ETHNONYMS: Ajaju, Carijona, Guaque/Huaque, Mesaya, Murciélagos, Omaua/Umaua (and variants)
The dozens of inhabitants of a village lived together in a large circular house with a conical roof, ordered internally according to nuclear families. The slash-and-burn fields were nearby. Houses were of pole construction with leafthatched roofs. Separate square family dwellings became usual after about 1900, most with elevated floors and internal partitions.
No reliable information about this subject is available. Open conflicts between the inhabitants of a village were avoided. In the twentieth century some shamans, accused of sorcery against their own people, were killed.
HELMUT SCHINDLER