Spectacled Bear & Culture

In any society, there are particular ways of envisioning the surrounding reality, in other words, to symbolically represent all that surrounds us. In this order of ideas, animals and plants have played an important role in the thoughts of the Andean inhabitants, being displayed as multiple manifestations that emerged to maintain the natural order, and are being transmitted from generation to generation. It’s in that way that their environmental experiences have been represented in the way the Andean people view the world, with the Spectacled bear being in this case a prominent element of interest.

Although it’s true that the ancient European explorers observed the American Continent from a renewing point of view, discovering it every time they narrated or commented anything about it. We could also say that this vision did little to highlight the presence of bears in this part of the world. There were always comparisons maintained about what was known in the Old World, as only what seemed strange when compared to what they knew then, was a motive for fabulous stories. In this way, iguanas (Iguana iguana) were seen as dragons, sloth (Choloepus sp., Bradypus sp.) as hybrids between various animals, but with a human face, something hard to describe given the notions of the day, and the manatees (Trichechus manatus) as mermaids (women with fish bodies).

It’s in this way that every animal, with the same being true for plants, appeared to be in a comparison game, always based in the European identity, so they could later be considered as different creatures.

Being that bears were known animals in the Old World that occupied a place in the colonists psychic, it’s not rare then, that some of the explanations to many beliefs about the Spectacled bear in the present day could have an European rather than an American origin, with new myths mixed with old ones in different native and indigenous communities.

In this way, a “cultural mestization” was born, where the Spectacled bear became an important source for the birth of myths and legends associated with the kidnapping of women and portrayed in popular parties of folkloric tradition. Bears became a symbol of male chauvinism and desire instead of spiritual order, to which it was restricted by the indigenous cultures.

In Inca times, the Spectacled bear was considered as a link between Earth and the Gods. This is seen in ancestral traditions still surviving today.

In the Mahuayani village, Peru, one night during the winter solstice, some natives from different distant places, dress like bears (ukuku) to climb the mountains during midnight and reach the peak of Mount Colquepunku, a sacred place, home of the native’s protecting spirits. They depart from a small chapel located at 4,800 meters above sea level, climbing the enormous and white summits, hitting one another and slipping frequently. Already in the summit of the glacier, they cut blocks of ice, bringing them down with the belief that this is the only way to liberate their souls from mortal sins. The “Condenados” (condemned), as they are named, gain entrance to heaven when they offer Apu, the spirit of the mountain, the blocks of ice as reverence. The Condenado is the dead person that once buried, rises from the grave and starts walking across the dark cliffs through the uninhabited Pampas that are “wako”, that is, that they are disposed of all animal attributes.

The Condenados are the “bosses” that exploited the natives, the priest that buried fortunes, the ones burning the seeding, the incestuous and the ones being disrespectful towards their parents. Without this intervention, they believe they will not win passage to heaven, unless killed by the lash of a bears paw.

This tradition is part of the Qoyllur Rit'l festival (Lord of the snowy star), an important traditional celebration in Cuzco, dating from Pre-Colombian times and celebrated in the present during the months of May and June of every year.

It’s in this way, in the Quechua belief, the Spectacled bear is a mediator between the upper world (the gods) and the inferior world (human) and signifying the salvation for the souls that have committed a mortal sin.

In Colombia on the other hand, there is evidence of an important relationship between the U'wa or Tuneba culture and the Spectacled bear. The bear or "Manoba" is the “older brother” that always keeps them company and watches over them. Because of this, it’s forbidden for U'wa to kill Manoba, favorite son of Sira.

In the Perijá mountain chain, Venezuela, the Yukpa indigenous maintain the myth of "Mashiramu". "Tavoukcha was a Yukpa that ascended to the clouds bringing back the monkeys to live on the land, it mated with a monkey conceiving Mashiramu, the Spectacled bear, who has its body covered with hair to conceal its likeness to humans, from whom he is an offspring”.

In the sites where the indigenous groups were eradicated, as in the case of the Mérida Mountain Range, Venezuela, nowadays, the concept of the Spectacled bear as a harmful animal it’s more prevalent, this is due to the almost absolute influence of the European cultural contribution over the vision of the natives. In many areas, the Spectacled bear is known by the name "El Salvaje" (the savage one), an anthropomorphic vision of Spanish origin that substitutes the native names, as well as the bear’s name.

Next, we will show a summary of the notions that Andean towns have with respect to the Spectacled bear:

Names of the Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) associated with the indigenous cultures. Compilation: Denis Alexander Torres.

Name	Ethnos	Indigenous Group	Name Distribution	Comments
Mashiramo (u)	Yukpa, Chaqué (*)	-	Sierra de Perijá, Zulia State, Venezuela.	(*) Name given to the Yukpas in Colombia.
Sabaidakú	Barí	-	Sierra de Perijá, Zulia State, Venezuela.	-
Masirsa	Yukpa	Japreria	Sierra de Perijá, Zulia, Venezuela.	-
Manoba	U'wa o Tuneba	Kubaruwa o Cobaría	North of Boyacá, Colombia.	-
Manoba	U'wa o Tuneba	Tagrinuwa o Tegria	North of Boyacá, Colombia.	-
Manaba o Mánaba	U'wa o Tuneba	Boktuwa o Bokotá	North of Boyacá, Colombia.	-
Manoa	U'wa o Tuneba	Thu'tatuwa o Unkasia (*)	North of Santander, Colombia.	(*) Extinct as group.
Nen	U'wa o Tuneba	-	Colombia.	Imprecise name, could have been also used to name the Puma (Cougar).
Jukumari o Jukumarí	Quechua, Aimará	-	Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia.	-
Ukuku o Ucucu	Quechua	-	Peru.	-
Uturunco	Aimará	-	Bolivia.	-
Ucumaria, Hucumarí	Aimará	-	Bolivia.	-
Uyutchine	?	Mesetenes	Bolivia.	-
Uco (a), Ucumar (e)	Quechua, Aimará	-	Bolivia, North of Argentina.	-
Maini	Arawakau	-	High central forest of Peru.
Chayú	Achuar - shiwiar (jíbaro)	-	Peru: North forest (Dpto. Loreto), bordering Ecuador.

"Al principio no había nada.

Sólo la luz. Sólo Sira.

No había montañas, ni árboles, ni peces.

Sira hizo todo, montañas, árboles y peces.

Cuando quiso hacer al U'wa hizo al oso.

Entonces miró al oso.

No le gustó lo que había hecho.

Entonces hizo otra vez al U'wa.

Así como somos ahora.

La primer gente fuimos los U'wa.

El U'wa no mata al oso.

Porque es el padre de los U'wa.

Es el Hermano Mayor.

Es el primer hombre que hubo".

"At the beginning there was nothing

Only light. Only Sira.

There were no mountains, nor trees, nor fish.

Sira made it all, Mountains, trees and fish.

When it wanted to make U'wa, it made the bear.

Then, it looked at the bear.

Did not like what it had done.

Then it made the U'wa once again.

Just as we are now.

The first people were the U'wa.

U'wa don’t kill the bear.

Because it’s the father of the U'wa.

The Older Brother.

The first man that ever was”.

"A bear took away a girl, locking her up in a cave that it used as a burrow. But the clever youth realized that the stream irrigating her new dwelling, discharged in the river that supplied water to her native village. She knew how to write and in a palm leaf she traced with her fingernail, or a small pointy rock the narration of her misfortune. She indicated carefully the place were she was and encouraged her fellow villagers to come and rescue her. She trusted her unusual message to the currents of the source and this one, delivered it faithfully to the hands of her relatives.

The first to find the leaf on the beach gave the news to the rest and they all decided to save the abused woman. Knowing the extraordinary strength of the bear, twenty men gathered for the expedition to the place indicated by the document. When the bear saw the army approaching its domain, it grabbed a rock and used it to seal the caverns entrance. Such was the weight of the rock that twenty men together could not lift it and departed leaving the youth in her sad captivity.

In the mean time, the couple had a son. When this one reached the age of 16, it already had the strength of the bear and the human intelligence, as the mother had taught him to speak and had fun with him in her leisure time, when her moody husband went hunting to provide food for the family.

- I already feel strong enough to remove the boulder from the entrance to our cavern, but I won’t do it until you swear to baptize me and place me in school when we go back to the village. The mother agreed to his wishes and the son cleared the cave entrance. Once back in civilization, he was baptized and learned the letters. Since then it is maintained, that it’s not possible to distinguish him from any other Christian, due to his likeness to humans, except for his titanic vigor, which he seemed to have preserved until an advanced age.".

Certainly bears represent to the native groups more than a source of proteins, hides, claws, teeth and nails to cover or adorn themselves. They represent for their cultures, a living link with the past and a symbol of their collective individuality as a group, the totem, and the ancestors. The anthropologist C. Lévi-Strauss makes us note that if the animals, and the natural species in general, commonly take part in totemistic lectures, is not, as the functionalists thought, because “they are good to eat” but because “they are good for thinking”.

For some nations, animals are not, or could never be oppressed, as they are divine. “Always and everywhere, animals have been the teachers” and there is no doubt that bears are among the more influential animals in the development of the ideas of the ancient native nations.

The cultural valorization of the Spectacled bear, recapturing the old myths and trying to handle the concepts of today, could result in a key tool needed to solve many of the conflicts between people and the bears in this ever-changing world.

- Spectacled bear with the Pleiades background: Jairo Cadavid Ossa, © Fundación para la Educación Superior (FES), Colombia.

- Spectacled bear Petroglyph: © Museo Arqueológico "Gonzalo Rincón Gutiérrez", Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida, Venezuela.