On the Origin of 'Taushiro'
The origin of the name Taushiro to refer to a group of people who historically spoke a language isolate on the right-bank tributaries of the middle Tigre River in Peru (see here) has long been a mystery. First contacted by Jesuit missionaries in 1684 (more details here), throughout the colonial era they were referred to as Pinches or Pinchis. In fact, this designation was in use at least until the 1920s (Tessmann 1930). However, by the time that Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) linguist-missionaries began working with the Taushiro in the early 1970s (their first visit was in 1971), the name Taushiro had taken hold, seemingly out of thin air. Nectalí Alicea (p.c.), the SIL member who came to work most with the Taushiro in the 1970s, has written that "El nombre taushiro no es usado por ellos. Los mestizos los llamaban asi." ("The name Taushiro is not used by them [i.e., Taushiros]. Mestizos call them that.") The question becomes, then, why did outsiders cease using the term Pinche and begin using the term Taushiro in the half century between the 1920s and 1970s.
I am currently writing from the Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA) in Austin, TX. One of the best parts of attending conferences is the opportunity to chat about all sorts of topics related to the geographic area where I work with friends and colleagues who work in the same and neighboring areas. Martin Kohlberger, a graduate student from Leiden who works on Shiwiar, a Chicham (aka Jivaroan) language of Ecuador and Peru, relayed the following anecdote to me. In working on the translation of some lexical items this past summer, he encountered the form tawiʃiɾ, which he had previously translated as 'Taushiro', but on which he was later corrected by a speaker who said that the translation was incorrect. She informed him that in fact the word refers to the Wao (aka Huaorani), speakers of a language isolate farther to the north in Ecuador with whom the Shiwiar have intermittent contact. This word has (minimally) the variants tawʃiɾ, tawiʃuɾ, and tuwiʃuɾ. And a quick look in Fast et al. (1996:270), Diccionario achuar-shiwiar-castellano, further reveals the form <tawíshur> 'taushiro (grupo idiomático casi extinto que vive entre los ríos Corrientes y Tigre', although it does not appear in Aguaruna, another Chicham language (Wipio Deicat (1996); Overall (p.c.)). (The form <tawishur> 'huaorani (s)' is confirmed for Shiwiar, though, in Kachay Illanes (2013).) Today the Shiwiar population spans (from west to east) the Bobonaza, Macusari, Corrientes, and Conambo drainages between Ecuador and Peru. To the southeast of this region the Macusari flows into the Corrientes, and from this juncture Taushiro territory of the 1940s lies approximately 40 kilometers further to the southeast. From this perspective it is to be expected that Shiwiars of this region would have an indigenous term to refer to Taushiros.
Also present at CILLA was Tuntiak Katan Jua, a Shuar (Chicham) man born on the upper Morona River. His presence gave me a rare opportunity to do a bit of lexical elicitation with a native speaker of yet another Chicham language. Tuntiak informed me that the Shuar term tawiʃuɾ refers to "un grupo desconocido" ("an unknown group"), and he arrived at this conclusion in part in the following way. His first reaction to my inquiry regarding this word was that he remembers his grandparents using it to refer to a Shuar or Achuar who lived "en un cierto sitio" ("in a certain place"). He then messaged some Shiwiar friends from Ecuador, who reconfirmed the Wao designation. He elaborated that this term refers to other indigenous groups, and not to white outsiders. Whence, then, the connection with other Chicham individuals who live "in a certain place"? I suspect that the term may have been used to refer to distant Chicham neighbors with whom other Chicham were not on good terms. That there be a unique lexical item for this relation is especially likely in the Chicham case, since intra-group killings and warfare were incredibly frequent traditionally. Martin promises to investigate the meaning of this term in more depth in the coming month, when he will be in Chicham territory on fieldwork.
The link between Chicham peoples and the Taushiro is at this point only speculative, as the last fluent speaker of Taushiro, Amadeo García García, has indicated that, as of the 1950s, when he was a child, Taushiros maintained no traditional contacts with neighboring indigenous groups (apart from Tigre Kichwas). However, c1958 a Chicham patrón, one Cesario Hualinga, began extracting lechecaspi (a wood) with forced Taushiro labor. It seems probable that the use of the term Taushiro by local mestizos is the result of the use of the term by Hualinga to refer to his peones during this period, such that by the time SIL missionaries arrived in 1971 the term was in common use. Regardless, the term is clearly of Chicham origin.
References:
Fast, Gerhard, Ruby Fast, and Daniel Fast (compilers). 1996. Diccionario achuar-shiwiar-castellano. Lima: Ministerio de Educación/Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Kachay Illanes, Bernal José. 2013. Gramática de shiwiar chicham/Shiwiar Hicham Timiatrusar Ajeramau. MA thesis, Universidad de Cuenca.
Tessmann, Günter. 1930. Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: Grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde. Hamburg: Friedrichsen, de Gruyter & Co.
Wipio Deicat, Gerardo (compilers). 1996. Diccionario aguaruna-castellano castellano-aguaruna. Lima: Ministerio de Educación/Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
I am currently writing from the Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA) in Austin, TX. One of the best parts of attending conferences is the opportunity to chat about all sorts of topics related to the geographic area where I work with friends and colleagues who work in the same and neighboring areas. Martin Kohlberger, a graduate student from Leiden who works on Shiwiar, a Chicham (aka Jivaroan) language of Ecuador and Peru, relayed the following anecdote to me. In working on the translation of some lexical items this past summer, he encountered the form tawiʃiɾ, which he had previously translated as 'Taushiro', but on which he was later corrected by a speaker who said that the translation was incorrect. She informed him that in fact the word refers to the Wao (aka Huaorani), speakers of a language isolate farther to the north in Ecuador with whom the Shiwiar have intermittent contact. This word has (minimally) the variants tawʃiɾ, tawiʃuɾ, and tuwiʃuɾ. And a quick look in Fast et al. (1996:270), Diccionario achuar-shiwiar-castellano, further reveals the form <tawíshur> 'taushiro (grupo idiomático casi extinto que vive entre los ríos Corrientes y Tigre', although it does not appear in Aguaruna, another Chicham language (Wipio Deicat (1996); Overall (p.c.)). (The form <tawishur> 'huaorani (s)' is confirmed for Shiwiar, though, in Kachay Illanes (2013).) Today the Shiwiar population spans (from west to east) the Bobonaza, Macusari, Corrientes, and Conambo drainages between Ecuador and Peru. To the southeast of this region the Macusari flows into the Corrientes, and from this juncture Taushiro territory of the 1940s lies approximately 40 kilometers further to the southeast. From this perspective it is to be expected that Shiwiars of this region would have an indigenous term to refer to Taushiros.
Also present at CILLA was Tuntiak Katan Jua, a Shuar (Chicham) man born on the upper Morona River. His presence gave me a rare opportunity to do a bit of lexical elicitation with a native speaker of yet another Chicham language. Tuntiak informed me that the Shuar term tawiʃuɾ refers to "un grupo desconocido" ("an unknown group"), and he arrived at this conclusion in part in the following way. His first reaction to my inquiry regarding this word was that he remembers his grandparents using it to refer to a Shuar or Achuar who lived "en un cierto sitio" ("in a certain place"). He then messaged some Shiwiar friends from Ecuador, who reconfirmed the Wao designation. He elaborated that this term refers to other indigenous groups, and not to white outsiders. Whence, then, the connection with other Chicham individuals who live "in a certain place"? I suspect that the term may have been used to refer to distant Chicham neighbors with whom other Chicham were not on good terms. That there be a unique lexical item for this relation is especially likely in the Chicham case, since intra-group killings and warfare were incredibly frequent traditionally. Martin promises to investigate the meaning of this term in more depth in the coming month, when he will be in Chicham territory on fieldwork.
The link between Chicham peoples and the Taushiro is at this point only speculative, as the last fluent speaker of Taushiro, Amadeo García García, has indicated that, as of the 1950s, when he was a child, Taushiros maintained no traditional contacts with neighboring indigenous groups (apart from Tigre Kichwas). However, c1958 a Chicham patrón, one Cesario Hualinga, began extracting lechecaspi (a wood) with forced Taushiro labor. It seems probable that the use of the term Taushiro by local mestizos is the result of the use of the term by Hualinga to refer to his peones during this period, such that by the time SIL missionaries arrived in 1971 the term was in common use. Regardless, the term is clearly of Chicham origin.
References:
Fast, Gerhard, Ruby Fast, and Daniel Fast (compilers). 1996. Diccionario achuar-shiwiar-castellano. Lima: Ministerio de Educación/Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
Kachay Illanes, Bernal José. 2013. Gramática de shiwiar chicham/Shiwiar Hicham Timiatrusar Ajeramau. MA thesis, Universidad de Cuenca.
Tessmann, Günter. 1930. Die Indianer Nordost-Perus: Grundlegende Forschungen für eine systematische Kulturkunde. Hamburg: Friedrichsen, de Gruyter & Co.
Wipio Deicat, Gerardo (compilers). 1996. Diccionario aguaruna-castellano castellano-aguaruna. Lima: Ministerio de Educación/Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
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