page_title: Jivaroan peoples
section_title: Rituals
hierarchical_section_title: Jivaroan peoples / Religion / Rituals
caption_attribution_description: Les galeries de l'Amazone sont des réserves visitables du musée national d'ethnographie à Lisbonne. Elles ont été aménagées en 1998. Elles présentent l'ensemble des objets amérindiens du musée. Plusieurs collections constituent ce fonds qui a fait l'objet de plusieurs grandes expositions.
context_page_description: The Jivaroan peoples are the indigenous peoples in the headwaters of the Marañon River and its tributaries, in northern Peru and eastern Ecuador. They speak one of the language family of the same name.
  The Jivaro people are famous for their head-hunting raids and shrinking of heads. These raids usually occur once a year in one particular Jivaro neighborhood. The raiding parties usually only attack one homestead per raid, killing the men, spearing the older women to death, and taking younger women as brides.
  Jivaro also engage in hunting activities. These activities usually involve a husband and wife hunting with a blow gun and poisoned dart, dabbed with the poisonous plant curare, which stops the heartbeat of the animal. Jivaro usually hunt for monkeys and birds, but they do not rely on hunting as their primary food source.
context_section_description: Headhunting
  See: Shrunken Head
  Jivaro Gardening
  Unlike many other cultures, the Jivaro cultures place more emphasis on gardening (horticulture) than they do on hunting. This is due to the unpredictable nature of hunting in the Amazonian region, where the Jivaro call home. As a result, a ritualistic approach to gardening sprouted from the Jivaro cultures.
  Despite the reliable, elaborate system of horticultural development 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" (Brown, 171)
caption: Shrunken head from the upper Amazon region
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:09:28 01:00:37", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "364", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1040", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1154", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3793", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:09:23 15:32:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:09:23 15:32:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1/3", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "31", "EXIF SubSecTime": "73", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "73", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "73", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1024", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "768", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1008", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "46", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}