Wikipedia:Possibly unfree files/2008 15 July

Waodani:

The Huaorani/Waodani, or Waos are native Amerindians from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador (in the Oriente region) with some marked differences from the others ethnic groups from Ecuador. (Auca is another pejorative name, given by the neighboring Kichwa Indians and commonly used by Spanish-speakers as well. Auca - awqa in Quechua – means "Savage".) They comprise almost 4,000 inhabitants and speak the Huaorani language, a linguistic isolate without congeners. Their ancestral lands are located between the Curaray and Napo rivers, about 50 miles (80 km) south of El Coca. These homelands are threatened by oil exploration and illegal logging practices. They are approximately 120 miles (190 km) wide and 75 to 100 miles (120 to 160 km) from north to south. In the past, Huaorani guarded their lands from both indigenous foes and outsider colonials (whom they sometimes refer/ed to as ''Cowodi,"literally "nonhuman cannibals").

In the last 40 years, they have become a largely settled people living mostly in permanent forest settlements. As many as five communities, the Tagaeri, the Huiñatare, the Oñamenane and two groups of the Taromenane, have rejected all contact with non-Waodani, and continue to move into more isolated areas.

Name
The word Waodani means human or hombre in Wao Tiriro. Before the mid 20th century, it only included 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 in-group/out-group naming conventions used by many peoples, and reflects a period of traumatic conflict with outsiders during the 19th and early 20th century rubber boom/oil exploration.

The name Waodani reflects a phoneticization English-speaking missionary linguists. The phonetic equivalent used by Spanish-speakers is Huaorani (reflecting the absence of 'w' in Spanish usage.)

Subdivision
The Waodani are subdivided into the Huamuno Dayuno, Quehueruno, Garzacocha (Yasuní River), Quemperi (Cononaco River) Mima, and Caruhue.

Worldview
In traditional animist Waodani worldview, there is no distinction between the physical and spiritual worlds and spirits are present throughout the world. The Waodani once believed that the entire world was a forest (and used the same word, ömë, for both) and the Oriente’s rainforest remains the essential basis of their physical and cultural survival. For them, the forest is home, while the outside world was considered is unsafe: living in the forest offered protection from the witchcraft and attacks of neighboring peoples. In short, as one Huaorani put it, “The rivers and trees are our life.” (Kane 1995:1999) In all its specificities, the forest is woven into each Huaorani’s life and conceptions of the world. They have remarkably detailed knowledge of its geography and ecology.

The Waodani believed the animals of their forest had a spiritual as well as physical existence. They believed that when one dies he walks a trail to the afterlife which has a large python in waiting. Those among the dead who cannot escape the python fail to enter the domain of dead spirits and return to Earth to become animals, often termites. This underlies a peculiar mix of practices that recognize and respect animals, but do not shield them from harm for human use. Huaroani who become Christians believe that God sent his son to experience death, walk the trail, and encounter the python for them.

Hunting supplies a major part of the Waodani diet and is of cultural significance. 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 also 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 Huaorani must kill animals to live, but they believed dead animal spirits live on and must be placated or else do harm in angry retribution.” (Seamans 1996) 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 even considered killing, but retrieving, another kind of harvesting from the trees. Spearing wild peccaries on the other hand, is killing and is practiced with violence and rage. (Rival 2002)

While never hunted, two other animals, the snake and the jaguar have special significance for the Huaorani. Snakes are considered "the most evil force in the Huaorani cosmology" (Kane 1995:44), particularly the imposing (though nonvenemous) anaconda, or obe. A giant obe stands in the way of the forest trail that the dead follow to an afterlife with the creator in the sky. Here on earth, snakes are a very bad omen and traditionally killing them is considered taboo.

The Waodani identify themselves deeply with the jaguar, an important and majestic predator in the Oriente. According to myth, the Huaorani were the descendants of a mating between a jaguar and an eagle. Elders became shamans by metaphorically adopting “jaguar sons” whose spirits communicate medical and spiritual knowledge. In the Huaorani belief system, jaguar shamans are able “to become a jaguar, and so to travel great distances telepathically and communicate with other Huaorani.”

Plants, especially trees, continue to hold a complex and important interest for the Huaorani. Their store of botanical knowledge is extensive and ranges from knowledge of materials to poisons to hallucinogens to medicines. They also relate plants to their own experiences, particularly that of growing. Among trees, certain kinds are auspicious. Canopy trees, with their distinctly colored young leaves and striking transformation as they mature to towering giants, are “admired for their solitary character … as well as for their profuse entanglement” with other plants. Other significant trees are the pioneer species of the peach palm (used for making spears and blowguns, as well as for fruit), and fast-growing balsa wood, used for ceremonial purposes. Peach palm trees are associated with past settlements and the ancestors who live there. (Rival 1993)

As with many peoples, the Waos maintained 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, which was greatly accelerated by the creation of ONHAE (see Indigenist political reorganization below), a radio service and a soccer league.

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". (Rival 2002)

Weapons
Spears are the main weapons of the Waodani culture used in person to person conflict.

Their main hunting weapon is the blowgun. These weapons are typically from 3 to 4 metres long, and the arrows that are in them have curare poison, which paralyzes the muscles of the animal that is hit with it, so that it cannot breathe. With the introduction of western technology in the 20th century, many Waodani have come to use rifles for hunting.

Marriage
Waodani families practiced endogamy, especially cross-cousin marriages &mdash; a woman may marry her cousin(s) from one or more sisters on his father's side, or from brother(s) on his mother's side (and necessarily vice-versa with regard to females and their marriage choices). The men may also have multiple wives. Sometimes, a man would kill another man to gain another wife; this was traditionally common if a man had no available cousin to marry.

Huaorani women remove all their body hair by first rubbing ash in the areas they do not want hair, allegedly to reduce the pain, then pull out the hair.

Recent history
Around the time of World War II, there was a great increase of inter-clan killings: at this time it was estimated that up to 60% of all Huaorani deaths were due to murder. Some of the Huaorani trace the beginning of the killing to the breakdown of clan relationships around ten generations prior to this time. Prior to this period large gatherings frequently brought distant clans together from time to time to celebrate and arrange marriages, among other activities. These were organized by informal tribal leaders (although the Huaorani had no chiefs or formal leadership in general). When these gatherings became less common clans became estranged and offended with one another and conflicts began to escalate until the Huaorani became one of the most violent cultures ever documented (Saint 2005).

In 1956, a group of five American missionaries, led by Jim Elliot and pilot Nate Saint, made contact with the Huaorani in what was known as Operation Auca. Two days after friendly contact with three Huaorani, all five of the missionaries were killed in a spearing attack by a larger group from the same Huaorani clan. Nate Saint's sister, Rachel Saint, prior to these killings, had befriended a Huaorani woman named Dayuma. Saint, Dayuma, and Jim Elliot's wife Elisabeth converted several of the Huaorani to Christianity. This helped break the cycle of violence, stopping most of the revenge killings that had threatened the existence of the Huaorani clans. Jim Elliot's son eventually befriended his father’s killers within the Auca tribe. Nearly the entire tribe became God followers. Pacification of the Huaorani and reliance upon missionaries for dealing with the outside world did, however, eventually allow increased oil scouting in the area over the years. With the discovery by Texaco of large petroleum reserves in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest in 1968, potential for conflict was again renewed. Eventually a deal was brokered in which many of the Huaorani were subsequently concentrated into a protectorate under the responsibility of SIL International.

Once the Huaorani schools were brought under the control of SIL missionaries, there was an attempt made to teach the beliefs of Christianity. There was also an attempt made to convert the tribe from hunting-and-gathering to farming in order to provide an agro-export, thus "contribut[ing] to the national good". Teachers were mainly of the neighboring Quichua. New systems of government were also introduced. These Christian influences have granted the Huaoroni a new lease on life, and they are now serving other tribes. www.itecusa.org

Currently (2008), the Huaorani have about 6,800 km² of land, about one third of their original land. Some work with tourism companies, and others obtain education until University level. Half of the small children attend schools in Spanish, but others still spend their days hunting and gathering.

Indigenous political reorganization
Prior to 1989, the Huaorani were very divided and politically unorganized. Of the more than two dozen settlements, the two permanent ones were Rachel Saint's (the Toñampare) and Dayuno, which was also under missionary influence. There were also a number of traditional clans and the Tagaeri. Though the Huaorani were surviving and healthy, their society in the two largest settlements was controlled almost entirely by missionaries, and there was no clear voice to communicate to the outside world.

Land rights
In 1990, the Waodani won the rights to an indigenous reserve covering some 6,125.60 square kilometers.. The protected status of Yasuní National Park, which overlaps with the Huaorani reserve provides some measure of environmental protection. Additionally, the government has created a protected zone to avoid contact with the Tagaeri.