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Photo by Clayton
Robarchek; ©all rights reserved.
In the late afternoon,
a young Waorani mother strips fibers from leaves for string-making.
The fibers will be boiled and dried before being rolled into
string and then woven into nets, hammocks, and bags.
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East of the massive volcanic wall of the Ecuadorian Andes lies
the Oriente--the East. Here, in a vast expanse of steep
ridges, deep valleys, and impassible swamps, all mantled in dense
equatorial rainforest, rise the headwaters of the Amazon River.
The contrast with the dry, cool Mediterranean climate and sparse
vegetation of the highlands could hardly be more stark, and to
the people of the mountains, from the time of the Incas through
the colonial era and into the modern age, the Oriente has represented
the Heart of Darkness. This is the realm of savagery in
all its possible forms, from the raw animal ferocity of jaguars
and anacondas, to the tigres mojanos--men who assume
the form of jaguars and stalk the forest trails-- to the savage
Aucas, naked cannibals who kill with spears and sorcery
and devour the flesh of their victims. This myth-image
of the rainforest and its inhabitants has in one way or another
infused the perceptions and the actions of all who have come
here, whether seeking adventure, rubber, gold, oil, or souls.
In this century, the label "Auca", with all it connotes,
has come increasingly to refer to one ethnic group, the last
"wild Indians" in Ecuador, a people who call themselves
Waorani: "people". Although they
possessed no firearms and in the last years of their isolation
numbered fewer than 700,
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their fearsome
reputation and viciously barbed 9-foot palmwood spears allowed
them to maintain control over a vast territory, some 8,000 square
miles of densely forested valleys, ridges, and swamps lying between
the Napo and Curaray rivers. With only those spears, they
kept the modern world at bay until well into the second half
of the twentieth century.
Their reputation for ferocity was, in fact, well-founded.
The course of their history of contact with people they call
kowudï (foreigners) has been characterized
by unremitting violence perpetrated both by and against them.
They also fought each other; blood feuds and vendettas arising
from past killings, from quarrels over marriage arrangements,
and from accusations of sorcery were a way of life among the
widely dispersed extended family bands.
They first came to the attention of the world beyond Ecuador
in 1956, when five young American missionaries, seeking to make
contact with them, ferried themselves by small plane onto a sandbar
in the Curaray River, where a band of Waorani speared them all
to death.
This
book examines the contexts--material, historical, social/cultural,
and individual/psychological--
within
which Waorani
made and make choices. Understanding the ways that these
contexts are culturally constructed and interpreted by Waorani
goes a long way toward explaining the behavioral choices that
they make, choices that ultimately constitute both their traditional
orientation to violence and the changes that are now occurring.
The
researchers spent almost two years among the Waorani over two
different field trips. Much of the historical material
is derived from translated accounts of the Waorani themselves
and many of these accounts are presented in the book. The
book also describes how the authors lived among the Waorani and
how they gathered information.
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Waorani:
The Contexts of Violence and War