Trekking through history: the Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador

273 Pages·2002·2.01 MB·English

by  Laura M. Rival

Trekking Through History
THE HISTORICAL ECOLOGY SERIES
THE HISTORICAL ECOLOGY SERIES
William Balée and Carole L. Crumley, Editors
This series explores the complex links between people and landscapes. Indi-
viduals and societies impact and change their environments, and they are in
turn changed by their surroundings. Drawing on scientific and humanistic
scholarship, books in the series focus on environmental understanding and on
temporal and spatial change. The series explores issues and develops concepts
that help to preserve ecological experiences and hopes to derive lessons for today
from other places and times.
The Historical Ecology Series
William Balée, Editor,
Advances in Historical Ecology
David L. Lentz, Editor,
Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Pre-Columbian Americas
Roderick J. McIntosh, Joseph A. Tainter, and Susan Keech McIntosh, Editors,
The Way the Wind Blows: Climate, History, and Human Action
Laura M. Rival
Trekking Through History
the huaorani of amazonian ecuador
C
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS New York
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2002Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rival, Laura M.
Trekking through history : the Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador / Laura M.
Rival.
p. cm. — (The historical ecology series)
Incluces bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–231–11844–9(cloth) — ISBN 0–231–11845–7(pbk.)
1. Huao Indians—Migrations. 2. Huao Indians-History. 3. Huao Indians—
Social life and customs. 4. Nomads—Ecuador—History. I. Title. II. Series.
F3722.1.H83 R58 2002
986.6’00498-dc21 2001042394
I
Casebound editions of Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Designed by Lisa Hamm
Printed in the United States of America
c 10987654321
p 10987654321
(cid:2)o (cid:3)éa, my little daughter

On connait mieux la pensée des sociétés que leur corps.
—andré leroi-gourhan

Contents
Illustrations and Tables xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xxi
Note on Orthography xxiii
1 Trekking in Amazonia 1
Cross-Cultural Generalizations About Amazonian Societies 3
Amazon Trekkers 15
2 The Upper Amazon from Omagua Expansion to Zaparo Collapse 20
Historiography and Isolationist People 21
The Presence of Tupian People in the Upper Amazon 23
The Napo-Curaray Geopolitical Landscape at the Time of Correrías 30
The Fate of Zaparoan Peoples During the Rubber Era 33
Recorded Huaorani History 37
Historical Isolation, Adaptation, and Continuity 39
3 The Time and Space of Huaorani Nomadic Isolationism 46
Knowing, Remembering, and Representing the Past 46
Primeval Predation and Survival 49
Anger and Homicide 55
Warfare, History, and Kinship 59
From the Victim’s Point of View 64
4 Harvesting the Forest’s Natural Abundance 68
An Economy of Procurement 68
Chonta Palm Groves, Fructification, and Forest Bounty 84
The Giving Environment 88
5 Coming Back to the Longhouse 94
The Longhouse: To Belong and to Reside 95
The Sharing Economy 99
Affinal Pairing and Maternal Multiplicity 112
The Dialectics of Incorporation and Separation 119
A Gap in the Canopy 126