The Palikur Indians, an Aruak group, live on the banks of the Urucauá river in Brazil and in some localities in French Guiana. During the 17th century they were at war for a long time with the Galibi, a northern Carib group. The Galibi-Marworno, on the other hand, live on an island on the Uaçá river and are the descendants of various ethnic groups, essencially Carib. Today they speak French patois. They also involved themselves in conflicts in the region. In this text I present and compare three versions referring to these episodes, used as a matrix by the indians to uncover concepts of identity and otherness, part of a cosmological construct and historical process specific to the Guiana region.
Myth; History; cosmology; war; indians of the Lower Oiapoque
