iitaari ‘crisneja’, a panel of roof thatch made of the leaves of the [...]

• • ‘crisneja’, a panel of roof thatch made of the leaves of the <ijáwɨɨmɨ> (‘irapay’) palm. The leaves are woven onto a lath of <tatɨɨ> (‘cashapona’) wood about 1.5m long, resulting in relatively stiff piece of thatch about 40cm in width, ready to be tied to a roof frame. From the mid-20th century until the late 2000s, when <ijáwɨɨmɨ> plants near the community were depleted, crisnejas were one of the major cash products produced in the Iquito community of San Antonio