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- Title
Waorani Warfare on the Ecuadorian Frontier, 1885-2013.
- Authors
Wasserstrom, Robert
- Abstract
Anthropologists have often described the Waorani people in eastern Ecuador as fearsome warriors who violently reject contact with outsiders and even with other Waorani. Yet archival and documentary sources paint a very different picture. Even before American missionaries arrived in 1958, Waorani did not generally opt for voluntary isolation. This article highlights the key roles played by external actors-mainly rubber collectors and other commodity extractors, missionaries, and government agents-in altering Waorani responses to the outside world. It describes how changing relations between Waorani groups and outsiders have reshaped patterns of conflict and power in Waorani society. And finally, it refutes the twin myths of voluntary isolation and the 'traditional war complex' as cultural explanations for Waorani resistance to change. Such myths underlie the fundamentally misguided government policy that has failed to safeguard indigenous rights in eastern Ecuador and to protect vulnerable peoples on extractive frontiers. [Amazon, Amazonia, colonialism, Ecuador, ethnicity, indigenous people, oil, postcolonial studies, Waorani, warfare]
- Subjects
HUAO (South American people); INDIGENOUS peoples of Ecuador; GOVERNMENT policy; INDIGENOUS rights; IMPERIALISM; ANTHROPOLOGISTS
- Publication
Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology, 2016, Vol 21, Issue 3, p478
- ISSN
1935-4932
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/jlca.12217