The Dynamics of the Ye'cuana ("Maquiritare") Political System: Stability and Crisis

The Ye'cuana or De'cuana, better known in the anthropologi­cal literature as Maquiritare1) , are approximately 1500 Carib­speaking, tropical-forest people. Their villages21 are scattered along the upper course of the Caura and Paragua Rivers, or bran­ches of the latter (Bolivar State) , and along the Ventuari, Cunucunuma, Padoma and Cuntinamo Rivers and their affluents (Territorio Federal Amazonas) in Venezuela (cf.map). In Brazilian territory there is one other village along the upper course of the Lebarejure River.