Jivaroan peoples

The Jivaroan peoples are the indigenous peoples in the headwaters of the Marañon River and its tributaries, in northern Peru and eastern Ecuador. The tribes speak the Chicham languages.
Their traditional way of life relies on gardening, and on hunting with blowguns and darts poisoned with curare. Complex spiritual beliefs are built around both of these activities. Jivaroan culture also features headhunting raids and ayahuasca ceremonies.
In the 16th century, Jivaroan warriors stopped the expansion of the Inca Empire into the Amazon basin, and destroyed settlements of Spanish conquistadors.
The word Jivaro is likely a corruption of xivar, a word that means people in the Shuar Chicham language. During the Spanish colonial period, "Jivaros" were viewed as the antithesis of civilized. The word Jíbaro thus entered the Spanish language; in Ecuador it is highly pejorative and signifies "savage"; outside of Ecuador, especially in Mexico and Jíbaro in Puerto Rico, it has come to mean "countryside people who farm the land in a traditional way".
The principal groups are:
Some have also named the following:
Additionally, the Shiwiar are a group of Achuar speakers living along the Corrientes River, next to Quechua speakers; many Shiwiar also speak this other, unrelated, language.
The Jivaroan worldview is built upon the idea that both animate and inanimate objects hold souls that cannot be seen by human eyes. These souls contain power, or karáram, that the Jivaroan people believe can be contained and harnessed within one's self. Michael Harner talks about these souls, called arutam:
Killing becomes a vital part of the Jivaro culture. Men are only marriageable after becoming hunters within their communities. The more one kills, the more power one has, granting one immunity of death. Violence is a huge part of Jivaroan culture in respect to this type of soul belief. Harner talks about the main systems of belief within the Jivaroan communities:
The Jivaroan people have a polytheistic religion. Tsungi is the god of shamanism, and the goddess Nungüi refers to mother earth. Nungüi is described as being a short and heavy-set woman, dressed in a black dress. Living deep underground, she emerges at night to dance in the gardens of women, whose gardens would then become productive for the harvest season. Women sing to Nungui to ask her to protect the gardens, and they carefully weed the gardens daily to appease her. Jivaro believe in a protective spirit that comes to them through spirit visions. This spirit, known as Arutam, is thought to protect them from injury, disease, and death. The Jivaroan gods and goddesses are deeply tied to nature. There are different creators and gods that explain the origins of man and animal, the occurrence of natural events and relationships that exist in daily life. Their creation myths support their violence-based culture as “it is dominated by a series of battles among the gods and an essential duality of where people are the victims.” Among the deities are spirits that are known to provide wisdom and protection to the person they are tied to. Some commonly seen animals are the anaconda, pangi, and the giant butterfly wampang. These animals can assist shamans in healing or bewitching people. Through the Jivaroan worldview, it is believed that sickness and death are caused by attacks on one's spirit by malevolent shamans. The healing shamans will hold ayahuasca ceremonies and perform different rituals to counteract the work done by witchcraft.
Unlike many other cultures, the Jivaro cultures place more emphasis on gardening than they do on hunting. This is due to the unpredictable nature of hunting in their native region of the Amazon. As a result, a ritualistic approach to gardening sprouted in the Jivaro cultures.
Despite the reliable, elaborate system of horticulture the Jivaro have developed, they still believe the act to be “…as fraught with uncertainty as hunting” as Michael Brown stated in a paper titled, “Aguaruna Jivaro Gardening Magic in Alto Rio Mayo, Peru.” He then went on to say that in order, “To encourage the growth of their cultivated plants they sing magical gardening songs, perform a set of ritual acts when planting a new garden, and observe certain taboos connected with garden work.” Much like similar beliefs and rituals associated with hunting, the Jivaro believe that spirits reside in the plants and they need to be encouraged to grow by various songs, chants, and dances.
Owing to the belief of spirits residing in the plants, the garden is regarded as a place of great spiritual significance. Like the inside of a temple, the garden is a place where one receives sanctuary.
"It is one of the few places where a woman can go alone without attracting curiosity and suspicion. It offers privacy from prying eyes and ears and is therefore the site of a certain amount of intra- and extra-marital sexual activity"
Ayahuasca ceremonies play a large role in the Jivaro culture. These ceremonies are used for healing practices usually directed toward enchanting spirits. Here, Bradley C. Bennett makes note of these healing practices:
The shaman goes about relieving the patient of any harmful spirits that may be attacking his or her body. The Jivaro also believe in an act of what may be considered telling the future or telling time. Bennett makes another note of the Jivaro and their ayahuasca ceremonies, where a Jivaro will hire a shaman to tell of far away friends and family.
The Jivaro have been practicing these ceremonies for hundreds of years, keeping them held close to their roots. The ceremonies of the ayahuasca brew continue to be practiced.
The Shuar believe that the first being, Tensak, casts a spiritual dart to curse or heal a person. Bennett recorded that the Tensak "exists in a higher plane of existence that can be seen when in the shaman state." Bennett also observed that, as a shaman works to heal spirits and counter bewitching shamans he will consume Banisteriopsis caapi, tobacco and alcohol to help enhance and fuel his trip from the ayahuasca.
Anthropologists have recognized the Jivaroan languages as distinct, but have called attention to two confounding factors. The first has to do with nomenclature: Jivaroan language speakers typically identify themselves either by their language's word for person (shuar) or by the name of the river on which they live. Consequently, historical sources record either one name for all, or a plethora names of many small Jivaroan tribes, each the name of a different river.
The second reason has to do with social organization. Prior to Ecuadorian or Peruvian colonization and Christian missionization in the 20th century, the principal unit of Jivaroan social organization was the polygynous matrilocal household or cluster of matrilocally-organized households. Notably, although Jivaroans shared the same language and culture, each household or cluster of matrilocally organized households were politically and economically autonomous. Thus, in 1938 Matthew Stirling commented that:
He also said that:
Prior to colonization and the presence of Christian missionaries, Jivaroan speakers were not organized into any stable and clearly bounded polities or ethnic groups.
In response to European colonization and missionization, Jivaroan speakers have formed nucleated settlements that are organized into political federations: the Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar and the Nacionalidad Achuar de Ecuador in Ecuador, and the Organización Central de Comunidades Aguarunas del Alto Marañon and the Consejo Aguaruna y Huambisa in Peru.
At the time of Spanish arrival to South America, the Jivaro were an independent culture and hostile to outsiders. The neighboring Incas had tried to subjugate the Jivaroan peoples, but the Inca Empire's expansion attempts failed after a series of bloody confrontations where the Inca army lost against the fierce Jivaroan warriors. The Jivaro put up a similar resistance to Spaniards, who came into their territory searching for placer gold. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the Jivaroan tribes had only limited and intermittent contact with regional authorities.