Pemon

Pemon girl, Venezuela
Total population
6,000
Regions with significant populations
Venezuela,  Brazil,  Guyana
Languages
Pemon, Spanish
Religion
traditional tribal religion, Roman Catholicism[1]

The Pemon (Pemong) are an indigenous people of South America, living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.^[2] They are also known as Arecuna/AricunaJaricuna, , Kamarakoto/Camaracoto, Taurepan/Taulipang.^[1]

They are one of several closely related peoples called Ingarikó and Kapon, and sometimes go by the name of the Macushi (Macuxi, Makuxi).

Language[link]

Pemon (in Spanish: Pemón) is a Cariban language spoken mainly in Venezuela, specifically in the Gran Sabana region of Bolivar State. According to the 2001 census there were 15,094 Pemon speakers in Venezuela.

The Pemon were first encountered by westerners in the 18th century and encouraged to convert to Christianity.^[3] Their society is based on trade and considered egalitarian and decentralized, and in Venezuela funding from petrodollars have helped fund community projects, and ecotourism opportunities are also being developed.^[4] In Venezuela Pemon live in the Gran Sabana grassland plateau dotted with tabletop mountains where the Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall, plunges from Auyantepui Canaima National Park.^[5]

The Makuxi, who are also Pemon speakers, are found in Brazil and Guyana in areas close to the Venezuelan border.

Myths[link]

Three Pemon youths

The Pemon have a very rich mythic tradition which continues to this day, despite the conversion of many Pemon to Catholicism or Protestant religions spread by missionaries.

Pemon mythology includes gods residing in the grassland area's table-top mountains called tepui.^[6] The mountains are off-limits to the living as they are also home to Ancestor spirits are called "mawari".^[7]

The first non-native person to seriously study Pemon myths and language was the German ethnologist Theodor Koch-Grunberg, who visited Roraima in 1912.

Important myths describe the origins of the Sun and Moon, the creation of the tepui mountains, which dramatically rise from the savannahs of the Gran Sabana and the activities of the creator hero Makunaima and his brothers.

"Kueka" stone controversy[link]

In 1999, Wolfgang Kraker von Schwarzenfeld arranged the transport of a red stone boulder, weighing about 35 metric tons, from Venezuela's Canaima National Park to Berlin Tiergarten for his "global stone" project. Since that time there is an ongoing but yet unsuccessful dispute of the Pemon trying to get the stone back, involving German and Venezuelan authorities and embassies, up to the current president Hugo Chávez.^[8][9][10]

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Venezuela: the Pemon pages 112,113 and 178 December 2008 Conde and Nast Traveler
• Theodor Koch-Grunberg 1917 – "Vom Roraima Zum Orinoco" ("From Roraima to the Orinoco")
• David John Thomas 1982 – "Order Without Government: The Society of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela" (University of Illinois Press)

External links[link]

• Pemon Myths and Legends
• Pemón health

v t e Ethnic groups in Venezuela Current indigenous Auaké · Baniwa · Hiwi · Ingarikó · Kali'na · Marueta · Motilone Barí · Pemon · Piaroa · Sanumá · Warao · Wayuu · Yanomami · Ye'kuana Extinct indigenous Caquetio · Cumanagoto · Guahibo · Mariche · Saladoid · Timoto-cuicas Non-Indigenous African · Arab · Armenian · German · Indian · Italian · Japanese · Jewish · Lebanese · Portuguese · Spanish · White

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since July 2009. Its lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. Tagged since November 2009.

Raymond Paul "Ray" Mears (born 7 February 1964) is an English woodsman, instructor, author and TV presenter. His TV appearances cover bushcraft and survival techniques, and he is best known for the TV series Ray Mears' Bushcraft, Ray Mears' World of Survival, Extreme Survival, Survival with Ray Mears, Wild Britain with Ray Mears and Ray Mears Goes Walkabout.

Early life[link]

Mears grew up in Kenley, Greater London, and the North Downs, where he discovered a countryside abundant with wildlife. Educated at Reigate Grammar School, a co-educational independent school in Reigate, Surrey, he learned to track foxes in the forest at a young age. As a boy, he desired to sleep out on the trail, but unable to afford camping equipment, he resorted to setting up camp using what he could find in his surroundings.

Interests[link]

Mears's enthusiasm for his subject, combined with his broad knowledge of survival and the uses which may be made of plants, trees and other natural materials found in woodland, forest or desert, have made him a popular figure in TV broadcasting in the UK.^{[citation needed]} He has travelled extensively across the world for his TV series and has learned survival techniques from the indigenous peoples he has met. In his programmes he demonstrates his knowledge of the wild, how to find food from seeds, berries, roots and other growing things, and how to survive by constructing temporary shelters, fires and canoes from natural materials.

Mears has practiced Judo for many years. He once proudly on TV when challenged as a guest wrestled the then winner of a 6 player bushmans tournament. Mears emerged victorious after a strenuous and competitive match. The bush community were most impressed.

Mears is particularly interested in the survival of groups of resistance fighters and partisans for extended periods during the Second World War, such as the Norwegian heavy water plant saboteurs (see The Real Heroes of Telemark^[1]) and the Bielski brothers in Belarus (see Extreme Survival).

Personal life[link]

Mears met his partner, Rachel, in 1992 when she attended one of his five day survival courses. The couple lived in East Sussex with her two adult children, and married in 2005, after Rachel was diagnosed with breast cancer. Rachel died from cancer in 2006, aged 50, and her ashes are scattered in the Ashdown forest near their home.^[2]

While filming a documentary in Wyoming in 2005 Mears was involved in a serious accident. The helicopter in which he and his camera crew were travelling struck the ground during a steep low level turn, and broke apart, rolling to a stop. The fuel tank was ruptured in the accident, and escaping fuel covered Mears and the crew. No fire occurred, and Mears was able to escape the wreckage and assist in the rescue and first aid of one of the crew who was badly injured. Mears escaped uninjured.^[3]

Non-television work[link]

Mears started his bushcraft company aged 19. Mears' first book, The Survival Handbook, was published in 1990. Mears has continued to publish books, both standalone works, and as accompaniments to his TV series.

In September 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University, and in the same year he began to deliver public lectures across the United Kingdom on his experiences in front of and behind the lens.

In July 2010, Mears was asked by Northumbria Police to help them track fugitive killer Raoul Moat, after he fled his temporary tent-based shelter in the village of Rothbury.^[4]

Television[link]

Mears has made a number of series for BBC television, visiting various parts of the world and covering such topics as bushcraft and survival skills, the traditional culture of indigenous peoples, and the achievements of noted explorers.

In 2009 he was approached by ITV to present a planned revival of its long-running nature documentary series Survival.^[5] The resulting three-part series was rebranded Survival with Ray Mears and broadcast on ITV1 in 2010. Each episode followed Mears as he used his tracking skills to locate bears, wolves and leopards. In a Radio Times interview to promote the series, Mears complained of being typecast by the BBC.^[6] This series was followed by Wild Britain with Ray Mears, also broadcast by ITV.

Series[link]

• Wild Tracks (BBC, 1994)
• Tracks (BBC, 1994–97)
• Ray Mears' World of Survival (BBC, 1997–98, 2 seasons of 6 episodes each)
• Ray Mears' Country Tracks (BBC, 1998, 2002–03)
• The Essential Guide to Rocks (BBC Education, 1998)
• Ray Mears' Extreme Survival (BBC, 1999–2002, 3 seasons of 6 episodes each)
• Ray Mears' Adventure Special (BBC, 2001) – Mears takes Ewan McGregor into the Honduran jungle on the trail of the prehistoric people of the Mosquito Coast.
• Ray Mears' Real Heroes of Telemark (BBC, 2003)
• Ray Mears' Bushcraft (BBC, 2004–05, 2 seasons of 5 episodes each)
• Ray Mears' Wild Food (BBC, 2007, 5 episodes)
• Ray Mears Goes Walkabout (BBC, June 2008, 4 episodes)^[7] – Mears tours the Australian outback. An accompanying hardcover book was published in the UK by Hodder and Stoughton in March 2008. In the series Mears meets one of his heroes: Les Hiddins (aka "The Bush Tucker Man"). He also heads to the Kimberley region to meet the reputed aboriginal artist and bush guide Ju Ju Wilson.
• Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness (BBC Two, Autumn 2009, 6 episodes) – Mears follows in the footsteps of pioneers who opened up Canada, such as Samuel Hearne, John Rae and David Thompson.
• Survival with Ray Mears (ITV, Spring 2010, 3 episodes)
• Wild Britain with Ray Mears (ITV, Autumn 2010, 6 episodes) - To be followed in 2011 by extended 60 minute episodes with exclusive additional content to be broadcast on UKTV's natural history channel Eden.

Books[link]

• The Survival Handbook (1990)
• The Outdoor Survival Handbook (1992)
• Ray Mears' World of Survival (1997)
• Bushcraft (2002)
• Essential Bushcraft (2003)
• The Real Heroes of Telemark: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Stop Hitler's Atomic Bomb (2003)
• Ray Mears' Bushcraft Survival (2005)
• Wild Food by Ray Mears & Professor Gordon Hillman (2007)
• Ray Mears Goes Walkabout (2008)
• Vanishing World - A Life of Bushcraft (2008)
• Northern Wilderness (2009)

Quotations[link]

Quotations by Ray Mears include:

• "Bushcraft is what you carry in your mind and your muscles."
• "The great thing about bushcraft is that wherever you go, the skills go with you."
• "One of the great things about bushcraft is that skills you learn in your back garden can be used all over the world." ^[8]
• "Knowledge is the key to survival and the best thing about that is: it doesn't weigh anything."
• "You cannot underestimate the importance of preparation."
• "As far as I'm concerned, these people are just showmen." On Bear Grylls^[9]

See also[link]

• Les Hiddins
• Mors Kochanski
• Lofty Wiseman
• Richard Proenneke
• Les Stroud
• Bear Grylls
• Rüdiger Nehberg
• Bruce Parry
• Lars Monsen

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Ray Mears on Myspace
• Ray Mears at the Internet Movie Database
• Ray Mears Woodlore on Facebook
• Ray Mears Bushcraft's channel on YouTube
• Ray Mears' Survival shows on Dave (UKTV)
• Photographs of 2005 helicopter accident
• Wild Britain on itvWILD