Pemon

The Pemon or Pemón (Pemong) are indigenous people living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana. The Pemon people are divided into many dialects and traditions, which are; Arekuna, Kamarakoto, and Taurepang. The Pemon are part of the larger Cariban language family, and include six groups including the Arekuna, Ingarikó, Kamarakoto, Tualipang, Mapoyo and Macushi/Makushi (Macuxi or Makuxi in Brazil). While ethnographic data on these groups are scant, Iris Myers produced one of the most detailed accounts of the Makushi in the 1940s, and her work is heavily relied upon for comparisons between historical and contemporary Makushi life. The Pemon were first encountered by westerners in the 18th century and converted by missionaries to Christianity. Their society is based on trade and considered egalitarian and decentralized, and in Venezuela, funding from petrodollars have helped fund community projects, and ecotourism opportunities are also being developed. In Venezuela, Pemon live in the Gran Sabana grassland plateau dotted with tabletop mountains where the Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall, plunges from Auyantepui in Canaima National Park. In Brazil, Pemon live among other indigenous people near the borders of Venezuela and Guyana in villages within the Terras Indígenas São Marcos and Raposa Serra do Sol. There are 792 Pemon according to a 2014 estimate. The Makuxi, who are also Pemon speakers, are found in Brazil and Guyana in areas close to the Venezuelan border. The Pemon language and people have been extremely affected by tourism and historical events like the establishment of the Canaima camp founded by the Boulton family nearby the Canaima town, where the demographic concentration of Pemon people is established. Many Pemon people work in hotels and tourism. This deeply affected the tradition of the Pemon people, as they turned out to be a Catholic majority population, and left behind their ancestral language and belief, still, many Pemon people, known as "Chamanes" still practice the ancestral religion, mostly for healthcare.