What is it about?
After 1920, raiding Kichwa and other communities became the only way for Waorani bands to acquire steel tools and other goods. With help from American missionaries, this pattern was transformed into a mythical "culture of violence" widely reported by social scientists.
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Why is it important?
Waorani people have described as the world's most war-like society due to their fanatical embrace of inter-group warfare. Historical evidence shows that this view is wrong. It ignores the broader patterns of raiding and trade that arose in Western Amazonia after 1920, at the end of the Rubber Boom.
Perspectives
This research took place as part of a seven-year effort to locate and analyze historical documents in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia. It allows us to locate the Waorani among other Amazonian people whose lives were dramatically changed in the early 20th century. Far from being isolated, Waorani people struggled to survive in ways that researchers have mostly neglected or misconstrued. Given present-day events, I believe it is essential for researchers and indigenous rights advocates to revise their understanding of Amazonia's so-called isolated groups. '
Robert Wasserstrom
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Waorani Warfare on the Ecuadorian Frontier, 1885-2013, The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, September 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/jlca.12217.
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