Achagua people


The Achagua are an Indigenous people of Colombia and Venezuela. At the time of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, their territory covered the present-day Venezuelan states of Bolívar, Guárico and Barinas. In the late twentieth century there were several hundred Achaguas remaining.

Culture

Achagua people live in large villages. Clans live together in communal houses. Polygamy is commonplace. They farm crops, such as bitter cassava. They traditionally poison their arrows with curare.

Language

Achagua people speak the Achagua language, a Maipurean Arawakan language.