In his doctoral thesis in anthropology, Christian Sørhaug explains why the swamp dwelling Warao Indians pick up a bicycle at a large city garbage dump and use the funds from Chavez’ missions to buy DVD players.

Sørhaug conducted fieldwork in the Orinoco Delta in Venezuela where about 30,000 Warao Indians live. The Warao (people from the rivers edges) environment is dominated by water; river, channels, tidal waters, rainy seasons and the yearly flooding. Their houses have palm thatches and are built on stilts. Their traditional activities include fishing, making hammocks, working the gardens, gathering in the woods, housework, story telling, fighting with the neighbours and being with friends and family. There is also a lot of interaction going on with other indigenous and non-indigenous group. The most important group the Warao relate to are the Hotarao. Hotarao means ‘people from the hard land’ and includes all the Creoles/whites like doctors, politicians, tourists, missionaries or anthropology students.

Gargabe heaps and the case of the bicycle

When asked why he was interested in researching the meaning of consumption for the Warao, Sørhaug explains that he was struck what he calls the ‘mystery of the bike’. Outside the city of Ciudad Guyana, a city were many Warao emigrate, there is a garbage heap where they gather industrialised goods that have been discarded by urban dwellers bringing them back to their villages. It takes the Warao several months to paddle up the Orinoco River in canoes to reach Cambalache, the garbage heap. Many goods are brought back to the villages, from clothes to flashlights, pots, pans and shoes, but what surprised Sørhaug the most was the bicycle that one of the villagers brought back with him from one of such trips.

- By far the most useless thing that was ever brought back from the garbage heap was a bike. The lower part of the Orinoco Delta is a swamp, continuously inundated, and flooded by the diurnal tides. There are absolutely no places to use the bike in this part of the world, apart from the walking bridge between the houses, but biking on them is also a good way to get hurt. Francisco, the young man who brought the bike, gave no reason except that he liked the bike. With all the hardship he had to go trough to get hold of this type of technology, it truly amazed me that he chose to take such a completely useless thing all this way.

The episode of the bike inspired Sørhaugs to focus his Phd thesis on the ways the Warao engage with consumer goods; both local and exogenous to the delta. He is now studying the meanings and understandings that the engagement with consumer goods generates for the Warao. He expects that this will lead to more general conclusions regarding how changes in consumer patterns affect people’s cultural space.

Sources and uses of money among the Warao

The ways the Warao earn money are diverse; from selling ‘suitcase art’ (handicrafts adapted to fit in tourists’ suitcases) and lumber to working for others and receiving government funds. The latter have been enhanced by the Hugo Chavez administration with social welfare programmes that include educational stipends that are received by several families in the village. Sørhaug explains that the money received from government funds is spent on items such as flour, sugar, clothes and kitchen utensils. However, a significant part of the money received through subsidies is also spent on other not as ‘basic’ items, such as electric appliances.

Sørhaug explains what type of items people buy with government money:

- The funds that are acquired are not just used on essentials, but a large part is spent on "conspicuous consumption", that is, stuff connected with leisure. Recently the government funds have been made especially available through "Las Missiones", social welfare programs propagated by the Hugo Chavez administration. Observing the use of the funds, a large amount was spent on TV’s, DVD-players, Stereos and electric generators to run the media show. In the global trade market, electronic gadgets are today reasonably cheap, making them accessible for marginalised and money-poor people like the Warao. For a people who are used to live off their surroundings, money is more a way of getting hold of foreign consumer goods like outboard motors and Stereo’s, than spending it on food stuff, which is ready at hand in their environment.

Sørhaug argues that the fact that the Warao purchase electric appliances does not imply that they want to become like the Hotarao (Creoles/whites). Far from this, the Warao use industrialized consumer artefacts as a means of expressing who they are. It is not about acculturation. The incorporation of ‘modern’ consumer goods in their everyday life is just another aspect of what being Warao means today.

Indigenising foreign goods and consuming out of ‘curiosity’

Sørhaug’s approach to the study of consumption of the Warao draws on material cultures’ studies focussing on what is consumed and how this relates to identity and ideas of the self. He does not support traditional perspectives in social sciences where ‘modern’ consumption by indigenous people is seen as a problem. Under his approach, it is not that by consuming industrialized consumer goods the Warao people become less indigenous. On the contrary, village people indigenize foreign consumption goods; they transform them and fit them in their everyday lives and activities. He also disagrees with the approaches that victimise indigenous people in their relation to markets. His fieldwork experience has showed him that Warao Indians far from being passive victims of global forces are active participants eager to engage in buying modern stuff, talking and fantasising about it. Sørhaug also highlights the role of curiosity and emulation as drivers of consumption. He says:

- What seems to be the case it that a lot of the consumer behaviour is about status, experimentation, curiosity and social relations. It is not desperation that leads the Warao to engage with all the different foreign consumer stuff, but rather curiosity. Another reason seems to be equality - in the sense that they feel they are entitled to the same type of goods that the Creoles (non-indigenous Venezuelans) have. The Creole will sometimes come by and note how poor the Warao are, showing off their fancy boats, clothes and other types of consumer goods. In the village a lot of people discuss these themes, and when someone get hold of money and buy stuff, they flaunt it, and imitate the Creole. Not to become like the Creole, but to demonstrate that they are just as good, that they are also able to get hold of such stuff.

Christian Sørhaug is a Phd candidate at the Historical Museum of the University of Oslo. He has been researching the Warao Indians since 2001 and has contributed, among other things, to the exhibition Amerika: framtid, fortid, identitet currently on display at the Historical Museum . More information about the project can be obtained by contacting Christian Sørhaug at christian.Sorhaug@khm.uio.no