Toromona

Language

The Toromona language is a Tacanan language.

History

No non-natives have contacted this tribe. During the Spanish colonization, settlers found it difficult to adapt to the area of the Amazon Basin. Besides surviving, their main goal was to find a secret place called Paititi, an alleged hiding place of the Incas' most valuable treasures which had been sequestered away from the Spaniards. There are some historical records confirming that the Incas, in fact, sealed storage tunnels in ritual ceremonies. Father Miguel Cabello de Balboa wrote about a city of gold, describing Paititi as a place supposedly protected by warrior women; he also mentioned the Toromona tribe, alleging that they possessed no qualms or reservations with regards to the executing of outsiders.

Norwegian biologist Lars Hafskjold had searched exhaustively for the Toromona, and became quite famous due to his disappearance, somewhere in the region of the Madidi park in 1997.

The Toromona have occasionally been seen by other indigenous peoples in the region. In the 21st century, anthropologist Michael Brohan was informed by members of the Araona people that they had contacted a group in voluntary isolation on the eastern bank of the Manuripi River, who were speakers of either Toromona or a nearly unintelligible dialect of Araona.

Notes

References

1. [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tn "Toromona."] ''Ethnologue.'' Retrieved 5 February 2012.
2. Stolton, Sue. (31 May 2010). "Arguments for protected areas: Multiple benefits for conservation and use". Earthscan.
3. Nassar, Carlos Camacho. (2007). "Pueblos indígenas en aislamiento voluntario y contacto inicial en la Amazonia y el Gran Chaco". International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.
4. Fischermann, Bernard. (2007). "Pueblos indígenas en aislamiento voluntario y contacto inicial en la Amazonia y el Gran Chaco". International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs.