Waica - Yanomami

Dr. Sheila Tunnell (stunnell@csn.org)
Tue, 23 Aug 1994 19:56:47 -0600

This is going to sound bimbish, but are the Waica and Yanomami tribes
(both of whom live in Brazil and Venezuela) actually the same tribe???
They both speak languages belonging to the Chibchan - Paezan family,
but are never mentioned together in any of the (reasonably comprehensive)
language dictionaries I've seen - it's always either one or the other.
I've seen a film about the Yanomami and photoghraphs of the Waica, and
they didn't look terribly alike, but that might k just have been my
naivety...:). I thought I'd read somewhere that the Waican subfamily
was sometimes called "Yanoaman" which I thought was a synonym for
Yanomami (as Waika is for Waica), buty haD Thought that they may have
meant a different tribe.

If anyone could sort this out for me, I'd be grateful!!

Thanks, Mark. (Mark Tunnell).