A Tale of Pudicho’s People: Cashinahua Accounts of European Contacts in the Twentieth Century

Early in the twentieth century a group of Cashinahua migrated from Brazil to Peru to escape the turmoil of the rubber boom era. Dr. Richard Montag provides first-hand accounts of the experiences of members of this group. Pudicho, a retired headman and the primary source for the accounts, reports his boyhood experiences, the migration, and more recent happenings. Montag worked with him for about eight years, recording, transcribing, and analyzing the accounts. He also worked with Pudicho's son and two nephews and so was able to bring the accounts up to 1994.

Richard Montag and his wife Susan began living among the Cashinahua in 1969, at which time the group was monolingual. The accounts of this work are one aspect of the Montags' study of the language and culture and were the basis of his Ph.D. dissertation.

The Cashinahua live on various rivers and streams at the headwaters of the Juruá and Purús rivers in Brazil and Peru. Montag's study makes it possible for readers to visualize events and cultural practices that very few outsiders have ever had the privilege of observing.