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Glite Dictionary
maloca

maloca

1 9.9
A large shared house where an Amazon tribe lives and meets
  • noun
  • Specialized
: maloca
  • During festivals, music and dancing fill the maloca, celebrating their culture and traditions.

Examples

  • Families in the Amazon often share their meals and stories inside a traditional maloca.

  • So straight away, you know, you're in a maloca, which is a massive round building made out of wood, beautiful high ceiling centred in the middle.

  • At certain times, upon leaving the SPI post for the malocas Indian residences, if an Indian died, he was cut into pieces: the head, the mink, and the legs. After drying in the sun for a day, his body was burned, and over the ashes, his companions executed ritual dances.

    Academic text (1997)

  • The tribe gathered in the maloca to discuss important decisions for the community.

Surface Forms

maloca singular
malocas plural

Etymology

The word maloca comes from a word used by Indigenous people in the Amazon for a big 'community house' where many families live and meet. So today maloca means a large communal house used for living and gatherings.