Shuar, in the Shuar language, means "people".^[1] The people who speak the Shuar language live in tropical rainforest between the upper mountains of the Andes, and the tropical rainforests and savannas of the Amazonian lowlands, in Ecuador and Peru. Shuar live in various places — thus, the muraiya (hill) shuar are people who live in the foothills of the Andes; the achu (swamp-palm) shuar (or Achuar) are people who live in the wetter lowlands east of the Andes (Ecuador and Peru). Jivaroan (also Hívaro, Jívaro, Jibaroana, Jibaro) is a small language family of northern Peru and eastern Ecuador. ... Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, also known as tropical rain forests, are a tropical and subtropical biome. ... The Andes form the longest mountain chain in the world. ... Savanna at Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. ... A satellite image of the mouth of the Amazon River, looking south The Amazon River or River Amazon (Spanish: ; Portuguese: ) of South America is the most voluminous river on earth, having a greater total flow than the next six largest rivers combined. ...

Shuar refer to Spanish-speakers as apach, and to non-Spanish/non-Shuar speakers as inkis. Europeans and European Americans used to refer to Shuar as jívaros or jíbaros; this word probably derives from the 16th century Spanish spelling of "shuar" (see Gnerre 1973) but has taken other meanings including "savage" (and Shuar consider it an insult). The Shuar are popularly depicted in a wide variety of travelogue and adventure literature because of Western fascination with their former practice of shrinking human heads (tzantza). World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. ... European American is a term for an American of European descent, who are usually referred as White or Caucasian. ... A Tsantsa or shrunken head Tsantsa or tzantza is the Jivaro tribes name for a human shrunken head. ...

Social organization and contacts with Europeans

the indians were stupid

Tsantsa, the shrunken heads

In the 19th century muraiya Shuar became famous among Europeans and Euro-Americans for their elaborate process of shrinking the heads of slain Achuar. Although non-Shuar characterized these shrunken heads (tzantza) as trophies of warfare, Shuar insisted that they were not interested in the heads themselves and did not value them as trophies. Instead of valuing the shrunken heads as trophies, they sought the muisak, or soul of the victim, which was contained in and by the shrunken head. Shuar men believed that control of the muisak would enable them to control their wives' and daughters' labor. Since women cultivated manioc and made chicha (manioc beer), which together provided the bulk of calories and carbohydrates in the Shuar diet, women's labor was crucial to Shuar biological and social life. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Europeans and Euro-Americans began trading manufactured goods, including shotguns, asking in return for shrunken heads. The result was an increase in local warfare that has contributed to the stereotype of Shuar as violent. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Tsantsa or shrunken head Tsantsa or tzantza is the Jivaro tribes name for a human shrunken head. ... Headhunter can refer to: Headhunter: a person who takes someones life in order to take their head. ... The soul, according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is a self-aware ethereal substance particular to a unique living being. ... Binomial name Manihot esculenta Crantz Cassava or manioc (Manihot esculenta; also yuca in Spanish, and mandioca, aipim, or macaxera in Portuguese) is a woody perennial shrub of the spurge family, that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop for its edible starchy tuberous root. ... Chicha is a fermented beverage brewed by the indigenous people of the Andean region, dating back to the Inca Empire when women were taught the techniques of brewing chicha in Acllahuasis (feminine schools). ... A calorie refers to a unit of energy. ... Carbohydrates (literally hydrates of carbon) are chemical compounds that act as the primary biological means of storing or consuming energy, other forms being fat and protein. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Adulthood rituals

At that time Shuar culture functioned to organize and promote a warrior society. Boys of about eight years would be taken by their fathers or uncles on a three to five day journey to a nearby waterfall, during which time the boy would drink only tobacco water. At some point the child would be given maikua (Datura arborea, Solanaceae), in the hope that he would then see momentary visions, or arútam. These visions were produced by a wakaní or ancestral spirit. If the boy were brave enough he could touch the arútam, and acquire the arútam wakaní. This would make the boy very strong, and possession of several arútam wakaní would make the boy invincible. Shuar, however, believed that they could easily lose their arútam wakaní, and thus repeated this ritual several times. A Shuar warrior who had lived to kill many people was called a kakáram. Shuar believed that if a person in possession of an arútam wakaní died a peaceful death, they would give birth to a new wakaní; if someone in possession of an arútam wakaní were killed, they would give birth to a muísak. For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ... Species Nicotiana acuminata Nicotiana alata Nicotiana attenuata Nicotiana benthamiana Nicotiana clevelandii Nicotiana excelsior Nicotiana forgetiana Nicotiana glauca Nicotiana glutinosa Nicotiana langsdorffii Nicotiana longiflora Nicotiana obtusifolia Nicotiana paniculata Nicotiana plumbagifolia Nicotiana quadrivalvis Nicotiana repanda Nicotiana rustica Nicotianasuaveolens Nicotiana sylvestris Nicotiana tabacum Nicotiana tomentosa Ref: ITIS 30562 as of August 26, 2005... Species See text. ... Genera Acnistus Atropa (deadly nightshade) Brugmansia (angels trumpet) Calibrachoa Capsicum (chile peppers) Cestrum Chamaesaracha Combera Crenidium Cuatresia Cyphanthera Cyphomandra Datura (jimsonweed) Hyoscyamus (henbane) Iochroma Lycium (boxthorn) Mandragora (mandrake) Nicandra Nicotiana (tobacco) Nolana Petunia Physalis (tomatillo) Scopolia Solandra Solanum (tomato, potato, eggplant) Streptosolen Wikispecies has information related to: Solanaceae The...

Illness and Shamanism

Shuar generally do not believe in natural death, although they recognize that certain epidemics such as measles and scarlet fever are diseases introduced through contact with Europeans or Euro-Americans. They fought primarily with spears and shotguns, but — like many other groups in the region — also believed that they could be killed by tsentsak, invisible darts. Any unexplained death was attributed to such tsentsak. Although tsentsak are animate, they do not act on their own. Shamans (in Shuar, "Uwishin") are people who possess and control tsentsak. To possess tsentsak they must purchase them from other shamans; Shuar believe that the most powerful shamans are Quichua-speakers, who live to the north and east. To control tsentsak Shuar must ingest natem (Banisteriopsis caapi). Many Shuar believe that illness is caused when someone hires a shaman to shoot tsentsak into the body of an enemy. This attack occurs in secret and few if any shamans admit to doing this. If someone takes ill they may go to a shaman for diagnosis and treatment. The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means... Quechua (Runa Simi in Quechua; Runa, human + Simi, speech, literally mouth; i. ... Binomial name Banisteriopsis caapi Banisteriopsis caapi, also known as Ayahuasca, Caapi or Yage, is a South American jungle vine of the family Malpighiaceae. ...

Shuar and the Ecuadorian State

The discovery of oil in the upper Amazon has motivated Ecuadorian and Peruvian interest in the region. In the 20th century Ecuadorian Shuar and Peruvian groups like the Achuar have had significantly different histories. Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

There are at least 40,000 Shuar, 5,000 Achuars and 700 Shiwiars in Ecuador.

At the end of the 19th century Catholic Jesuits re-established missions among the Shuar, and poor and landless Euro-Ecuadorians from the highlands (colonos) began to settle among Shuar. Shuar entered into peaceful trade relations, exchanged land for manufactured goods, and began sending their children to mission boarding schools to learn Spanish. In 1935 the Ecuadorian government created a Shuar reserve, in part to regulate Euro-Ecuadorian access to land, and gave Salesian (Catholic) missionaries charge over the reserve. Missionaries were largely successful in the acculturation process, teaching Shuar Spanish, converting Shuar to Christianity, encouraging the Shuar to abandon warfare and the production of shrunken heads, encouraging Shuar to abandon the puberty rites through which Shuar acquired an arútam wakaní, and encouraging Shuar to participate in the market economy. They were largely but not completely successful in encouraging Shuar to abandon polygyny for monogamy. They were relatively unsuccessful in discouraging the practice of shamanism. The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain), where the Andes are at their widest, is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Salesians of Don Bosco (or the Salesian Society, originally known as the Society of St. ... Pocahontas, in England, as Mrs John Rolfe, 1616: engraving after Simon Van de Passe Acculturation is the obtainment of culture by an individual or a group of people. ... This article is becoming very long. ... It has been suggested that Free market be merged into this article or section. ... The term polygyny (neo-Greek: poly+gune Many + Wives) is used in related ways in social anthropology and sociobiology. ... Monogamy is the custom or condition of having only one mate during a period of time. ...

By the 1950s Shuar had lost a considerable amount of land to settlers. At this time they abandoned their semi-nomadic and dispersed settlement pattern and began to form nucleated settlements of five to thirty families, called centros (Spanish for "centers"). These centros facilitated missionary access to Shuar. They also provided a basis for Shuar petitions to the Ecuadorian government for land; in return Shuar promised to clear rainforest to convert to pasture, and the government provided loans for Shuar to purchase cattle which they would raise for market.

In the 1960s Salesian missionaries encouraged leaders of the centros to meet and form a new organization. In 1964 they formed the Federacíon Interprovincial de Centros Shuar-Achuar ("Interprovincial Federation of Shuar and Achuar Centros"; many Achuar live in Ecuador, although most live in Peru). The Federation is democratic and hierarchically organized, most of its leaders are salaried by the Ecuadorian state. In 1969 the Federation signed an accord with the Ecuadorian government in which the Federation assumed administrative jurisdiction over the Shuar reserve. The Federation assumed the duties of educating children, administering civil registration and land-tenure, and promoting cattle-production and other programs meant to further incorporate Shuar into the market economy. Since that time the Federation has splintered into several groups, including a separate Achuar Federation, although the various groups maintain cordial relations. 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ...

Thanks to the work of the Federation Shuar identity is very strong; nevertheless, most Shuar also identify strongly to the Ecuadorian nation-state and have entered Ecuadorian electoral politics. Many Shuar also serve in the Ecuadorian Army, and the Army has appropriated the 19th century stereotype of Shuar as "violent savages", forming elite units of Shuar soldiers (although all commissioned officers are non-Shuar). These units distinguished themselves in the 1995 Cenepa War between Ecuador and Peru. The term nation-state, while often used interchangeably with the terms unitary state and independent state, refers properly to the parallel occurence of a state and a nation. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Cenepa War (January 26-February 28, 1995), also known as Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over the control of a disputed area on the border between the two countries. ...

See also

• Ethnology

Ethnology (greek ethnos: (non-greek, barbarian) people) is a genre of anthropological study, involving the systematic comparison of the folklore, beliefs and practices of different societies. ...

Endnotes

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (IPA pronunciation ); born November 28, 1908) is a Jewish-French anthropologist who developed structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture. ... The Other or constitutive other is a key concept in continental philosophy, opposed to the Same. ...

References

• Gnerre, Maurizio 1973 "Sources of Spanish Jívaro," in Romance Philology 27(2): 203-204. Berkeley: University of California Press.

• Harner, Michael J. 1984 Jivaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05065-7

• Karsten, Rafael 1935 The head-hunters of Western Amazonas: The life and culture of the Jibaro Indians of eastern Ecuador and Peru ([Finska vetenskaps-societeten, Helsingfors] Commentationes humanarum litterarum. VII. 1 Washington D.C: Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletins. ASIN B00085ZPFM

• Mader, Elke 1999 Metamorfosis del poder: Persona, mito y visión en la sociedad Shuar y Achuar. Abya-Yala. ISBN 9978-04-477-9

• Rubenstein, Steven 2002 Alejandro Tsakimp: A Shuar Healer in the Margins of History Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8988-X

External links

• Ethnologue report on Shuar
• Head Hunting: History of the Shuar
• The Shuar: Hunter-Horticulturalist Amazonians of Southeast Ecuador