PURCHASE INCLUDES: One
blowgun (sizes may range from 60-84 inches), quiver and darts (5-12 depending on the
maker).
Each blowgun and quiver will have
a number tag for idenification. The tribespeople are very strict about
these being matched and sold as a unit - breaking the set will warrant bad luck
(according to the tribespeople).
SHIPPING NOTE:
The product weight weighs out at approximately 5-7 pounds. UPS considers this product
"oversize" when
weight plus box dimensions of 61 (or more)x5x5 are used. Therefore, the shipping
weight is reflected at 30 pounds by UPS. You can check this information on
UPS.com.
Once there you will be asked a series of questions. ORIGIN: use our zip
code of 98258. DESTINATION ZIP CODE: use your zip code. Pick
"residential" box. DROP OFF/PICK UP: Daily;
PACKAGING: Your packaging; PACKAGE WEIGHT: 8 lbs. PACKAGE
DIMENSIONS: 80X6X6. INSURED VALUE: leave blank. Select
"calculate."
This
type of pucuna (blowgun) is crafted by the Urarina people. These pucuna are
covered with a hard resin and they do have a mouthpiece—a small bone from the
sajino (Tayassu tajacu), or the Huangana (Tayassu albirostris). Both are peccary, a kind of wild pig.
The inside of the
pucuna is made from the very hard wood of the pona palm (Socratea). The outside resin is from the copal tree, (Protium)
Today more craftsmen mix common petroleum tar
with copal. A local Bora tribesman tested the resin on your Urarina pucunas and
told me all had a high percent of copal if not 100 percent.
One
of the characteristics of the Urarina pucuna is the large quiver (cargajo) and
gourd. Craftsmen fashion the
cargajo from a piece of bamboo stalk, (Bambusa).
The darts within are probably from the inayuga palm, (Maximiliana).The gourd is from the calabash tree, (Lagenaria siceraria). A hole
is cut in the gourd and the inside material removed. The hunter then places
cotton from the kapok tree (Ceiba)
inside the gourd and a tuff is pulled through the hole ready for use as a gasket
to seal the dart in the pucuna.
Each
tribe finds poisons from various sources: curare, (Strychnos sp), the
skin of the famous poison frog, (Dendrobates or Phyllobates), and various
snakes; shushupe or bushmaster (Lachesis
muta) for example.
About
the Urarinas—
You
can click here
and bring up a map of Peru. The Urarinas number about three-thousand people and
are located in the basin of the Rio Chambira. On the map, look to the west of
Iquitos to the empty area between the Rio Pastaza and the Rio Napo. That is the
Rio Chambira basin.
The
Urarinas have their own language and the word Urarina means “people from
below”—probably a geographic reference from times past.
Oil
has been discovered along the Rio Chambira near Ecuador and there is much
concern about the effects these petroleum fields will have on the Urarina
culture.
The
husband and wife team of Bartholomew Dean and Michelle McKinley, anthropologists
from the University of Kansas, have studied the Urarinas extensively. A physician, Dr. Ritchie Witzig, has worked with Urarina
health issues. Like most tribes in the Peruvian Amazon, malaria and intestinal
parasites are the biggest health problems.
