When the world began, everything in nature was asexual, including the stars. Yamádu, an evil spirit, governed nature with the help of his assistants, long-armed dwarves with flowing hair. Although the clever Bare feared them, the dwarves were actually not as evil as they seemed, often more mocking than menacing.

Some believe the word Bare means companion or colleague; others believe the name is derived from the word “bari,” which means “white men.” In either case, as a result of a long process of acculturation, few still speak the Bare language, which belongs to the Arawak family. Bare territory once stretched from Manaos, along the Río Negro and the Brazo Casiquiare, up to the Pacimoni River. Dispute over this territory by the Spanish and Portuguese empires engendered a long history of migration and political conflict. For over a century after Venezuelan independence, the political administration in the Río Negro region existed only formally. Local political bosses, or caudillos, who profited from rubber extraction, filled the power vacuum. Today the Bare are dispersed along the Casiquiare region, with small concentrations in Puerto Ayacucho, San Fernando de Atabapo, Solano, San Carlos de Río Negro, Santa Rosa de Amanadon, and Santa Lucía. Little is known about the economic, social, and political life of the Bare. It is probable that they lived like other groups of the Río Negro region – farming conucos with the slash-and-burn method, hunting, gathering, and fishing. Most of the agricultural work was done by women. They planted and harvested yucca, made cassava and manioc, attended to the household, dyed and twisted fibers to weave hammocks, and made pottery. Typically, men would have hunted, although a scarcity of large mammals in the region meant that hunting was not common. Dantas, picures, and lapas might have been hunted as well as birds such as turkeys, curassows, and woodcocks. They used blowpipes, and bows and arrows, along with firearms introduced by Europeans. Men and women traditionally dressed in loincloths made of marima. Later, these were replaced by slacks for men and long skirts for women. Among the crafts they produced, woven hammocks were of primary importance. They were made with cumare, curagua, and moriche fibers, dried in the sun, and then dyed red, purple, and yellow. The Bare also produced ropes for fishing, using chiquichique fiber. References B. Tavera-Acosta, Río Negro: reseña etnográfica, histórica y geográfica del Territorio Federal Amazonas, (3rd ed.), Caracas, 1954.