Yekuana Book Review

Book Review By Mike Hardcastle
Ye'kuana Basketry Symbology
Portal to a Parallel World
By
Charles Brewer-Carías

One of the latest books by Venezuelan explorer and polymath Charles Brewer-Carias, entitled “Ye’kuana Basketry Symbology, Portal to a Parallel World” is truly an anthropological masterpiece. This astoundingly comprehensive volume delves deeper into the culture and cosmogony of the Ye’kuana indians then has ever been attempted before. After receiving a copy sent to me personally by Charles, I can testify to its encyclopedic scope and the enormous amount of work Charles has put into it. The volume itself is beautifully illustrated throughout, with magnificent photography by Charles and his wife Fanny, and with the help of his daughter Karen, which display the ethnoboany, natural history and anthropology associated with the Ye’kuana indigenous peoples. The book’s main focus is the extraordinary and deep significance of the iconography and mythological symbology that the Ye’kuana people incorporate into their basketry decoration. As well as showcasing the craftsmanship that goes into making these beautifuly woven tribal works of art. This book was patronized and edited by the Juan Carlos Maldonado Art Collection, who saw the importance of this information and have planned a
Ye´kuana translation of it.

Encyclopedic Volume

The book has a interdisciplinary approach to the many topics it covers, as it synthesises an enormous amount of information collected by Charles during his many years of exploration and discovery, into an extremely interesting and highly educational volume. This book will go a long way in helping anthropologists as well as the general lay person to fully appreciate the deep cosmogonic and symbolic meaning of the iconography interwoven into the decorative and functional diversity of their woven basketry pieces, which are all hand made weavings of the highest workmanship and which displays a level of bushcraft rarely seen today.

Photo below by Fanny de Brewer

The enormous amount of information on the multiple topics that this book covers is far to extensive to be covered fully in this short review, as this huge volume is 470 pages long and consists of about ten extensive chapters, each containing numerous subheadings with their scholarly inventory of voluminous anthropological and ethnobotanical articles.This book also displays the magnificent and captivating photography of Charles and his wife Fanny, which showcases the beautifully crafted Indian artifacts, culture, housing and food production methods of this unique indigenous society located in the biologically diverse Venezuelan Amazon. This impressive tome details Charles’ years of exploration and indepth research into the vast array of symbolic iconography represented in the Ye'kuana Basketry. Following are a few perfunctory descriptions of some of my favourite chapters and topics in this scholarly work.

Photo below by Fanny de Brewer

Ye'kuana Cultural Riches

Being a window into the culture i.e. the ethnobotany and anthropology of the Ye’kuana indigenous people, the book explores and thoroughly documents the deep symbolic and cosmogonic meaning of the iconography interwoven into the ornamental and often practically functional variety of food carrying containers, receptacles, and other basketry items which are displayed through the craftsmanship of these intricately woven cultural items.

Photo below by Mark Moffett

Some of the most beautiful basketry examples are the circular flat trays called wáha, of which Charles shows many beautiful examples in the book. It also describes in great detail the deep mythology and cosmogony stories behind the many ornately woven designs and iconography symbols that adorn all of these tribal artefacts and their spiritual significance to the indians. This is all laid out in great detail under the numerous subheadings within each chapter, and also showcases every aspect of the basketry decoration and construction. The vast array of symbolic iconography that adorns the basketry, trays,and other cultural items, preserves the tribe’s creation stories, and their relationship to the local flora and fauna, as well as describing the origins of the indigenous group itself. It explains how the basketry and the iconography woven into them fit into the religious and everyday life of the native peoples. For example in one section of chapter three entitled “The Waha Trays and Their History”, Charles describes each type of iconography symbol in relation to the mammal, bird, and frog species that it represents, as can be seen on page 229. These intricate designs in the weaving represent the local fauna as well as other natural phenomena in symbolic and figurative forms and include the Agouti, Jaguar, monkeys, frog and bat species to name a few. Another aspect of the Ye’kuana culture that Charles describes and illustrates with captivating photographs is their housing i.e. tribal huts and their construction, some of which are enormous, as can be seen on pages 136 to 140 which described the architecture of the communal Ye’kuana house. Charles’ photos and diagrams beautifully capture the internal and external framework, and a particularly captivating shot shows the internal construction of the 25 meter wide conical roof, the photo of which is spread over two pages.

Photo below by Fanny de Brewer

The Ye’kuana indian’s food preparation techniques is one of the many cultural topics indepthly explained, including the production of their traditional Venezuelan thin flatbread called Casabe, made from flour produced from the native plant cassava or yucca, which is found in the northern parts of the South American continent and is used as a food source among many Amazonian tribes. The unique indigenous bread-making procedures are covered in chapter two on pages 152 to 163, including photos showcasing the indian’s techniques of using the long basket casabe pressor called Tengkui, which is a tubular basket around two meters long and made from native cane and used as a pressure press to extract the poisonous juice that is still in the paste, which was acquired from grating the yucca plant’s tubers, which in turn eventually becomes the flour to make the Casaba, after a lengthy process to render it edible. Also shown in beautifully captured photographs are baskets and plates used in other aspects of the yucca paste preparation as it is processed into the Casabe flatbread. As stated before, Charles’ book is far to extensive in its subject matter to be fully covered here and I have barely scratched the surface in this review of what is truly an Encyclopedic Volume on the anthropology and ethnobotony of the Ye’kuana indians.

In short, ‘Ye'kuana Basketry Symbology Portal to a Parallel World’ is truly a tour de force into Charles’ vast and encyclopedic knowledge of the anthrolopological, biological and cultural riches of his native Venezuela. This book does a superb job at scientifically documenting the traditional knowledge and ethnobotany of the indigenous culture and will prove to be a fantastic resource for both the academic and the layman alike, and along with his other books and explorations, has cemented Charles as one of the last great, old school encyclopedic naturalists in the Victorian tradition. The following quote from historian and author Peter Burke, surely applies to Charles’ ongoing life of discovery, quote - “The Polymath is endangered, though not extinct.” - A Social History of Knowledge

Photo Gallery

Photo below by Charles Brewer Carias

Photo below by Fanny de Brewer

Click on Photo Gallery
Click to enlarge

Basket Photos below by Fanny de Brewer

Article on Charles Brewer's new book entitled “Ye’kuana Basketry Symbology: Portal to a Parallel World” - The Humboldt of the 21st Centuryes.aleteia.org/2019/08/10/el-humboldt-del-siglo-xxi-charles-brewer-carias/
Links below to Charle’s website and the main page on my website about his work.
https://brewerexpedition.wixsite.com/charlesbrewercarias
The Bushcraft of Charles Brewer-Carias
All the photos are the Intellectual property of Charles Brewer-Carías, Fanny de Brewer, Mark Moffett, and Julio Lescarboura

Charles with the spanish edition of his book
“Ye’kuana Basketry Symbology: Portal to a Parallel World”- Photo by Fanny de Brewer