Nicaragua

Quotidian Scenes: an exhibition of photographic anthropology by Karl Frost at the Max Planck Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

Mayangna: northern Nicaragua

(anthropologist Jeremy Koster)

sifting rice before cooking, Arang Dak 2018

sorting stones from beans, Arang Dak 2018
Cleaning rifle before a hunt, Arang Dak 2018

 

Woman carving a curassow bird with a machete for dinner, Arang Dak 2018

child watching photographer while mother cooks, Arang Dak 2018

Women watching photographer while he photographs the house, Arang Dak 2018
2 inch by 3 inch instant portraits, Arang Dak 2018

I brought a small instant photo printer with me to offer little stills from the video documentation i was doing of daily life in Arang Dak.  Once people found i had this, everyone wanted me to take their portraits, mostly of their children.  

  

Arang dak is a small village in northern Nicaragua, near the border with Honduras, inhabited by members of the Mayangna indigenous community.  Like many other indigenous villages, the people of Arang dak were violently forced to evacuate by the Sandanistas during the conflicts in that country in the 1980s.  The Mayangna and Miskito fought the Sandanistas to recapture their territories and establish autonomy, eventually returning to their villages from where they had retreated across the border in Honduras.

They are horticulturalists, growing much of their food in jungle gardens, and supplementing their diets with fishing and hunting. They are connected to the market economy via boats that travel up and down the rivers buying their frijoles (beans) and arroz (rice) for sale all across North and Central America. They still speak their traditional Mayangna language, with some also speaking Spanish.

Anthropologist Jeremy Koster has been visiting the Mayangna of Arang dak regularly since 2004, collaborating with the residents of Arang dak in documenting their lives.