The Embera-Wounaan are a semi-nomadic Indigenous people in Panama living in Darién Province on the shores of the Chucunaque, Sambú, and Tuira Rivers and their waterways.

Around each village, the jungle is partly cleared and replaced by banana and plantain plantations, a commercial crop for the Embera, who sell them to get cash for their outboard motors, mosquito nets, and the like.

Hanging from the supporting posts and beams are hammocks, baskets, pots, bows and arrows, mosquito nets, clothing and other items.

The floor is made of split black palm trunks or cana blanca (white cane), and have a kitchen built on a clay platform about three feet square; on top of this base they build a fire, supporting cooking pots over the fire with a tripod of sturdy sticks.

As they are not assimilated into Panamanian or Colombian society, the Embera people do not hold any civic positions and have no members who have become part of the Guardia Nacional in Panama.

Apart from wild fish and game, still hunted with snares, blow guns, bows and arrows, as well as firearms, an essential part of their diet is cassava, a poisonous root which must be pressed before cooking into a flatbread that stores well and can be used to absorb fluids during a meal.

Some communities also farm rice, coffee, plantains and other plants as well as raise pigs, chickens and cattle for food.

The men sport "bowl cut" hairstyles and, when not in towns, traditionally wear nothing but a minimal loin cloth.

Later they portrayed the Taíno and Carib in Ridley Scott's 1492: Conquest of Paradise, a film about Columbus' arrival in the Americas.

The tribe performed alongside such notable actors as Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson and Gérard Depardieu, as well as Sigourney Weaver, Armand Assante, Frank Langela, Ray McNally, and others.

Another film in which the Wounaan played other tribal peoples is The End of the Spear, which tells the story of four missionaries in Ecuador.