Waunana

The Waunana, also called Wounaan, Chanco or Noanamá, were one of the two peoples of the Chocó, alongside the Emberá. They spoke Woun Meu, one of the Chocoan languages, and their homeland was the lower San Juan River and the rainy Pacific lowlands of western Colombia. They practiced shifting agriculture, fishing and basketry woven from werregue palm.

Descent was matrilineal and polygamy traditional; extended families lived in circular thatched tambos raised on stilts against floods, guided in matters of health and the spirits by jaibaná shamans. From the late 1700s Spanish pressure pushed Waunana groups, together with the Emberá, across the Darién into Panama, where they settled the river valleys of the Darién Gap.