Huaorani people
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The Huaorani, Waorani, or Waodani, also known as the Waos, are an
They comprise almost 4,000 inhabitants and speak the
Their ancestral lands are located between the
In the last 40 years, they have shifted from a hunting and gathering society to living mostly in permanent forest settlements. As many as five communities—the
Etymology
The word Waodani (plural of Wao 'person') means 'humans' or 'men' in Wao Tiriro. Before the mid 20th century, it included only those kin associated with the speaker. Others in the ethnic group were called Waodoni, while outsiders were and are known by the derogatory term Cowodi. This structure duplicates the
The name Waodani (or the alternative English spelling Waorani) represents a transliteration by English-speaking
]Tribal subgroups
The Waorani are subdivided into the Toñampare, Quenahueno, Tihueno, Quihuaro, Damuintaro, Zapino, Tigüino, Huamuno, Dayuno, Quehueruno, Garzacocha (río Yasuní), Quemperi (río Cononaco) Mima, Caruhue (río Cononaco) and Tagaeri.[2][3]
First encounter, as told by Scott Wallace
According to journalist Scott Wallace, American missionaries in Ecuador attempted to contact the Huaorani in the 1950s with airdropped gifts. When they attempted to land a small airplane and contact the tribe, six Huaorani tribesmen killed them with spears.[4][5]
Culture
Worldview
In traditional
In short, as one Waodani put it, "The rivers and trees are our life."[6] In all its specificities, the forest is woven into each Waodani life and conceptions of the world. They have remarkably detailed knowledge of its geography and ecology.[citation needed]
Hunting supplies a major part of the Waodani diet and is of cultural significance. Before a hunting or fishing party ensues, the community shaman will often pray for a day to ensure its success. Traditionally the creatures hunted were limited to monkeys, birds, and wild peccaries. Neither land-based predators nor birds of prey are hunted. Traditionally there was an extensive collection of hunting and eating taboos. They refused to eat deer, on the grounds that deer eyes look similar to human eyes. While a joyful activity, hunting (even permitted animals) has ethical ramifications: "The Guarani [Waodani] must kill animals to live, but they believed dead animal spirits live on and must be placated or else do harm in angry retribution."[7] To counterbalance the offense of hunting, a shaman demonstrated respect through the ritual preparation of the poison, curare, used in blow darts. Hunting with such darts is not considered killing, but retrieving, essentially a kind of harvesting from the trees.[8][page needed]
Plants, especially trees, continue to hold an important interest for the Waodani. Their store of botanical knowledge is extensive, ranging from knowledge of materials to
Shamanic ethnomedicine uses the ayahuasca beverage[10] and a newly identified mushroom (Dictyonema huaorani) with the analogous substance of Psilocybe genus.[11][12]
As with many peoples, the Waos maintain a strong in-group/out-group distinction, between Waodani (people who are kin), Waodoni (others in their culture who are unrelated) and Cowodi. The use of Waodani as a term for their entire culture emerged in the last fifty years in a process of ethnogenesis. This was accelerated by the creation of ONHAE, a radio service, and a soccer league.[citation needed]
The Waodani notion of time is particularly oriented to the present, with few obligations extending backwards or forwards in time. Their one word for future times, baane, also means 'tomorrow'.[13][page needed]
Weapons
The main hunting weapon is the blowgun. These weapons are typically from 3 to 4 meters long. The arrows used are dipped in curare poison, which paralyzes the muscles of the animal with which it is hit, so that it cannot breathe. Kapok fluff is used to create an air-tight seal, by twisting the fibers around the end of the dart or arrow. With the introduction of Western technology in the 20th century, many Waodani now use rifles for hunting.[citation needed]
Land rights
In 1990, the Waorani won the rights to the Waorani Ethnic Reserve 6,125.60 km2 (2,365.11 sq mi). The protected status of Yasuní National Park, which overlaps with the Waorani reserve, provides some measure of environmental protection.
See also
- Beyond the Gates of Splendor, 2005 documentary.
- List of Huaorani people
- Operation Auca
- Steve Saint
References
- ^ Elson, Benjamin, ed. (1962). Ecuadorian Indian Languages (PDF). Vol. I. Mexico, D.F.: University of Oklahoma, Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- ^ "WAORANI / huaorani / wao / waodani / amazonia, ecuador". www.waorani.com.
- ^ "Interlanguage and beyond". buenosairesherald.com.
- ^ Scott Wallace, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Lost Tribes, First Edition, Crown Publishers, United States, 2011, p. 228
- ^ "Collection 599 Ephemera of the 'Auca' Incident," Archives of Wheaton College. Retrieved Feb. 24, 2024.
- ^ Kane 1995, p. 1999.
- ^ Seamans 1996.
- ^ Rival 2002.
- ^ Rival 1993.
- ^ Wierucka, Aleksandra (2012), "The changing understanding of the Huaorani shaman's art" (PDF), Anthropological Notebooks, 18 (3), SI: Drustvo Antropologov: 47–56, retrieved February 15, 2015.
- S2CID 84084929, retrieved February 15, 2015.
- ^ New psychedelic species of lichen discovered: Dictyonema huaorani, Psychedelic frontier, Feb 3, 2015.
- ^ Rival 2002, p. 47.
Literature
- Kane, Joe (1995), Savages, Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-679-41191-7
- Man, John (1982). Jungle Nomads of Ecuador: The Waorani. Time-Life Books. ISBN 7054 07047
- Rival, Laura (1993), "The Growth of Family Trees: Understanding Huaorani Perceptions of the Forest", Man, 28 (December): 635–52, JSTOR 2803990.
- Rival, Laura (2002), Trekking through History. The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador, New York: Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-11845-3.
- Rival, Laura M (2016). Huaorani transformations in twenty-first-century Ecuador: treks into the future of time. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-0119-9.
- Robarchek, Clayton; Robarchek, Carole (2008) [2002], Waorani: the Contexts of Violence and War, Mason, ISBN 978-0-15-503797-7.
- Seamans, Joe (1996), "The Last Shaman", Nova, PBS.
- Wierucka, Aleksandra (2015). Huaorani of the western snippet. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-137-53987-8.
- Lawrence Ziegler-Otero ( 2004), Resistance in an Amazonian Community; Huaorani Organizing against the Global Economy. Berghahn Books, New York, ISBN 1-57181-448-5
External links
- End of the spear, archived from the original on 2015-03-03. A film about the missionaries who were killed by the Waodani.
- Acclaimed documentary about the Huaorani community near Yasuni.