The Maleku Indigenous Reserve

Arriving to the Maleku Indigenous Reserve in the Northern sector of Costa Rica took about 6 hours, and I would not have know that we were entering an indigenous reserve if it were not for an old, rusty sign at the entrance of the dirt road.

We drove along a bumpy, dusty road and passed many standard Costa Rican rural houses, where both non-indigenous and indigenous lived. Technically, the Maleku have 3000 hectares of land that the government officially gave them in the 1970s, yet not even 1000 hectares are in their hands now due to land-robbing that the government ignores. The government has also constructed housing for many of the indigenous Malekus, but the architecture of the houses is the typical house that that government builds for anyone, thus the houses do not maintain the tradition of living with extended family and burring people in the dirt floors of the house. The culture of the Maleku has changed due to these imposed houses because they only live with their direct family and they have learned to mop their cement floors. All the houses that we saw had electricity, TVs and running water.

The Maleku are the smallest indigenous reserve in Central American, with only 600 members. Even though they have a small population, they maintain their language. The 6 teachers in the school are Maleku and teach in both Spanish and their native language.

During our time in their overly deforested home, we went on an educational hike in a tiny patch of primary forest where we learned about their medicinal plants and sacred places. The Maleku believe waterfalls are temples, and they go to them to pray to the Great Spirit. We also toured their organized botanical garden and learned about their knowledge of healing plants and their healthy diet. Observing an ancient grave and learning about their burial ceremonies, and history of grave-robbing was extremely interesting because every culture has their own unique traditions. The Maleku pour a specially prepared cacao drink over the graves during the entire mourning period. We also had a craft demonstration, where we were able to paint or carve our own Jicaro fruit shells. A highlight of the trip was a traditional dance ceremony, where a man spoke to the Great Spirit in Maleku for great periods of time, where it was then translated to Spanish in a lesser amount of time, and then finally translated to English in an even shorter amount of time. Their traditional clothing was typical of many indigenous groups in that it respected the plants that the fibers came from. The ceremony was finished with an intense question-and-answer time where the students dove into the depths of the Maleku culture and the changes the Malekus have experienced over time. Of course, the night ceremony was concluded with chichi drinking, which is their sacred beverage made from fermented corn. Our time with the Maleku was short, yet many people formed intense relationships with various members of the community.

The Malekus were totally exploited about 150 years ago when rubber tapers came to the area and sold the Malekus as slaves and destroyed their natural forests.

It was beneficial for the students to stay with a variety of different families so they could observe distinct family’s ways of life, and then compare their experiences amongst each other.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed our short visit to the Maleku reserve because, as an anthropologist, I am fascinated by indigenous’ people’s way of life and how they try to maintain their customs in face of modernization. I was shocked to learn that the Maleku reserve had internet, their own radio station and a nationally-funded health clinic. The lack of jobs makes people reliant on agriculture and community rural tourism, yet this has profound impacts on their ancient culture of sustenance farming and community organization.

Is it positive that indigenous groups sell themselves to tourism? It provides income. It makes them objects of observation. It makes them practice their traditional customs. It brings capitalism to their economic framework. It is reality.

Capi Capi. (= their traditional greeting).

To view pictures, please click here.