Mareoka created everything for the E’ñepa: fire, water, the sun, day, night, plants, and animals. He taught the E’ñepa how to make hammocks, blowpipes, bows and arrows, weave baskets, and how to play flutes and sing. One day, Mareoka asked each person: What do you want to be? Do you want to be a person? Do you want to be a deer, an alligator, an armadillo, a monkey, a turtle, or a bird? Each had to choose. Those who chose to become animals were still E’ñepa, only in an animal incarnation. For this reason, the E’ñepa do not eat the animals they consider to be their ancestors.

Although known most commonly as the Panare, these original inhabitants of the Alto Cuchivero region call themselves E’ñepa. Their language belongs to the Carribean linguistic family. The E’ñepa live at the edge of the middle Orinoco region in the Cedeño district of the state of Bolívar. E’ñepa populations also cluster in the south, near the border of the state of Amazonas. The E’ñepa govern themselves collectively rather than by individual authority. Although members do achieve status through age, experience, and wisdom, they are never given special privileges over others. Because of this deep respect for community rule, few conflicts arise. The E’ñepa harvest crops, particularly the bitter yucca. Hunting and fishing are also fundamental to their economy. Until recently, they used spears to hunt large animals, like danta and deer; now they hunt with guns. They fish with barbasco, a toxin that stuns fish, as well as nylon fishing lines and hooks they buy from the criollos. They gather honey and palm fruit like moriche and pijiguao, as well as some varieties of ants and edible worms. Although basket weaving has long been a traditional E’ñepa craft, the practice changed radically in the 1960s when the E’ñepa adopted basket-weaving techniques from the Ye’kuana, allowing them to learn new approaches and designs. From this period of Ye’kuana influence emerged a brand new and original E’ñepa aesthetic. Although signaling a clear break with tradition, the new E’ñepa designs – highly detailed and artistically innovative – are considered one of their most valued means of artistic expression. The E’ñepa also express their highly refined aesthetic through body painting, which they practice throughout their lives. Using wooden stamps in various sizes, shapes, and designs, parents paint the hands and feet of their children. Young men and women paint their entire bodies with geometric designs. To produce a reddish color, they impregnate the wooden stamps with dye made from anatto and animal fat. The E’ñepa weave oval hammocks on simple horizontal looms. They usually wear guayucos, loincloths made of cotton and dyed red with anatto. The woven fabric is crossed between the legs and tied around the waist with a belt made from human hair. Decorative tassels dangle at each end, hanging over the back of the body. Young people use bands of woven cotton across their breast and back. In contrast to other ethnic groups within the region who prefer to wear European-style clothing when visiting criollo towns, the E’ñepa will just as readily wear traditional garb. References Paul Henley and Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller, "Panare Basketry: Means of Commercial Exchange and Artistic Expression," Antropológica 49, 1978, pp. 29 - 130. Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller, Diccionario Ilustrado Panare - Español Español - Panare: Un aporte al estudio de los Panare - E’ñepa, Comisión Nacional Quinto Centenario, Caracas, 1994.