Tariana body parts in North Arawak perspectives: what makes a human live?

The focus of this chapter is the analysis of body-part terms in Tariana, a North Arawak language spoken in the Vaupés river basin in northwest Amazonia (Brazil), within the context of closely related languages. The Tariana language is endangered: once a powerful group, it is now reduced to fewer than seventy speakers in two villages (Santa Rosa and Periquitos); a divergent dialect, heavily mixed with the closely related Baniwa, is spoken by the Kumandene Tariana in the village of Santa Terezinha off the Vaupés river. Tariana belongs to the Uapuı´ subgroup within the Arawak language family (the largest family in South America: see Aikhenvald 2012, and references there).² The Uapuı´ subgroup includes the Baniwa of Içana-Kurripako dialect continuum, Piapoco, Kawiyari, Resı´garo, and Guarequena, all spoken within the Upper Rio Negro River Basin. The region is known as the area of the highest linguistic diversity within the Arawak family, and is frequently referred to as its putative homeland (see Aikhenvald 2013a and references there).