Review: The Waorani
Jun. 15th, 2017 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI could not resist Alexandra Siy's The Waorani: People of the Ecuadoran Rain Forest (Global Villages series) (1993) because it is a small, illustrated children's book about a culture I've never heard of.
The Waorani (Wow-RON-ee) (= "the people") live in the rainforests of eastern Ecuador. "Their language is so different from any other in the world that most scientists believe the Waorani have been islated from other people for hundreds and maybe thousands of years." They had a stone age culture until very recently. There used to be a lot of fighting between different Waorani groups, due to revenge (even from witchcraft and suspected witchcraft) and even pre-emptive strikes. "Fear, anxiety, and grief were always part of Waorani life. For generations, however, the people actually wanted to end the killings. But peace was difficult to achieve because the Waorani moved around so much and because they had no leaders to bring them together."
European contact
The first European contact was in the 1600s (kidnapping, murder, and enslavement); the first peaceful contact was 1958. They used to kill missionaries on sight, but one day a Waorani woman (Dayome) fled her village during a spearing raid and ended up with the Quechua. Eleven years later (in 1958), she returned with two missionary women and they survived and more missionaries came. "Some Waorani accepted Christianity although they held on to many of their traditional spiritual beliefs as well. They had, indeed, always believed in an afterlife and a creator, or god, called Waengongi." But "[t]he Waorani say the most important message brought to them by the missionaries was the message of peace." They also brought modern tools and clothing. And they brought oil drillers. The Waori were moved into a smaller and smaller reservation; now it's a bit bigger at 200 square miles or 1/4 of the original territory. But when roads are built for oil extraction, they also bring people and disease.
Roles
Men and women have different roles (land clearing, hut building, and hunting versus gardening, cooking, and child-rearing) but the society is egalitarian; there aren't even any leaders. They share everything--food, housing, child-rearing duties. They are semi-nomadic, moving their villages every few months, in small groups of 10-30 people, to re-use various locations away from riverbanks (where footprints give away your location to predators and enemies). Today there are also permanent villages in the more fertile areas near the river.
Food
Cassava (aka manioc), a root vegetable, is the main food. These are planted. First, men chop down the trees over an area of usually less than one acre and leave them to decay over the area. Then women plant cassava stalks which they have saved from other sites. "After planting one garden, the people move on to another area of the forest to plant again. ... As a result the gardens mature at different times. After nine months the first garden is ready to harvest." But you can still harvest after a year or two. "After a harvest, the Waorani wait 12 to 15 years before planting manioc in the same place again. This gives plants ad trees a chance to grow, thus protecting the soil from erosion and ensuring that nutrients will be recycled." Sometimes shrubs and trees will be planted in these old plots earlier. The barbasco shrub is planted for its poisonous sap, used for fishing.
Manioc is sometimes boiled with meat, like potatoes, but usually is boiled and mashed into a paste. Women chew mouthfuls of this and spit it back to add enzymes that cause it to ferment. Then add more water to make a drink they call tepae. "Tepae is so important to the Waorani that in their language the word for happiness means literally 'another bowl of tepai.'" This, even though they don't let it ferment very long and so it's only just barely alcoholic.
Tepae is also made from other fruit such as bananas, peach palm, and chonta fruit. Chonta fruits grow in bunches about 60 feet above the ground on trees with bark that is too spiny for climbing. Climbing any tree is difficult in rain forests because "[a] tree may shoot 75 feet into the sky before branches emerge." "Waorani climb trees by tying their feet together with vines and wrapping their ankles around the base of a tree. Then they pull their bodies up with their arms and pull and push their feet up the tree." I don't understand, but it takes skill and muscle. To get the chonta fruit, they climb a neighboring tree, and holding on with just their legs, poke at the fruit with a long pole.
January to April is the chonta season, when more chonta ripen than at other times. This is when they meet up with friends and relatives and celebrate. The next months are called the fat season. "This is the time when monkeys are fat from eating fruit," so they hunt monkeys. They also eat berries and other fruits found on their hikes. They eat honey when they can find it. The men go out hunting once or twice a week, usually alone or with just one other man. They use 12-foot-long wooden spears to kill peccary (wild pigs). But most animals live over 100 feet above the ground. For these birds and monkeys, the Maorani use a poison dart gun. These guns are ten-foot-long precision instruments. Even the darts are 18 inches long. "Small birds and animals die instantly, but larger prey, such as a howler monkey, may require several darts and take up to 20 minutes to fall from the trees. They usually hunt from the ground, but sometimes climb a tree to get closer. "The skills and strength needed to hunt with a blowgun are equal to those of an Olympic athlete." They don't eat snakes, birds of prey, or deer (because deer eyes look too human).
Growing Up
Babies are carried in slings by their mothers until they can walk (at least two years) and they are breastfed for 3-4 years. Then they are raised by their mother and all her sisters, all of whom they call mother. Their dad and all his brothers are all considered their fathers. They learn by playing, watching, and trying things out and their games don't have winners and losers; they're just for fun.
Marriage is arranged by parents and grandparents. Around age 14-18 (they don't keep track of ages), during a celebration, the two people are put into the same hammock and feed each other. "Although young people may suspect who their spouse will be, they do not know for sure. And they do not know when the marriage will take place."
Housing
They build huts, which are burned down when they move to kill the bugs. They use hammocks as their furniture: one adult or multiple children per hammock; and the women are constantly working on making these. Now some Waorani live permanently in larger villages near the river.
Health
They eat a good diet and get plenty of exercise. They don't get cancer, high blood pressure, or heart disease. But they do get tooth decay, lice, and fungal infections. Plus they suffer from snake bites (it's hard to watch for snakes on the ground when you're looking into the trees while hunting) and accidents (like falling out of trees). "In the past more Waorani died from spearing raids by other Waorani than from any other cause. In fact, more than 40 percent of all Waorani died in spear attacks." When they first contacted Europeans and Quechua, there were epidemics. They have no natural resistance to polio, measles, pneumonia, or flu, but now they are vaccinated.
Reader Activities
The book has recommendations for activities at the end. They kind of remind me of Girl Scout badge requirements. For example, one activity is to draw pictures to illustrate one or more of the stories told by the Waorani, one is to visit a museum and look at tools used by South American Indians, and one is to learn more about your own culture by talking with an older relative about ceremonies, traditions, customs, and rituals your family observes.
Another activity is to learn about organizations working to defend the rights indigenous people around the world such as Survival International (UK), and Cultural Survival (US and Canada) (which both still exist). And they also recommend writing letters to the president of Ecuador and the Executive Director of the Instituto Ecuadororiano Reforma Agraria y Colonisacion to oppose oil exploration and drilling and maximize native rights, plus letters to US politicians to urge them to make energy conservation a priority.
The Waorani (Wow-RON-ee) (= "the people") live in the rainforests of eastern Ecuador. "Their language is so different from any other in the world that most scientists believe the Waorani have been islated from other people for hundreds and maybe thousands of years." They had a stone age culture until very recently. There used to be a lot of fighting between different Waorani groups, due to revenge (even from witchcraft and suspected witchcraft) and even pre-emptive strikes. "Fear, anxiety, and grief were always part of Waorani life. For generations, however, the people actually wanted to end the killings. But peace was difficult to achieve because the Waorani moved around so much and because they had no leaders to bring them together."
European contact
The first European contact was in the 1600s (kidnapping, murder, and enslavement); the first peaceful contact was 1958. They used to kill missionaries on sight, but one day a Waorani woman (Dayome) fled her village during a spearing raid and ended up with the Quechua. Eleven years later (in 1958), she returned with two missionary women and they survived and more missionaries came. "Some Waorani accepted Christianity although they held on to many of their traditional spiritual beliefs as well. They had, indeed, always believed in an afterlife and a creator, or god, called Waengongi." But "[t]he Waorani say the most important message brought to them by the missionaries was the message of peace." They also brought modern tools and clothing. And they brought oil drillers. The Waori were moved into a smaller and smaller reservation; now it's a bit bigger at 200 square miles or 1/4 of the original territory. But when roads are built for oil extraction, they also bring people and disease.
Roles
Men and women have different roles (land clearing, hut building, and hunting versus gardening, cooking, and child-rearing) but the society is egalitarian; there aren't even any leaders. They share everything--food, housing, child-rearing duties. They are semi-nomadic, moving their villages every few months, in small groups of 10-30 people, to re-use various locations away from riverbanks (where footprints give away your location to predators and enemies). Today there are also permanent villages in the more fertile areas near the river.
Food
Cassava (aka manioc), a root vegetable, is the main food. These are planted. First, men chop down the trees over an area of usually less than one acre and leave them to decay over the area. Then women plant cassava stalks which they have saved from other sites. "After planting one garden, the people move on to another area of the forest to plant again. ... As a result the gardens mature at different times. After nine months the first garden is ready to harvest." But you can still harvest after a year or two. "After a harvest, the Waorani wait 12 to 15 years before planting manioc in the same place again. This gives plants ad trees a chance to grow, thus protecting the soil from erosion and ensuring that nutrients will be recycled." Sometimes shrubs and trees will be planted in these old plots earlier. The barbasco shrub is planted for its poisonous sap, used for fishing.
Manioc is sometimes boiled with meat, like potatoes, but usually is boiled and mashed into a paste. Women chew mouthfuls of this and spit it back to add enzymes that cause it to ferment. Then add more water to make a drink they call tepae. "Tepae is so important to the Waorani that in their language the word for happiness means literally 'another bowl of tepai.'" This, even though they don't let it ferment very long and so it's only just barely alcoholic.
Tepae is also made from other fruit such as bananas, peach palm, and chonta fruit. Chonta fruits grow in bunches about 60 feet above the ground on trees with bark that is too spiny for climbing. Climbing any tree is difficult in rain forests because "[a] tree may shoot 75 feet into the sky before branches emerge." "Waorani climb trees by tying their feet together with vines and wrapping their ankles around the base of a tree. Then they pull their bodies up with their arms and pull and push their feet up the tree." I don't understand, but it takes skill and muscle. To get the chonta fruit, they climb a neighboring tree, and holding on with just their legs, poke at the fruit with a long pole.
January to April is the chonta season, when more chonta ripen than at other times. This is when they meet up with friends and relatives and celebrate. The next months are called the fat season. "This is the time when monkeys are fat from eating fruit," so they hunt monkeys. They also eat berries and other fruits found on their hikes. They eat honey when they can find it. The men go out hunting once or twice a week, usually alone or with just one other man. They use 12-foot-long wooden spears to kill peccary (wild pigs). But most animals live over 100 feet above the ground. For these birds and monkeys, the Maorani use a poison dart gun. These guns are ten-foot-long precision instruments. Even the darts are 18 inches long. "Small birds and animals die instantly, but larger prey, such as a howler monkey, may require several darts and take up to 20 minutes to fall from the trees. They usually hunt from the ground, but sometimes climb a tree to get closer. "The skills and strength needed to hunt with a blowgun are equal to those of an Olympic athlete." They don't eat snakes, birds of prey, or deer (because deer eyes look too human).
Growing Up
Babies are carried in slings by their mothers until they can walk (at least two years) and they are breastfed for 3-4 years. Then they are raised by their mother and all her sisters, all of whom they call mother. Their dad and all his brothers are all considered their fathers. They learn by playing, watching, and trying things out and their games don't have winners and losers; they're just for fun.
Marriage is arranged by parents and grandparents. Around age 14-18 (they don't keep track of ages), during a celebration, the two people are put into the same hammock and feed each other. "Although young people may suspect who their spouse will be, they do not know for sure. And they do not know when the marriage will take place."
Housing
They build huts, which are burned down when they move to kill the bugs. They use hammocks as their furniture: one adult or multiple children per hammock; and the women are constantly working on making these. Now some Waorani live permanently in larger villages near the river.
Health
They eat a good diet and get plenty of exercise. They don't get cancer, high blood pressure, or heart disease. But they do get tooth decay, lice, and fungal infections. Plus they suffer from snake bites (it's hard to watch for snakes on the ground when you're looking into the trees while hunting) and accidents (like falling out of trees). "In the past more Waorani died from spearing raids by other Waorani than from any other cause. In fact, more than 40 percent of all Waorani died in spear attacks." When they first contacted Europeans and Quechua, there were epidemics. They have no natural resistance to polio, measles, pneumonia, or flu, but now they are vaccinated.
Reader Activities
The book has recommendations for activities at the end. They kind of remind me of Girl Scout badge requirements. For example, one activity is to draw pictures to illustrate one or more of the stories told by the Waorani, one is to visit a museum and look at tools used by South American Indians, and one is to learn more about your own culture by talking with an older relative about ceremonies, traditions, customs, and rituals your family observes.
Another activity is to learn about organizations working to defend the rights indigenous people around the world such as Survival International (UK), and Cultural Survival (US and Canada) (which both still exist). And they also recommend writing letters to the president of Ecuador and the Executive Director of the Instituto Ecuadororiano Reforma Agraria y Colonisacion to oppose oil exploration and drilling and maximize native rights, plus letters to US politicians to urge them to make energy conservation a priority.