Through an ethnographical inquiry in the Djuka, Saramaka and Aluku tribes of French Guyana, this study is about understanding the social meanings and functions of the practice of pirogue with paddles in the Bushinengés of French Guyana. This small crafts used to play an important role in the group social functions: carriage of goods, transportation of people, fishing, hunting and gathering, family linkage, initiation rite for the learning of techniques for the youngest or games for children and adults (races). Yet, throughout the times, the pirogue has been transformed through economic-based mutations until the mid-20th century (wood carriage – mid-19th century; gold washing – late 19th century), when the use, the sailing techniques and the materials of the pirogues have been strongly modified with the introduction of the outboard motor, whose use has increased after the 1950s-‘60s to the extent that the traditional practice has nearly disappeared.