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Culture
Our culture is unique. We have always lived in the forest, and
have had relatively few contacts with the outside world. We share
the same ancestral origins as the Achuar and Shuar, but our culture
is different. We live in a very spiritual world, where dreams have a
tremendous signification, and where trees and animals have a soul.
We have chacras, our sacred garden where
we cultivate the food we eat. We live in a non-monetized society. We
still use many of our traditional accessories like necklaces,
headbands and bracelets, and we paint our faces for special
occasions. We live in traditional houses and we often use blowguns
for hunting.
According to our cosmovision, the forest is
alive, with its own spirit, the Amasang,
which is the god of animals and of the forces that we use to hunt
them. We owe the fertility of our soils to Nungui, that our women celebrate through Anent music and song. Our men learn from the
Wishin how to hunt and the knowledge of
the world.
We have however been contacted by some
missionaries who converted some of us to Christianity (although not
in Tanguntsa or Juyuintsa). As a result of this, we presently wear
western clothing, and we use some western technology such as motors
for our canoes, chainsaws, lamp torches, rifles and solar powered
radios. All of this has not necessarily been bad for us. The
airstrip saves lives during medical emergencies and we are happy to
move between villages more quickly than before. Nevertheless even
today western influence is minimal and we remain self-sufficient in
our territory, still being able to obtain most of what we need from
the forest.
But we are at a crossroads, and know that we have
evolve to resist the pressure from the outside world. As human
beings we want access to education and health care and are therefore
fighting to promote our rights. We hope the Ikiam Expedition will
allow us to make the changes we both need and want, integrating our
society into the modern world while preserving an integral part of
our culture.
For more information about our culture, please
visit the Shiwiar Initiative
site.
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