#ReedBoats

[politixpulse]

The Unlikely Origin of Surfing: Peru's Ancient Reed Boats

For over 3,500 years, fishermen along the Peruvian coast have been riding the waves using a unique form of surfcraft: the caballito de totora. In the northern Peruvian village of Huanchaco, these reed-bound boats, known as caballitos or “little horses,” have been a vital part of the local fishing culture.

The caballitos, crafted from tightly bound totora reeds that grow in freshwater ponds, have been a staple for Huanchaco’s fishermen. Their distinctive upturned bow allows them to navigate the often turbulent Pacific waves, helping fishermen reach their fishing grounds and then surf back to shore. While modern surfers are drawn to the area for its challenging waves, the caballitos represent a traditional surfing method that predates contemporary surfing.

Despite the global belief that surfing originated in Hawaii, evidence from the Chan Chan Museum near Huanchaco and the Larco Museum in Lima suggests that Peruvians used caballitos for surfing as early as the 7th Century CE. Some ceramics on display even depict people using these boats to surf, fish, and transport prisoners.

Carlos Ucañan Arzola, one of Huanchaco’s last remaining caballito makers, emphasizes the importance of totora as a traditional material. "Totora is traditional and ancestral," he says, noting that the reeds have been integral to local fishing and surfing for centuries.

Caballitos measure about 4 meters long and can carry up to 100 kilograms. While they are lightweight when dry, their weight doubles after a day of fishing. These ancient crafts, however, are becoming scarce due to the encroachment of commercial fishing, coastal erosion, and pollution, leading many Huanchaceños to shift towards tourism or migrate elsewhere.

Despite the challenges, local pride in the caballito tradition remains strong. The boats are not only used for fishing but also as a symbol of Huanchaco’s heritage. Some locals have started offering rides to tourists, sharing their ancient surfing practice with visitors. These rides, which cost around 50 Peruvian soles (£10), provide tourists with a glimpse of the traditional craft while helping to sustain the local fishing culture.

As modern surfboards become more popular, the future of the caballito de totora remains uncertain. However, the tradition is preserved through ongoing efforts by Huanchaco’s fishermen to honor their heritage and introduce new generations to this ancient art.

Marina Quiñe, a marine biology professor, notes that the caballito de totora is both a historical and living tradition. “In Huanchaco, there is a community that’s remarkably proud and conscious of their past,” she says. The preservation of the caballito, both as a fishing tool and a surfing craft, continues to depend on the dedication of its practitioners and the support of the local community.

For now, the caballito de totora stands as a testament to Peru’s rich maritime history, bridging the gap between ancient traditions and modern surfing culture.

[triton-maldives]

Origin of a Boat!🛶

Rafts have operated for at least 8,000 years. A 7,000-year-old seagoing reed boat has been found in Kuwait. Boats were used between 4000 and 3000 BC in Sumer, ancient Egypt and in the Indian Ocean. Boats played an important role in the commerce between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia.

[cadere-art]

Tevâ is one of the main characters in my (WIP) story Empire's Wake, which takes place in the City-State of Ranai after the death of the last Namitan Emperor.

Text from the image and more on the Wetki, Wetki genders, and Tevâ trivia under the cut.

Tevâ

Age: 36 Gender: Female / Uncle Ethnicity: Wetki

Tevâ is a cultural attaché to the Port District of Ranai, representing the interest of the Port's Wetki community. Like many Wetki in Ranai, Tevâ was born on an outlying island of the archipelago where Wetki are still the majority population. She first came to Ranai looking for work to support her twin sister, Pâlâu, and her children.

When Pâlâu died, Tevâ returned to her village to care for her children until they came of age to be raised by the men of the village. Her children grown and her sister dead, Tevâ, having lived most of her life in Ranai, was sent back to the city to study under a Wetki elder there. Her elders hoped she might become a representative to her people: a few years later, she did.

Tevâ's is very carefully of her image: she must remain relatable to Wetki and palatable to Ranaites. Her clothing is crafted to preserve Wetki elements and elicit feelings of foreigness and tasteful respectability in Ranaites.

Wetki wear amulets suspended to their loincloths. Tevâ favors the Four-Face Bird, which has apotropaic qualities.

Ranaite (left) and Wetki (right) clothing. [Tevâ is depicted wearing Ranaite clothing and Wetki clothing, to illustrate how her outfit balances the styles of both.]

The Wetki

The Wetki are indigenous to the Ojame Archipelago where Ranai is situated and are part of a larger cultural group indigenous to coastal regions of Eastern Uanlikri. Like in most of the regions they inhabit, the Wetki of the Ojame Archipelago have been displaced by successive colonizations and conquests of the archipelago. The Wetki excell at making use of the roughest coastal terrains, which has often been used as an excuse and justification to displace them out of more favorable stretches of coastline. Because of this, most Wetki communities are poor and survive on marginal lands. Wetki tend to have poor feather health due to poor diet and exposure to saltwater spray.

In the Ojame archipelago, the Wetki are a minority on Êrar, the largest island, but remain a majority on most of the Archipelago's smaller islands. The Wetki are renowed for their reedwork, producing reedboats, mats, baskets, cordage, and many other things. Most Wetki in Ranai come from other islands, though some communities exist in periphery of the city and are being slowly encroached on by Ranai's growth.

Gender among the Wetki

Like most antioles, Wetki usually give birth to twins. Wetki have an unusually high ratio of same-sex twin pairs, and sex their children at their first year, much before secondary sex characteristics become apparent with puberty.

Wetki societies is strictly gendered, with three distinct genders: woman, uncle, and bachelor. All female Wetki are women or sisters. Male wetki are either uncles or bachelors depending on the sex of their twin: males in a male-male pair become bachelors and are raised separately upon puberty, and males in a male-female pair become uncles and are raised with the women.

The basic familial unit is the sister-sister (or sister-uncle) pair, raising the women's children together with no acknowledgement of individual motherhood by one twin or another (this is true of sister-uncle pairs as well). Bachelors live communally in bachelor-houses and are attached to the village in general. Wetki do not recognize the notion of fatherhood. Sister-pairs raise their female (and uncle) children into adulthood and their male children until the age of nine, at which point male children a raised in the bachelor-house and do not interact with the village's women again until adulthood.

Leaving the village to find work is usually reserved for bachelors, who bring back money and goods for the village. Women and uncles are expected to stay in the village, where women wield all the political power - Wetki are strictly matriarchal. It is, however, not uncommon for bachelors working outside the village to defect - to move out permanently and stop bringing back money to the village, impoverishing it in the process. Village work and goods are usually distributed communally in a process overseen by the Elder-sisters, but in very poor villages, conditions in bachelor-houses may be poor, encouraging defection, and sister-pairs with few social connections may find themselves left behind when resources are short. In such villages, it is not uncommon for sister-uncle pairs to allow the uncle to leave with the bachelors and find work in the city, a choice which is considered heart-wrenching by most Wetki, and is looked down upon as improper mingling of uncle and bachelor genders.

Tevâ and Wetki genders

Tevâ was from a impoverished village such as these, where bachelor defection was high due to poor conditions in the bachelor-house and bad treatment of the bachelors. Tevâ and Pâlâu's mothers died young, leaving them with weak social connections in the village. Tevâ and Pâlâu suffered the brunt of the village's poverty, a fact which was exacerbated when Pâlâu layed male twins. In the face of this untenable position, Tevâ decided to leave with the uncles and the bachelors to find work in Ranai and support her sister. This decision was highly unconventional and put her at odds with the Elder-sisters of her village. Wetki gender is as much about action as it is about biology: Tevâ's decision to leave was interpreted by her community as the incomprehensible decision to become an uncle.

When Pâlâu died, Tevâ returned to her village to raise her sons until they turned nine. After her sons moved with the bachelors, her position in the village became increasingly difficult. The position of a widow-sister is never easy, especially with no children, but Tevâ's experiences of living in the city among Ranaite and Wetki bachelors set her apart from the rest of the village's women, and with no desire to swear sisterhood to another widow-sister, there was no role in sight for Tevâ to occupy.

Shortly after Tevâ's sons left, the village's Elder-sisters were replaced, turning village politics upside down. The new Elder-sister, part of a sister-uncle pair, was determined to turn things around and part of a general movement among the Wetki of the Archipelago to militate for Wetki rights. The new Elder-sister saw great value in Tevâ: though now widely seen as an uncle, she was by birth a woman, with an intimate knowledge of Ranai that very few Wetki women could claim, and no role to fulfill in the village, Tevâ seemed the perfect candidate to act as a spokesperson for Wetki in Ranai.

More trivia

Among Ranaites, Tevâ presents herself unambiguously as a woman. Ranaites claim to be egalitarian but were historically matriarchal, and Tevâ's gender is often a boon in politics.

Tevâ was trained by Nwucâ and Cicwu, Elder-sisters in Tambwâlili, a Wetki village being slowly swallowed by Ranai's southward expansion.

Most Wetki in Ranai dress in Ranaite fashion, or with the traditional Wetki loincloth and net with the addition of a Ranaite shirt to cover their necks. Tevâ's style is an original creation designed with the help of Tambwâlili's elders.

Most Wetki, like Tevâ, forego shoes in favour of the traditional coat of red latex on their soles.

Tevâ works closely with Aliti, one of the councillors in Ranai's port.

[oneterabyteofkilobyteage]

original url http://www.geocities.com/reedboats/ last modified 2007-11-15 10:21:21

[amyamethystgray]

Reed boats. #kennetandavoncanal #canalwalk #canalboat #reeds #reedboat (at Kennet and Avon Canal) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHdWim7JoeC/?igshid=n7ed79xyo30

[jinishikawa]

・ 真菰の御船 完成した、 月明かりの下 ・ ・ #葦船 #アシ船 #reedboat #月明かりの下で #奉納船 https://www.instagram.com/p/CEShERWDvms/?igshid=1484s3p9qqc6x

[foulserpent]

I need help. My argonian's entire tribe lives on a reedboat, but I can't find any pictures of reedboats big enough to fit a whole tribe AND a Hist sapling. What do you think a large argonian reedboat ("reedship") would look like?

i dont know a lot about like. boats and how they work, but the thing that came to mind (which isnt exactly what a reedboat is) is chinampas, which dont actually float but are made with reeds so like. maybe thats another route to look at? theyre really cool feats of engineering and work well for the setting, probably are the base of most agriculture in the black marsh.

but for the boat im imagining like a very wide, flat reedboat built more or less like one of these in basic structure

which uses heavily bouyant (probably enchanted) materials that keep it afloat, and can sustain soil and a hist tree.

which that line of thought had me imagining a reedboat completely disguised as a little island, covered enough in vegetation to hide the fact that its a boat but with a sort of hollowed out interior that they can chill in. (which. i might use that specific idea for something else if you dont)

[brycespivey]

This is my favorite photo from Bolivia. He builds Totora boats by hand on the shore of Lake Titicaca- which is the world’s highest body of navigable water around 13,000 feet above sea level. #laketiticaca #incautama #incautamahotel #reedboats #ecovillage #huatajata #bolivia #andeanroots #andeanrootsecovillage #leica #leicadlux109 (at Inca Utama Hotel - Lake Titicaca) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bm0gN0Pnfcv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=132ivvbxetint

[ensignmore]

One of my favourite pictures I took while in Peru, Reed Boats on Lake Titicaca #travelbug #travel #travelphotography #traveltheworld #travelgram #peru #puno #laketiticaca #lagotiticaca #🇵🇪 #whoneedsafilter #reedboats #latergram #contiki #contiki2017 (at Lago Titicaca - Puno)

[richardwharram]

Caballito de Totora's of Huanchaco, Trujillo #localfishermen #caballitodetotora #mocheculture #reedboats #huanchaco #trujillo #lalibertad #peru (at Huanchaco, La Libertad, Peru)

[fyodor-prokofiev]

long distance relationship

i woke today with a familiar dog on my bed, staring me down. i knew i knew him but not from where, i met his gaze and stroked his goldfur, and then the moment where strangers’ faces merge with memory and create a friend, and immediately i knew who he was. i first met him in a dream a long time ago, living a past life during the dark ages, when my name was . . . and that village near the river, what was it called again? fishing all day in a reedboat  spending my silent time whittling, dreaming.

unmoving, assessing the thing:

wide eyes glittering sun wet nose glistening with moisture from who knows where, some disjointed dreamscape, an unreality stream between realities, or a lakeside canvas in some gallery sealed forever behind glass.

what’s wrong, boy? what brought you home?

he panted, and had he been human i’d have said he was smiling no, we don’t have a monopoly on that, he was smiling, and a part of me knew what he meant.

[thedailynewsdrawing-blog]

On Peru's Northern Coastline the Long History of Reedboats is Threatened as a New Generation Looks Beyond Fishing for Careers and Opportunities Like Surfing. 8-9-14

[jinishikawa]

マタランギの記事が友人から送られてきた！ 出航前のセールの上げ下げのチェックしてる写真だな。Matarangi Ⅱ 懐かしい写真だ!

[jinishikawa]

AMANA試作模型1号製作 その19

さあ、葦船が無事に完成！

本当に学びの多い船作りだったなぁ。

この模型を作った目的は太平洋を渡る葦船のイメージを実際に頭の中から出してカタチにしてみたかったから。

それでもイメージするのと実際に作るのは大違い。

やり直しばかりで苦労もしたけど全ては船を進化させるために必要なこと。

まずはやってみる。

ダメなら「後悔1秒」でガンガンやり直す。

いつもそこに新たな発見があるのだから。

1番よかったのは模型とはいえ作り始めるといつのまにか本番のデカイ船を作ってるのと同じ感覚になっていく事。

リアルなイメージが実際の段���りの仕方や航海につながる。

だからいつのまにか、

ロープを引く何十人もの大きな掛け声が、

きしんで重くなる舵の感覚が、

揺れるマストの遠心力が、

甲板を濡らす雨の雫の音が伝わってくる。

とにかく、この模型の先にはいつでも太平洋に浮かぶ葦船のイメージがあった。

さぁ、いこう！

来年の夏に本番の1/2サイズ9mのテスト用葦船の製作と航海をサンフランシスコ湾内でしたいと考えて準備を進めています！

この模型を元に本番に向けて葦船の航海性能を試すため、まだまだどんなものか知られていない葦船自体のデモンストレーションのためです。

例えば、

マストはどの位置にすると速度とバランスが良くなるのか？

舵の大きさは？

マストの形は？

帆の形と大きさは？

などなど本番船の設計のブラッシュアップが目的です。

そして、おおよその費用は1000万円。

プロジェクト名「EXPEDITION AMANA(エクスペディション アマナ)」の実現化に向けてこれからこの模型と企画書を持ってスポンサーを探し回ります！

来年5月にはクラウドファンドも予定してます。

そしてこれからも全力で動く探検家・石川仁の活動資金もドネーションでサポートしていただけるととてもとても嬉しいです！(こちらから http://pr4.work/3/reedboat)

来年からの石川仁の講演会、葦船作りワークショップの主催者もサハラ砂漠ツアーも大募集しています！

とにかく夢の実現のために動いていきます。

これからも「知恵をつなぐ」葦船太平洋航海に向けて応援のほどどうぞよろしくお願いします。