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The Ashaninka say that they have always had canoes (pitotsi), houses (pãkotsi) and swidden gardens (owãtsi) with several varieties of manioc (kaniri). In the old days their houses were different; they had walls and were built directly on the ground. Nowadays they are built on stilts. Although the non-indian inhabitants of the region also live in raised houses, those of the Ashaninka generally have no walls or interior divisions and are covered with straw, whilst the riverbank wirakotxa use zinc sheeting.

In contrast to other indigenous groups of the South American lowlands, the Ashaninka have always used clothes. The traditional Ashaninka garment, the kushma, constitutes an important element of their ethnic distinctiveness. It is worth noting that the word ‘kushma’ is of Quechua origin and, although the term is also used by the indians, the Ashaninka employ the term kitharentsi, used to refer both to the garment and to the loom and the cloth.

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It was the daughters of Pawa who taught the Ashaninka women to weave and to make the garment. For men, the neckline is V-shaped; whilst for women it is U-shaped. The male garment has vertical coloured stripes obtained by dyeing the cotton thread. The women’s kushma has horizontal lines. The motifs made from vegetable dyes are also different. On the male garment they are woven and represent details of animal bodies: a macaw face, the tail of the bushmaster snake, larvae, birds, fish… On the female kushma the designs are painted and represent birds, larvae, fish and, above all, jaguars and snakes… After a certain period of use, both types of garment are dyed using mahogany bark and mud, giving them a brown-black colour. The most important difference between the two types of kushma is that male garments are made in the traditional way with cotton (ãpe) woven on a loom, whilst those of the women are made with manufactured cloth.

The headdress (amatherentsi) is made from the straw of the cocão palm (kõtaki) and decorated with macaw feathers. Whilst its use within the indigenous area may be limited, when preparing their luggage for trips outside the village the chiefs generally make sure to take their headdress along with their kushma.

The txoshiki is a type of necklace made from the seeds of several native species. Worn diagonally around the neck in multiple strands, it is generally decorated with adornments (thatane) that hang down the wearer’s back. These adornments are made from seeds, nut shells or feathers (macaw, parrot, toucan, curassow…). Among the different models, the kenpiro reproduces the design and colours of the snake and is considered by the Ashaninka to be the original and most traditional type of txoshiki.

Amongst Ashaninka musical instruments, the most notable are drums (tãpo) and the sõkari flute. The drum, of varying sizes, is made of cedar wood. The trunk is hollowed out and covered at both ends with the skin of a wild pig, peccary or different species of monkey (black-bearded saki, capuchin, woolly…) or occasionally of a ray. The skin is bound to the wood by a rope of natural fibre (imbaúba). The beat is made with drumsticks made from wood or a monkey bone, generally the femur. The sõkari is a panpipe made up of five bamboo tubes bound together with twine made from cotton thread. The bamboo used is a species that the indians call ‘shawope’ and which they collect on the upper Juruá in Peru. The sõkari is usually played by older men and has a symbolic importance. Informants state that it is used to pay homage to Pawa and is different from other types of flute, such as the showiretsi or the totama which are played at the piyarentsi, simply for dancing.