Festival of the Dia del Niño Añu

This is a short ethnographic exploration of the annual "Day of the Añu Child" festival held in the Sinamaica Lagoon in July. The Sinamaica Lagoon is located in Venezuela's Zulia State, adjacent to Lake Maracaibo, which is the largest body of freshwater in South America. Its home to the Añu indigenous community, members of the group live in small houses built on stilts rising out of the lagoon's brackish waters.

The main form of transportation for the Añu is by lanchas, small shallow boats powered either by small outboard motors or paddles. The ancestors of the Añu were the first South American inhabitants to make contact with Spanish colonials.

Today they practice a religion that is a hybrid of catholic faith and animistic religions that pre-date Spanish influences, as in the representation of the Virgen de Carmen as both the Virgin Mary and Madre del niño Añu.

Shot with a Panasonic camcorder provided by the University of California, Santa Cruz.
My research was also funded by the Anthropology Dept. at UCSC, through the generosity of a preliminary fieldwork grant.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Añu
• Indigenous
• Sinamaica
• Lagoon
• Ethnographic
• Anthropology
• Venezuela
• Zulia
• Wayuu
• David
• Hernandez
• Palmar
• Milagros
• Semfan
• Syncretism
• Hybrid
• Virgen
• del
• Carmen
• Drew
• Annis

[MrJgeraldo]

por favor como van a decir que este dia se celebra en la laguna de sinamaica el dia del niño añu, el 16 de julio se celebra es la fiesta de la virgen del carmen. y me parece muy mal que en vez de traducirlo al idioma de nuestra etnia lo traduzcan es a ingles.