The Karitiana call themselves simply Yjxa, the first-person plural inclusive pronoun – ‘we,’ also translated as ‘people’ – in opposition to the Opok, the ‘non-Indians’ in general, and the opok pita, the ‘other Indians.’ The Indians themselves state that the name was given to them by rubber tappers who invaded their territory at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The origin or etymology of the word Karitiana remains unknown. Foto: Felipe Ferreira Vander Velden, 2003.
Rapaz karitiana trançando uma peça de cestaria a ser comercializada.
In recent years, their main battles in terms of their physical and sociocultural reproduction have been the demands for amplification of their Indigenous Territory and investment in school education, as a form of reinforcing teaching of the Karitiana language – the only surviving member of the Arikém linguistic family – and valorizing the customs and historical narratives that singularize them as a people. The Karitiana comprise one of the many groups located in the state of Rondônia still little studied by Anthropology.
