Shuar

The Jivaro people also known as the Shuar people are one of the indigenous people that habitat parts of eastern Ecuador, and northern Peru. They live in small, spread out villages of approximately 22,000 square miles throughout the Amazon forest and foothills of the Andes mountains. The Jivaro people consist of different smaller groups of people such as Achuar, Humabisa, Aguaruan, Antipas, Mayna. The people can also speak over six languages: Jivoran, Quechua, Shiwar, Achuar, Awajun, and Huambisa. The purpose of this study is to discern how the history of violence to themselves and from others has impacted the Jivaroan way of life today. The city of Yaupi, Ecuador is a primarily Jivaro village that has become more modern. This village is safer…

The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, had a life filled with disapproval and rejection. As an unaccepted member of the Shuar natives of the Amazon, Bolivar is thought of as a Shuar by most, but according to the Shuar he is still not one of them. Throughout his 40 year stay with the Shuar natives, which truly began when he seeked out their assistance after being injured by a venomous snake in the forest, he was thought of as “part gringo, part Shuar”, thus making him not fully accepted by either…

As the Shuar called it, Kakáram, which is a measure of a man’s power encompasses not only his vitality (i.e. his ability to produce offspring), physical strength and courage, but also of his ability to speak well (Hendricks, 1998, p. 219). Hendricks after immersing herself in the culture of the Shuar found that this link was due to an association between speech and spiritual strength (Hendricks, 1998, p. 223). That is, the success a young man in his mission to seek Arútam (the souls of his…

The Marind-anim tribe of New Guinea removed the heads of their opponents so they could control their spirits. They also consumed the flesh of their slain opponent. However, despite the various forms of headhunting practiced around the world, The Jivaro Indians are the only group of headhunters that practiced the art of reducing the human head to the size of a man’s fist. The Jivaroan Indian Tribe The Jivaroan tribe actually consists of four sub-tribes: Achuar, Aguaruna, Huambisa and Shuar. All…

In every culture we see the belief in a something greater than oneself; a religious undertone so to speak. The belief in something greater than oneself has been existent for hundreds of thousands of years, and will continue to be at the top of any anthropologists list when comparing cultures. For example, the Shuar people of the Ecuadorian jungle believe in the holy spirit of Arutam. In modern society, we see a major Christian undertone. Another example is that the people of ancient Mesopotamia…