ETHNONYMS: Dätsana, Desâna, Desano, PapurĂ-uara, Wená, Wirá, Wirá-pora
Kin Groups and Descent. Desana society has a phratry organization that is divided into some twenty ranked and named exogamous sibs, each tracing its origin to a common mythical ancestor.
Kinship Terminology. Terminology follows the Dravidian model.
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo (1971). Amazonian Cosmos: The Sexual Religious Symbolism of the Tukano Indians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo (1978). "Desana Animal Categories, Food Restrictions, and the Concept of Color Energies." Journal of Latin American Lore 4(2): 243-291.
Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo (1989). "Desana Texts and Contexts: Origin Myths and Tales of a Tukanoan Tribe of the Colombian Northwest Amazon." Acta Ethnologica et Linguistica, no. 62, Series Americana 12 (Vienna-Föhrenau).
GERARDO REICHEL-DOLMATOFF
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