This interdisciplinary project aims at the documentation of Cashinahua language and culture. The Cashinahua language community currently consists of about 6000 members living in several villages with 10 indigenous homelands in the Brazilian state of Acre, and about 1600 members living in 37 villages in Peru. Most members of the speech community are bilingual, either speaking Portuguese or Spanish as a second and in some cases (in Brazil) as a first language. The project is funded for the years of 2006 to 2009 by the VolkswagenStiftung in the Documentation of Endangered Languages Programme. The linguist Eliane Camargo initiated her research among the Brazilian Cashinahua in 1989 and continued to work with the Peruvian Cashinahua in 1994. The anthropologist Philippe Erikson started to work in 1985 with the Matis, another Brazilian Pano group, and in 1993 with the Chacobo, a Pano group living in Bolivia. The linguist Sabine Reiter who previously worked in another Dobes-Project started her research among the Cashinahua in 2006.
