HUAORANI OF EQUADOR

Huaorani people

Culture is taken to refer to the way of living of a community. It determines the behavior of a community and the rationale behind the behavior. How a community makes a living is described as its primary mode of subsistence and it impacts many other aspects of cultural behavior. Primary mode of subsistence has also been an effective way to organize thoughts and studies about culture. While focusing on Huaorani community of Ecuador, this study will look at the classifications of primary modes and their impacts on belief and values, economic organization and gender relations aspects of Huaorani culture.

 Huaorani is an indigenous Amerindian community that lives in the Amazon forests of Ecuador in South America. It is a peculiar community with distinct traits from other communities in Ecuador, especially their language which is said to be totally unrelated to other languages in Ecuador. Huaorina community has been known for its consistency and efforts in protecting its culture from indigenous enemies and any other foreign settler’s influence.

The community is divided into five groups and all predominantly living in the forest and isolated from the rest of the world. The primary mode of subsistence of Huaorani is traditionally characterized by hunting and gathering. These activities were largely facilitated by the virtue that this community lived in the forest.  Although advancement in technology and exchange has seen drastic changes in the world, the community has insignificantly been affected and remains in the forests while hunting remains the community’s main activity usually associated to men while their female counterparts are involved in children rearing and coordinating other household chores.

Huaorani believes that the entire world was once a forest and therefore considers forest as a safe place for their homes and consider the outside world unsafe. Apart from the security, Huaorani considers the forest and its rivers as very significant aspects of their lives. According to the belief system of Huaorani people, plants and animals have both physical as well as spiritual existence. They believe in respect for animals even though they are their target in hunting because they belief that after one dies he may return back to earth as an animal. It is their concept that, staying away from harm that may be caused by a dead animal’s spirits, such spirits of the dead have to be appeased.

There are beliefs and values that influence their hunting activities and therefore their eating habits. With regard to animals to be hunted, their belief dictates that snakes and jaguar should not be hunted. Snakes are considered not suitable because these people believe that after people die they are guarded by a large python and that all those who are not able to escape the trail of the snake are not able to get to the spirit world. Jaguar is viewed as the most significant magnificent forecaster. It is taken as the forest prophet. Some of their myths explain that they descendent from a relation between an eagle and a jaguar. This means that jaguar is highly respected and therefore should never be hunted; otherwise, calamity would befall those involved or the entire community.

Having their daily lives in the forest, this community doesn’t have hospitals and relies on their knowledge on medicinal herbs. Concerning the plants, there have been spiritual and medicinal related plants which are not supposed to be destroyed. Forest is their source of their livelihood and they are aggressive to one trying to destroy the forest. The taboo that hinders the hunting of some animals or interfering with some forest plants  due to the attached beliefs and values and medicinal characteristics, subsequently influences on the community’s primary mode of subsistence; hunting and gathering.

The activities of hunting and gathering which are the primary mode of subsistence of the Huaorani community is heavily influenced by other aspects like gender relations, which has impacts on the way fruits and vegetables are gathered and which animals are hunted. Regardless of various gender roles among the members of Huaorani community, there is a significant level of equality in contributing to the primary mode of subsistence. Both men and female are considered more or less equal despite the differences in roles. There is no single gender that is considered superior to the other more so in activities of looking for food.

Traditionally men in the community were hunters of large animals and the main breadwinners while women were gatherers of fruits and hunters of small animals. The roles of each gender in given ways influenced hunting and gathering as primary mode of subsistence of this community. Reival emphasizes that the roles played by these men and women in their community were beneficial to the larger community and therefore very vital. There was mutual relationship between activities of both men and women in the community. Despite the work of women being seen as easy and less dangerous in hunting and gathering, their extra activities in rearing of children cannot be overemphasized.  From the foregoing argument, men and women are required to provide foods to the community though differently, with men making the largest contribution while women get involved in minor responsibilities of food provision but instead get involved in task performing especially in domestic works.

With their major activities being hunting and gathering, to Huaorina people, forest is very important. It is their home as well as their work place.  Consequently, their life in forest has separated them from other people especially in matters of economics as can be defined in commercial terms. However, with the economic concepts such as use of scarce resources applying to them, some forms of economic organizations can be depicted in this community’s history. However, these organizations were for members in the forest but not with outsiders in other areas.

Economic organization concepts were evidenced in Huaorani exchanging weapons such as spears, machete, arrows, bows, meat and fruits.  Though, this has been the case traditionally, it is fast fading. Changes in the world economics is penetrating deep into the dwellings of the Huoarina community. They have adopted typical trade with people from outside the world. They are trapping and selling oil, timbers and logs. They have also formed contacts with some companies that have been licensed to exploit the forest. This has had impacts on hunting and gathering as the primary mode of subsistence and these people are now adopting horticulture which is added on to their dominant hunting activities.

 Trading and growing plants enable the Huaorina people to get a wide range of food products unlike before when it was wild meat and wild fruits. This has further increased trade both within community members and between the community and others from outside forest. Trading avails what is not available in one family to be gotten from that family which has and both families benefit. Though their trading is still at infant level, it is already affecting their initial primary mode of subsistence. Full time hunting and gathering and absolute dependence on meat and wild fruits is reducing as some times are devoted for trading or growing crops.

Hunting and gathering has been the primary mode of subsistence of Huaorina people and which had remained a well protected part of their culture until there was interference since the past century. The community has at all times embraced their cultural activities but the modernity especially in the economic aspects is catching up with their dear beliefs, values, hunting among others and is making visible impacts. Observing this, some analysts argue that the Huaorani people will in the future be seeking a different primary mode of subsistence. The interference from the outside world will have to alter the course of this community’s cultural beliefs and values, economic organization, and gender roles.