Ant101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

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The Huaorani People of the Amazon ANT101: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Instructor: Pamela Spence September 9, 2011 The Huaorani People of the Amazon The Huaorani people of the Amazonia are known as a culture and society that is shaped by their will to self-isolate. There is very little known about there their past, however, for centuries they have constituted nomadic and autarkic enclaves aggressively denying contact, trade and any kind of exchange with their much more powerful neighbors. They are known as “Ecuador’s last savages”. Even though the missionaries have put forth efforts in “civilizing” this society, they have retained a large amount of understanding in the world. They consider relations with outsiders as murderous enemies and are consumed with hostility and they are very afraid. They leave little room for communicating and exchange, other than avoiding the outside world completely or threaten to “spear-kill” (Laura Rival, University of Oxford, WRM“ bulletin, October 2004). Many raiding and killing occurrences’ spoiled the interactions between Tagaeri and outsiders. The Tagaeri have been known to be famous for there fierceness, spear killing oil workers, missionaries, and other people whom they saw as intruders (Laura Rival, University of Oxford, WRM“ bulletin, October 2004). The isolated Huaorani are known as the Tagaeri and the Taromenani and all together are anywhere from thirty to eighty people. In the early 1980s, the Tagaeri used to live in the Tiputini region and it became the heart of the southern oil fields. This portion of the Huaorani separated themselves permanently when a mission caused a major population displacement by encouraging the eastern groups to come and live under authority with the Protectorate. Part of the tribe believes it was partly due to intra-tribal feuding. Which means, they did

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