The Northwestern Amazon malocas: Craft now and then

Abstract

In the Northwestern Amazon, resilience in construction has been traditionally conceived as a capacity for social, climatic, and spatial adaptability. Through methods of seasonal reconstruction based on lightweight enclosures made mainly from palms, vernacular housing, or malocas, in the region have proven efficient from environmental, human comfort, and cultural perspectives. Intricately woven palms, layered to shape roofs and walls, form enclosures that repel water, insulate heat, and reflect light while embodying specific projections of the body in space as the basis of unique cosmological perspectives of spatial organization. The palm-weave is the very root of the construction ethos of Northwestern Amazon housing. In the last few decades, these complex woven enclosures have been progressively replaced with industrial panels made of materials such as galvanized steel or cement, simply because of their low economic cost and availability. The loss of the palm-weave in roof-walls is not a mere replacement but a supplantation of material culture and has profound environmental, human comfort, and social implications. In a context where resilience has been shaped cognitively and physically through a plant-based material culture of adaptability, what is the extent of a potential craft disruption? The supplantation of the palm-weave technical practice implies a loss of social engagement in a craft that has defined an understanding of belonging and inhabitation. This article addresses how the geometric, scale, and spatial characteristics originating from the distinctive palm-weave craft of the Western Amazon malocas of the Bora, Miraña, Muiname (Witoto), Murui (Witoto), Yukuna, Tikuna, and Makuna groups perform as a living entity. By questioning the differences between craft preservation vis-à-vis reclamation, the author explores the specific architectural and social characteristics that are locally valued in the inherited craft to create a path for discussing future generations of palm-weave in the Northwestern Amazon.

Natural and human-mediated drivers of microevolution in Neotropical palms: a historical genomics approach

“…are major sources of food and of building and handicraft materials in Amazonia (Sosnowska et al 2015; Cummings and Read 2016). Their leaves are traditionally used in basketry and to build houses (see for example maloca’s walls and roof, García et al 2015; Davy 2007; Fadiman 2008; Coomes 2004; Gutierrez 2020; Kahn 1993), while their fruits are used to make oil ( e.g . ‘seje’ oil) and beverages ( e.g .…”

Socratea exorrhiza, two Amazonian palms used for thatching

“…Due to the low durability, the scarcity of leaves in some places, and the closeness to cities, palm roofs are often replaced by more durable tiles (Brokamp et al 2014, Gutiérrez 2020). This shift is often caused by government initiatives (Salo et al 2014), leading, in some cases, to a loss of cultural resilience and indigenous autonomy (Salo et al 2014, Gutiérrez 2020.…”

“…Due to the low durability, the scarcity of leaves in some places, and the closeness to cities, palm roofs are often replaced by more durable tiles (Brokamp et al 2014, Gutiérrez 2020). This shift is often caused by government initiatives (Salo et al 2014), leading, in some cases, to a loss of cultural resilience and indigenous autonomy (Salo et al 2014, Gutiérrez 2020. Despite the change, if the leaves are abundant, many inhabitants prefer traditional roofs, at least in henhouses or kitchens, as we have seen in the rural area of Leticia, and as has been observed in Ecuador for Phytelephas aequatorialis roofs (Brokamp et al 2014).…”

“…With these two palms, large tiles are produced, which are 3 m long and 1 m wide (with an effective roof coverage of ca. 0.6 m 2 ), and are one of the main traditional roof materials in the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon (Mejía 1992, Vásquez & Baluarte 1998, Brokamp et al 2011, Mesa & Galeano 2013, Gutiérrez 2020, and has become the favorite one in tourist sites (as lodges, small hotels and restaurants) around the city of Leticia, due to its freshness and beauty (Navarro et al 2011).…”

“…Although the uses of both species for roofing have been documented (e.g., Bernal et al 2011, Macía et al 2011, Mesa & Galeano 2013, Salo et al 2014, Gutiérrez 2020), as has their trade in Peru (Mejía 1992, Pyhälä et al 2006, Warren 2008, Brokamp et al 2011, Cotta 2015, Oñate et al 2018, little is known about their management practices and their trade in Colombia, specifically in the vicinity of Leticia, where most of the market for this type of roof is concentrated. The growing demand for Lepidocaryum roofs in this area has generated so much pressure on the populations of both species, that harvestable palms are increasingly farther away, and harvest effort is accordingly larger, leading to intensive or destructive harvesting practices, which can cause the local exhaustion of the resource (Navarro et al 2011).…”