French Guiana. These slaves formed large tribal organizations, following their ancient African patterns, dividing themselves into three major and rival ethnic groups: Boni, Djuka and Saramaká. In the literature, these ethnic groups are generically called Black Maroons (or Bush Negroes, and Noir Marrons in French). The Wayana and the Aparai call them Meikoro, although they recognize their differences.

After that, taking advantage of their favorable geographical location along the main rivers and penetration routes into the interior of Eastern Guiana, these ethnic groups of ex-slaves – the Meikoro – went on to conduct commerce with the coastal colonial posts and with the indigenous groups located in the interior, serving as intermediaries in the flow of goods between Europeans (colonists) and Indians. The Meikoro provided European goods to the indigenous groups with whom they had direct relations– particularly, the Wayana and the Tiriyó –, who, in turn, passed these goods on to other indigenous groups in the interior (the Aparai and the Waiãpi, for example), and so on, forming a long chain of intermediated transactions. Besides that, the suppliers of European articles and their ‘clientele’ were formally identical along these chains of negotiation. The asymmetry and advance payments of goods characteristic of the relations between the Boni and the Wayana – in which the Boni obtained enormous profits, paying little for the indigenous articles which were then passed on at high prices to the Europeans – were reproduced and transferred to the transactions between the Wayana and the Waiãpi of the Oiapoque, and between the latter and the southern Waiãpi.

Consequently, both the Wayana themselves and the Meikoro, and even the other indigenous groups, sought to acquire and secure favorable positions as intermediaries in these systems of trade. The groups disputed for good positions in these networks of relations, seeking to keep their ‘suppliers’ away from their ‘clients’, often resorting to wars amongst themselves to do so.

Until the end of the 19th Century, the Wayana and Aparai of Brazil benefited from this trade and their position, serving as intermediaries in the transactions between the Meikoro and other indigenous groups (Tiriyó, Waiãpi of the Oiapoque etc.) and controlling access of the latter to manufactured goods. In the same way, while the Meikoro controlled the flow of European merchandise into the networks of Amerindian trade in the region, the contacts of the Aparai and Wayana with segments of the surrounding, non-indigenous society were sporadic and indirect, and the availability of industrialized good relatively limited, which allowed the Aparai and Wayana to gradually become familiar with these goods, without compromising their culture and ways of life.

New economic frontiers

It was only in the beginning of the 20th Century, when the exploitation of castanha nuts and rubber expanded in the Jari, East Paru, Maicuru and Curuá river basins, that contacts with caboclos of the region intensified. Rubber extraction lasted until the 1950s, reaching its apex between the decades of 1920-40, when it represented the principal economic activity of the region, responsible for the emergence and development of various small towns and municipalities, such as Almeirim, Alenquer and Monte Alegre. During this period, the Aparai and Wayana still inhabited the lower and middle course of the Maicuru and East Paru rivers, the Citaré tributary and the middle Jari. The ease of access the Indians had to these centers of commercialization and the rubber-workers to the villages made contacts and interchanges still more frequent. Many Aparai and Wayana worked for or on these extractivist frontiers, providing food, rendering services or even extracting rubber, in exchange for industrialized merchandise (shotguns, tools and trinkets) or money.

The nearness and ease with which most industrialized goods came to be acquired made the commercial transactions with the Meikoro of Guiana decline significantly in importance, since these transactions demanded major voyages.

From the 1950s on, with the end of the rubber cycle, the region came to be exploited by cat-hunters (jaguar skin hunters) and prospectors who, until the mid-1970s, maintained intense relations with the Aparai and the Wayana, circulating in their villages, trading food and indigenous services for industrialized goods.

The increase in contacts with these economic frontiers caused severe epidemics which in a short time reduced the Aparai and Wayana population in the region. Besides that, these frontiers were responsible for the recent Aparai and Wayana spatial movements which came to gradually form the present-day territory of the Aparai and Wayana in Brazil. That is, the abandonment of the settlements on the Jari, Maicuru and lower East Paru rivers, concentrating on the middle and upper courses of the East Paru.

One observes that, most of the time, the relations between the Indians and the representatives of these frontiers have respected several traditional patterns of relations of formal trade partnerships. That is, by being formed between individuals (in the form of ideally exclusive partnerships) and by means of deferred reciprocity (advance payments and ‘credits’). Given their inter-individual nature, conflicts, when they did occur, did not extrapolate the family unit, nor did they compromise the relations between the Aparai and Wayana with non-Indians as a whole. The view that the Wayana and Aparai today have of this past is marked by a certain nostalgia and by the idea that these karaiwa (the rubber-workers, cat-hunters etc.) were good trade partners, fulfilling their functions in the networks of relations with efficiency, particularly as providers of goods.

Mission, assistance and salaried work

From the end of the 1960s, the Aparai and Wayana came to be assisted by the governments of Brazil and French Guiana, through official government agencies or faith missions. These institutions were responsible for the type of health and education service implanted and for the demographic growth of these populations in the last several decades. Nevertheless, their presence provoked major transformations in the relations between the indigenous groups of the region and between these and several segments of the surrounding society.

In Brazil, the Aparai and Wayana began to receive assistance in the 1960s, after a landing strip was made and a detachment of the FAB was established on the banks of the East Paru River, in the present-day Apalaí village.

From 1962 on, missionaries of the SIL (International Linguistics Society) began living with the Indians and remained there until 1992, translating and preaching the New Testament in the Aparai language (translated in 1988) and training indigenous pastors who today are in charge of the celebration of religious services. The Funai created the first post in 1973, and began to provide permanent assistance in the region which has lasted to the present day, in a way that is marked by paternalism on the part of the official agency, and which has promoted the growing dependency of the Indians in relation to these policies and to industrialized goods.

With the purpose of integrating these populations into the national society – although uninterested in providing means to guarantee their autonomy in this process -, the indigenist policies implemented have worked on behalf of ‘educating’ and familiarizing the Indians with the monetary economy and the selling of salaried manual labor. Among these policies, the following are noteworthy: stimulating the production and commercialization of artwork, the installation of 'canteens' and trading posts for selling industrialized merchandise in several villages, the hiring of Indians to perform temporary or permanent services.

To the extent the possibility of acquiring industrialized goods within the indigenous territories increased (through salaried work and the trading posts), the interest for the goods produced by other indigenous groups diminished. The secure relations with the assistance agencies came to be favored, in detriment to the relations with their old partners and allies: both the Meikoro and other indigenous groups (Tiriyó and, principally, the Wayana of Suriname and French Guiana). The voyages and relocations diminished, since the groups began to concentrate ever more around the assistance posts ‘confined’ into restricted areas.

Over the last few years, among the factors which have most contributed and facilitated the Aparai’s and Wayana’s acquisition of industrialized goods, the following are noteworthy: the receiving of retirement pensions paid by the state government of Amapá (ever since 1994); the hiring of Indians for paid jobs (from the end of the ‘80s), such as assistant health agents and teachers; and the commercialization of artwork, initially mediated by the FUNAI Administration in Macapá (1980) and presently by the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the Tumucumaque (APITU).

Old partners

Nevertheless, the Aparai and the Wayana have made efforts to maintaining, at least ideally, the largest number possible of partners and potential allies among other groups, indigenous or not (prospectors, Meikoro, Tiriyó etc.).

In this sense, several individuals, above all in the villages near the southern border of the indigenous area, usually go to work and perform services in the prospecting sites nearby, ‘Treze de Maio’, ‘Limão’ and 'Santa Clara'. The Funai has made an effort against these activities, by means of ‘educational campaigns’ and threats, given that individuals usually bring from the prospecting sites, besides gold and merchandise, malaria and other contagious diseases. Despite the pressure from the Funai, many individuals, particularly those who have major difficulties in going to the cities of Macapá and Belém, continue visiting the prospecting sites with relative frequency, on trips that last from one to six months. The most experienced individuals actually work in the prospecting site itself, however, most usually do some other kinds of jobs, such as fishing and selling fresh fish to the prospectors in exchange for gold.

The gold obtained in these activities is usually spent in buying goods in the ‘sheds’ of the prospecting sites (from ammunition to crackers etc.) or is kept for future transactions in the villages or nearby cities. For, among the more experienced Indians, gold serves as a means of trade in purchasing various industrialized goods, such as fuel etc. Several individuals are already well-known on these prospecting sites, and have friends and credit among the prospectors.

Voyages to Surinam

Despite the long distance and political instability in Surinam (it seems, replete with conflicts and small guerilla warfare in the interior), the Aparai and Wayana in Brazil still make voyages to Surinam, during which industrial goods and indigenous artifacts are traded, and kinship ties and formal trade partnerships are renewed (-epe and pawana). There are two types of voyages. One is done by married couples with or without children and is less frequent these days. The other involves the organization of small expeditions of about 15 to 20 individuals (most, single men) the pretext of which is the annual ‘christian’ meetings, organized in the Tiriyó villages of Surinam.

These meetings, which the Indians call ‘Conferences’, bring together various indigenous groups (Tiriyó, Wayana, Aparai, Waiwai, Arawak etc.) and non-Indians (Meikoro, North American missionaries and missionaries of other nationalities). On these voyages, as important as the time they stay in the ‘Conference’, are the contacts established along the way. From the East Paru River in Brazil, to the Tapanahoni River, in Surinam (where the Tiriyó villages are located in that country), and Litani in French Guiana, the Aparai and Wayana go through settlements of the Meikoro. They take advantage of these journeys to go to the cities situated along the Maroni River, Maripasoula and Saint Laurent du Maroni, in French Guiana, or to the capitol of Surinam, Paramaribo. Besides that, there are alternative routes that go through the 'Tiriyó Mission' on the East Paru River (Brazil).

On these visits, one takes advantage of the moment to catch up on news and exchange information, make transactions, place orders for goods and receive goods ordered on this triple frontier. All kinds of goods are traded (radios, rifles, and trinkets in general). Nevertheless, there are specialized goods that have a differential status (although they circulate in the same spheres of trade). These include agate plates and bowls, skillets and iron pots (for producing caxiri) which come from Surinam and are highly prized by the Aparai and Wayana of Brazil; several adornments of material culture (particularly, the rattles for the arukó/kawai festival) and hunting dogs brought from Brazil to Surinam, where they are also highly prized. Finally, the young Aparai and Wayana coming from Brazil seek to find out the latest in fashions which are spread by the Tiriyó and Wayana of Surinam, such as haircuts, evangelical or pop music, etc.

Other voyages

Other places where the Aparai and Wayana seek to establish alliances are the cities of Macapá, Belém and the small municipalities and towns nearby (such as Almeirim). Several individuals go frequently to these cities for various reasons: to commercialize artwork, receive retirement benefits, medical care etc. On these trips, the Indians seek to diversify partnerships, not limiting themselves to their relations with the assistance agency. They seek to establish other contacts to sell artwork, such as to stores and street peddlers (camelôs); evangelical or Catholic churches; non-governmental organizations, municipal, state, and federal government agencies. Besides that, because of the more or less frequent stay of several individuals in the cities of Macapá and Belém, the Aparai and Wayana have maintained relations with other groups, old enemies (such as the southern Waiãpi) or unknown groups (such as the Gavião and the Kayapó). In the ‘Houses of the Indian’ of these capitol cities, the exchanges are intense, not to mention the sexual contacts among young people.