[7][8][9][10] The word "Yaruro" was employed by early Spanish explorers and colonists[11] to refer to the Pumé and is still commonly used in Venezuela.

[12] The term "Yaruro" is pejorative, referring to requests for material goods or food from outsiders perceived as wealthy by the Pumé, and its meaning can be glossed in American English as the "Gimmees".

[2] The Savanna Pumé are a mobile group of hunter-gatherers who shift their primary residence during every dry and wet season.

[7][23][25] Many River Pumé now construct more hybrid forms of architecture combining traditional and Criollo-influenced materials and designs.

[8][9][21][28][29] Both sexes also perform some garden work that brings in complementary manioc as a dietary supplement without reducing their foraging for wild plants.

[7][8][21] Women, accompanied by some men, collect feral mangos in prodigious quantities during the dry season as well as a few other species of small fruits that are much less important.

They rely more on a diversity of cultivated crops, can fish year round in the major rivers, hunt and gather some foods, and may work in wage labor jobs for the local Criollos.

[7][21][38] Items such as cooking pots, steel knives, machetes, shovels, and used clothing are the primary outside goods obtained by the Savanna Pumé through trade.

Given the economic difficulties in Venezuela, it is unclear whether the Savanna Pumé even have the minimal access seen in the early 2000s to some of these goods.

[22] Their distribution is an important factor in the amount of land needed by Savanna Pumé to schedule future moves from areas with depressed availability of moriche and other palm raw materials.

Collection of this raw material is most common in the dry season when women process and accumulate the fine fibers from palm leaves needed for string/rope construction and weaving.

Arrows, (also ~2m long) are made from domesticated arrowcanes, wooden foreshafts, fletched with anhinga feathers, and constructed with bromiliad fiber and a manufactured tree resin (Symphonia glubulifera).

[7] River Pumé use dugout canoes for fishing, pursuit of caimans, and turtles in the major drainages of the llanos, as well as for transportation.

All Pumé people have Christian names used to interact with the local Criollo population, or given to them by the Venezuelan government for census or other administrative purposes, but they do not use them among themselves.

These names may rarely be used when referencing people from distant communities where kin terms do not precisely identify a person.

Spanish names are sometimes used when speaking to or about children below the age of approximately 14, primarily because kin terms may not specifically identify particular young people.

This may lengthen their reproductive lifespan, compensating for their shorter life expectancy and their high infant and later childhood mortality rates.

[10][20][44] Although early marriage is the general practice for Pumé hunter-gatherers, there is no evidence of coercion of girls to marry or begin sexual relations before they feel ready.

Compared with many lowland South American indigenous groups, the Pumé have low rates of infidelity and divorce among both men and women.

Dances can involve healing events for particular individuals suffering from physical diseases and psychological distress (depression, grief, frustration).

An individual woman performs this singing on her own from her hammock over the same time period as the community wide tohé dance, from approximately sunset until sunrise.

[26][50][49] They make unguents that aid in the healing of cuts, other wounds, and skin irritations, and prepare other medicines for pain, snakebite, and other maladies.

Other medicinal chants, touching, and the commonly observed "sucking-cure" may offer psychological help for minor ailments and normal fluctuations in mood.

Community support for ill or distressed individuals likewise may be a rational and effective means of promoting health and psychological healing.

[8][11][29][31][40] The greatest amount of contact has been among River Pumé communities because they are located on the primary transportation routes within the llanos.

Early missionary work and subsequent development has resulted in dramatic changes among groups nearest to population centers of non-Pumé.

[7] Opportunities for wage labor brought access to market goods, but also introduced alcohol, evangelical Christian missionary influences, and conflicts with some Criollos (but certainly not all) that were considered undesirable outcomes of greater contact with the larger Venezuelan culture and economy.

They also emphasize the importance of preserving their traditional culture, language, and dance as well as access to some outside assistance such as medical attention, tools, and other market goods.