E d 
arangan ARCHEOLOGY IN BRITISH GUIANA 269 
“the Woyawais are a distant tribe, inhabiting the mountains near the 
sources of the Essequibo” (Brett, 1852, p. 349). In 1914 Farabee 
found a few Wai Wai settled on the British Guiana side of the border, 
but farther south than the area they occupied in 1952. The extinction 
of the Taruma about 1925 opened the upper Essequibo to Wai Wai 
immigration, and the greater accessibility of European goods in 
British Guiana versus Brazil has provided an attraction. By 1952 
there were about equal numbers of Wai Wai on both sides of the 
border, with the northernmost village on the Essequibo just above the 
mouth of the Kassikaityu. 
Given the historic fact that the Wai Wai were partly contemporary 
with the Taruma in the upper Essequibo, and that for at least 100 
years the two tribes were in contact with each other, visited back and 
forth, and engaged in trade relations, it is of interest to examine what 
archeological clues exist that might lead to a reconstruction of this 
situation. Such evidence is very limited and indefinite in the area 
covered by the survey, which was predominantly Taruma Phase 
territory. Since Taruma Phase pottery is superior both technically 
and artistically to that of the Wai Wai, any trade in pottery vessels 
would probably have been principally from the Taruma to the Wai 
Wai. This would produce evidence in Wai Wai sites but not in 
Taruma ones, and the Wai Wai sites occupied when Taruma culture 
was a functioning entity are outside the area included in the survey. 
From the present archeological evidence, there is only one clue to 
suggest contact and that is the faint resemblance of Erefoimo Incised 
designs of the Wai Wai Phase to those of Kanashen Incised of the 
Taruma Phase. However, the points of comparison are so simple as 
to be easily explained as fortuitous, and in the absence of known 
contact the resemblance would be most safely regarded as such. Even 
with the knowledge that the opportunity for acculturation existed be- 
tween the two groups, the conclusion that it happened in this case is 
speculative. 
Archeological documentation for the Wai Wai is slight. Two sites 
were examined, both recently abandoned. The most conspicuous dif- 
ference between these and the Taruma sites was the relative amount 
of pottery refuse. In Taruma sites, the deposits were frequently 25 
em. or more in thickness and sherds were relatively abundant. Neither 
of the Wai Wai sites produced sherds in any quantity or depth, indi- 
cating a high degree of village mobility or a decline in the use of pot- 
tery or both. Increasing reliance on metal containers and a consequent 
deterioration of the pottery-making art are evident at the present time, 
and Wai Wai village duration has been observed to vary between 3 
and 8 years, indicating that both factors are involved. 
