Jivaro

By Anonymous and John Beierle

Chívari, Chiwaro, Gíbari, Givari, Gívaro, Híbaro, Jibaro, Jívara, Jívira, Síwaro, Xívari, Xivaro, Zíbaro.

Shuar (Shuara), Achuara (Atchuara, Achual), Aguaruna, Huambisa (Huambiza), Mayna.

The Jivaro live in the forested foothills of the Andes near the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border. This culture summary focuses on the Jivaro of Ecuador who are now frequently called Shuar. When the term "Jivaro" is referred to alone, it usually refers to this Ecuadorian group. Other Jivaroan groups are the Achuara Jivaro who straddle the Ecuadorian-Peruvian border near the Pastaza River; the Aguaruna Jivaro near the Marañon River in Peru, and the Huambisa Jivaro in Peru who straddle the Santiago River.

The Jivaro (Shuar) living in close contact with the frontier Ecuadorian settlements are called the "frontier Jivaro", while those beyond the frontier of Ecuadorian colonization are often referred to as "interior Jivaro" (Harner l973: 16).

At the time of Harners fieldwork (1956-1957), the total number of Jivaro living in the foothills of the Andes in Ecuador was estimated at 7,830 individuals. This estimate was derived from a house count of Ecuadorian Jivaroans made from the air by personnel of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. The number of houses sighted was multiplied by an estimate of nine persons per dwelling (Harner, 1973, ftn. 10: 220). Ethnologue for the year 2000 estimates that there were perhaps 100,000 Jivaroan speakers, with almost half living in Ecuador. The breakdown of this estimate is as follows: Shuar; 46,669: Achuara-Shiwiar; 5,000: Aguaruna; 38,290: and the Huambisa; 9,333.

It is generally believed that the Jivaro speak languages belonging to the Jivaroan Family of languages, but most historical linguists find it difficult to assign Jivaroan dialects and languages with any certainty to any of the recognized major language families of South American Indians. Greenberg, as noted in Harner (1973) has suggested that Jivaro as well as several other languages belong to a broad "Andean Equatorial" family (Harner, 1973: 13). In addition some Jivaro also speak Quechua as well as Spanish.

The first reported white penetration of Jivaro territory was made in 1549 by a Spanish expedition under Hernando de Benavente. Later expeditions of colonists and soldiers soon followed. These newcomers traded with the Jivaro, made peace pacts with them, and soon began to exploit the gold found in alluvial or glacial deposits in the region. Eventually the Spaniards were able to obtain the co-operation of some of the Indians in working the gold deposits, but others remained hostile, killing many of the colonists and soldiers at every opportunity. Under the subjection of the Spaniards, the Jivaro were required to pay tribute in gold dust; a demand that increased yearly. Finally, in 1599, the Jivaro rebelled en masse, killing many thousands of Spaniards in the process and driving them from the region. After 1599, until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century, Jivaro-European relations remained intermittent and mostly hostile. A few missionary and military expeditions entered the region from the Andean highlands, but these frequently ended in disaster and no permanent colonization ever resulted. One of the few "friendly" gestures reported for the tribe during this time occurred in 1767, when they gave a Spanish missionizing expedition "gifts", which included the skulls of Spaniards who had apparently been killed earlier by the Jivaro (Harner, 1953: 26). Thus it seems that the Jivaros are the only tribe known to have successfully revolted against the Spanish Empire and to have been able to thwart all subsequent attempts by the Spaniards to conquer them. They have withstood armies of gold seeking Inkas as well as Spaniards, and defied the bravado of the early conquistadors. In the 1930s a gold rush to the area once again brought about intense fighting between the Jivaro and the new arrivals, but the Roman Catholic Salesians, who had a mission among the Jivaro, were able to stop the fighting by persuading the Ecuadorian government to provide a reservation for the Jivaro. Since then, relations between the Jivaro and non-Indians have been essentially peaceful, although the Jivaro cannot be considered completely pacified. By the late twentieth century the Jivaro have become swidden horticulturists who produce sweet manioc, maize, and other crops. They have acquired a strong taste for trade goods, and many of them have entered the work force as laborers to earn the money necessary to buy such items.

The interior Jivaro are scattered in some 245 houses over an estimated area of approximately 1,844 square miles(4,775 sq. kilometers), but nowhere is this population concentrated into villages, being instead dispersed in loose-knit neighborhood groupings of irregular size (Harner, 1973).

Each community is politically independent with its own headman. Each is also located four or more kilometers from their nearest neighboring community. The community is made up of patrilineally and affinally related individuals, traditionally consisting of from 80 to 300 people (30 to 40 people in the twentieth century), living in one house called a JIVARIA. For defensive purposes, this house is built on a steep hill usually at the upper end of a stream. The house itself is approximately 13 meters by 26 meters in size, elliptical in shape, and has a thatched roof. In times of war, two or more communities united to fight a common enemy, as was the case when the Spanish attempted to conquer them.

Each household has either a single large garden or several smaller ones associated with it. In the latter case, the house itself is usually located in the largest. The Jivaro tend to cultivate slowly maturing tuberous plants, especially sweet manioc (Manihot Utilissima), all of which can be harvested over a long period of time providing agricultural products throughout the year.

In addition to sweet manioc, the Jivaro also grew maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts, tuber beans, macabo (Xanthosoma sp.), pumpkins, plantains, tobacco, cotton, and, later, the introduced species of banana, sugarcane, taro, and yam. To supplement their diet the Jivaro hunt, fish and forage for wild fruits, cacao, nuts, and other foods. At one time they hunted deer and tapir, but by the middle of the twentieth century they gave up eating these animals out of fear of the spirits residing in them. Hunting is done with bows and arrows, spears, atlatls, and blow guns for small game. Occasionally cheap trade guns, often muzzleloaders, are used in the chase. Larger game is hunted by groups of men accompanied by dogs. There is much magic associated with hunting, including the use of pepper in the eyes of hunters and dogs to improve vision. The Jivaro traditionally domesticated llamas and guinea pigs and later the introduced dog, chicken, and pig.

The commercial activities of the Jivaro are very restricted. In the early days of European contact hogs and chickens were raised for sale to those of European background. Salt, a rare commodity in the region, was gathered in clay pots from a few brackish springs in the area, allowed to evaporate, and the resulting hardened ball of salt used in exchange transactions with neighboring tribal groups. The Jivaro were famous for the shrinking of the human heads (TSANTSA) of their enemies (actually only the skin). Passing out of Jivaro country through a series of exchanges, these heads eventually found their way into the hands of traders who brought them down the Amazon to Para where they were sold. Soon the traders had a burgeoning trade in these items, and the Jivaro were hard-put to keep up with the demand. The Indians were by no means particular as to whose head was used, and advance orders were taken and filled. Eventually this native "industry" was brought to a halt by the Ecuadorian and Peruvian governments although by the late twentieth century life-like replicas of the heads made from animal skins are still being sold commercially.

The few technological items that the Jivaro make are mostly used for their own subsistence needs, such as baskets, pottery, bows and arrows, blow guns, woven materials, etc. Any production of items above their immediate needs is employed in barter exchanges with neighboring people.

Much of the trade of the Jivaro is between the "interior", relatively isolated groups (particularly the Achuara) and those "frontier" groups living in close proximity to Ecuadorian settlements where they have easy access to Western industrialized products. Through a series of neighborhood-to-neighborhood relays by native trading partners (AMIGRI) these products were passed from the frontier Jivaro into the most remote parts of the tribal territory. Thus the interior Jivaro were supplied with steel cutting tools, firearms and ammunition without having to come into contact with the population of European ancestry. In exchange the frontier Jivaro, whose supply of local game was nearly exhausted, obtained hides, feathers and bird skins (used for ornaments), which were not readily available in their own territory.

The division of labor falls along the usual gender lines. Men are responsible for protecting their families, house construction, basket making, different kinds of wood work, weapon manufacture, hunting and fishing, clearing the forest in preparation for the initial establishment of garden plots, and for cutting and bringing in fire wood. They also spin and weave and do some limited garden work. Women are responsible for the overwhelming majority of agricultural tasks, as well as for food and beer preparation, pottery making, fabric dyeing, child care, and the tending of the domestic animals (chiefly chickens and pigs).

There is no individual or communal ownership of land or natural resources, except in the sense that a garden plot is owned by a woman as long as it is being cultivated, but probably not more than five years. However even in this case it is the capital improvement of the land that is owned, not the land itself. There are no territorial boundaries recognized for hunting, fishing or other purposes at a tribal, neighborhood, or household level.

The basic Jivaro kin group is referred to as a "personal" bilateral kindred. In this type of kinship structure each person has a different kindred, with rights and obligations coinciding only with those of siblings of the same sex. Classification of kin, therefore, is spoken of as degrees of distance from ego, rather than in terms of membership or non-membership in a corporate unit as is quite often characteristic of unilineal descent societies. This form of kin group is probably the most insecure of the basic types of kinship systems for the individual, lacking defined descent groups affording protection from one's enemies and assistance in settling disputes among relatives (Harner, 1973: 97-98).

Information on the classification of Jivaro kinship terminology is scant in the anthropological literature. In a series of tables appearing in an article entitled "World Ethnographic Sample", in the American Anthropologist, 1957, George P. Murdock characterizes the Jivaro as having bifurcate merging avuncular terminology in which FaBr is equated with Fa, but MoBr is differentiated from both. He also states that cousin terminology is also unusual in that non-marriageable cross-cousins are equated with siblings, while marriageable cross-cousins are differentiated (Murdock, 1957: 673). In single-word or elementary kin terms the modifier "true" or "branch" is added to the term to pin down degrees of relationship to ego. Where specific relatives are involved the modifying terms can often be substituted for one another, depending on the degree of closeness of relationship that the speaker wishes to imply. "True" relationship modifiers are used for an individual's biological kin - grandparents, parents, siblings, children, cross-cousins, and fathers of his cross-cousins. Those relatives assigned the "branch" category are affinal kin who, prior to marrying, were not considered by ego to be relatives of any degree (Harner, 1973: 98).

Polygyny is common, with men preferring to have two or more wives who contribute to the subsistence productivity of the household primarily in terms of food production and the preparation of manioc beer. This emphasis on polygyny partly reflects the disproportionate ratio of adult females to males in the society (2:1) largely as a consequence of the high mortality of men as the result of warfare. A man's first wife, preferably an unmarried cross cousin of post-puberty age, is courted, and with her consent, the marriage is concluded with the payment of a bride price or by the performance of bride service to the girl's family. There is no formal marriage ceremony. Additional wives may be obtained by capture on a raid, or the man may purchase a pre-adolescent girl from her father or brother and raise her in his house prior to the actual consummation of the marriage. Sometimes a pregnant woman and her husband will agree to "reserve" their unborn child, if female, for the man as a future wife. This practice results in marriages with substantial age differences between husband and wife.

The Jivaro also observe the practice of the levirate. At the death of a man, the brother who is closest to him in age takes care of the widow and children. Although it is not required that she become his wife, she frequently does so.

The basic domestic unit among the Jivaro is the polygynous family consisting of a man and his wife or wives and their children. Occasionally another relative such as a widowed mother or unmarried brother of the household head will also be included. In addition a married daughter and her husband may live in the household until the birth of their first child. Following the birth the family will be expected to move to a new dwelling nearby.

Property acquired during a man's lifetime generally consists of the house he has built, artifacts that he has made or received as gifts, game and fish that he has caught, and specific crops, such as maize, that he has raised. At his death these items are inherited by his son of post-puberty age, or if there is none, then by his eldest brother. This brother also has the right to inherit the deceased's wife or wives. If there is no surviving brother, then his eldest parallel cousin is entitled to inherit the wife or wives.

A woman's property also consists of the artifacts she has made or received as gifts, wild food she has gathered, the crops that she is cultivating or has harvested, the section of the garden in which these crops are grown (in the case of several wives), and the pigs and chickens that she raises. She may also own pottery clay deposits, if they are near her home, and is the discoverer and primary excavator of these deposits (Harner, 1973: 179). This property is inherited by her eldest daughter, but if there is none, the deceased woman's mother will inherit the possessions. In cases where there is no mother or daughter, a sister of the deceased may ask for the goods, otherwise the widower will retain the possessions to give to a future wife.

Children receive much attention in the adult Jivaro community. They are seldom punished and enjoy great liberty in their activities. As they grow older girls spend much time with the women of the village learning those skills which will be needed as an adult in the society. Small boys stay with the men, accompanying them on hunts, and even on war parties after they reach the age of 7 or 8. The boys, however, do not actually participate in the fighting until much older. There are rituals for both boys and girls upon reaching puberty.

Local groups among the Jivaro are spread over such a large area in the Amazon basin that each has become completely independent of each other. Each JIVARIA or community is autonomous, although alliances between several JIVARIAS in a district may take place, but mostly for the purposes of warfare. There is a tendency for several communities to be related to each other by blood and affinal kinship ties because of the rule of local exogamy, which requires that a man marry a woman from a village other than his own. There is, therefore, a more or less natural grouping of contiguous communities into a loose tribe, but cooperation among them is almost entirely limited to collaboration in feuds or in head-hunting against more distant and unrelated communities (Service, 1958: 190).

The Jivaro lack any formal political organization, although an informal form of leadership is found in the role of individuals referred to as UNYÄ("big" or "old" men) or KAKARAM ("powerful" or "powerful ones") who are renown as killers in feuds or war, or exercise important shamanistic powers in the community. These individuals acquire their reputation in the community by being old enough to have grandchildren, and are friendly, honest, and generous in dealing with others in the society. Because of these characteristics the UNYÄ or KAKARAM are believed to possess great ARUTAM soul power and the ability to curse to death anyone who incurs their anger. Generally most neighborhoods have at least one or two UNYÄ as well as a few superior shamans who provide protection for their relatives or other individuals with whom they are on friendly terms.

Fear of sorcery and incurring the wrath of the UNYÄ act as restraining elements of social control in the Jivaro community. In this society the code of lex talionis holds true so that anti-social acts directed against members of the community will result in assured retaliation by the victim's family. Thus, the fear of reprisal also acts as a means of aggression control in the society.

Feuding or warfare is endemic among the Jivaro. Because of the retaliatory nature of legal sanctions in the society, the application of avenging action frequently initiates long and drawn out hostilities between two groups of kinsmen. This pattern of repeated application of sanctions by two families against one another is a dominant preoccupation especially among the interior Jivaro. These feuds may be formally ended by payment to the deceased's relatives, or when one of the eldest men on one side is killed, or when each group of kinsmen has lost a man.

The primary motivation for warfare is to secure as many human heads as possible from an alien tribe, and secondarily to capture women. The acquisition of territory had never been a motive for engaging in warfare. The war party, consisting of approximately thirty or forty men, is recruited from the community itself or from friendly neighborhoods nearby, and is usually led by the UNYÄ or KAKARAM as war leader or chief. Actual warfare consists of preliminary ceremonies involving ritualized chanting, surprise attacks against one or two enemy houses, the killing and decapitation of the inhabitants or the occasional capture of a girl or woman as an extra wife, and the preparation of the TSANTSAS on the return to the home village. Unlike many of the warlike Amazon tribes captives are not tortured or sacrificed, nor is cannibalism practiced.

Jivaro religion is based on the idea of an impersonal supernatural power called TSARUTAMA, a concept similar to the Polynesians belief in MANA. Objects, persons, spirits, and especially the TSANTSAS are all infused with varying degrees of TSARUTAMA which can be used for either good or evil. The mountain Rain God, the Anaconda, the Sun, Moon, Earth, and the chonta palm, are all believed to possess great amounts of this power.

In addition to the above the Jivaro recognize three kinds of souls: the ARUTAM WAKANI, which they believe to be the most significant; the MUISAK, or avenging soul; and the NEKAS WAKANI, the "true", "real", or "ordinary" soul. An individual is not born with an ARUTAM soul but it is acquired through a vision quest in which fasting, cold water "bathing" and hallucinogenic drugs are used. This "quest" takes place for a boy about the age of six. The possessor of a single ARUTAM soul is thought to be immune to death by physical means or sorcery, but can die of natural causes. Those individuals lucky enough to have two ARUTAM souls cannot die of any cause.

There are no gods who play ethical or moral roles in the Jivaro pantheon, nor are there any priests or other religious specialist except the shaman (UWISIN) whose primary role in the society is magical curing, although he also has the power to send illness into an individual as a form of sorcery (Service, 1958: 196). Lacking true political organization, the shaman may be the most influential individual in the community frequently acting the role of KAKARAM as well as shaman.

Beyond the ritualized chanting that takes place before a raiding expedition, as mentioned above, the only other major ceremony taking place among the Jivaro is the TSANTSA feast, a great victory celebration taking place in the home village following a successful head-hunting raid. Since food and drink are offered to the invited guests at these celebrations in great quantity, a great strain is put on the economic resources of the head-takers and their families so frequently the TSANTSA feast may be spread over a period of two to three years during which resources are rebuilt. From the Jivaro's point of view the primary purpose of the TSANTSA feast is not necessarily supernatural, although that is generally recognized as a secondary purpose; but to acquire prestige, friendship, and obligations through being recognized as an accomplished warrior, and through the feasting, by being a generous host to as many neighbors as possible (Harner, 1972: 191-192).

Jivaro graphic art is limited and simple. Weaving and spinning is exclusively a man's task. Men spin yarn from home-grown cotton and dye it with vegetal solutions. The yarn is then woven on a back strap loom into ITIPI or cotton kilts that form the basis of men and women's clothing.

The Jivaro are very fond of singing and instrumental music. Group singing frequently occurs at dances and ceremonies, and talented singers are often asked to do solos. There are a great variety of songs in the Jivaro repertoire which include love songs, songs for war and mourning, etc. Flutes of bamboo, trumpets of shell, and drums made from hollowed-out logs, are the primary instruments, although a small primitive violin called a QUER-QUER is sometimes used.

The vast majority of illnesses and non-violent deaths are believed to be caused by witchcraft. The only diseases not attributed to witchcraft are "white man's diseases", such as whooping cough, measles, colds, smallpox, and mild forms of diarrhea, which are treated by the "laymen" of the community with herbal medicines. Shamans never use herbal remedies, but depend on their ability to manipulate the supernatural world in the diagnosis of a disease. This process involves their taking of hallucinogenic drugs to induce a trance state during which they enter the spirit world and determine the cause of the disease. If the disease is caused by particular spirits, as the Jivaro usually believe, the shaman ritually treats the affliction by a process of singing and sucking.

Deceased adults are buried in hollowed-out logs in special buildings and are given food and drink for two years, after which they are believed to be transformed into animals or birds. Children are interred in urns.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Jivaro collection consists of 30 documents, 29 in English and one, a translation from the German (Reiss, 1880, no. 33). The major time span of the works in this collection ranges from about 1863 to 2003. Karsten (1935, no. 1), Stirling (1938, no. 2), Métraux (1948, no. 19), and Harner (1973, no. 34), provide the most comprehensive coverage of traditional Jivaro ethnography, supplemented to a much lesser extent by the brief summaries in Simson (1880, no. 3), Farabee (1922, no. 7), Reiss (1880, no. 33), and Hermessen (1917, no. 18). War, warfare related ceremonies, including data on head-hunting and the preparation of the shrunken heads, are prominent themes in Up de Graff (1923, no. 4), Dickey (1936, no. 8, Bollert (1863, no. 27), and Bennett Ross (1984, no. 38). Other ethnographic topics of interest in this collection are: the evaluation of missionaries, their activities and other reports in Rivet (1907, 1908, nos. 12 and 13), Salazar (1981, no. 36), and Harner (1984, no. 37). The influence of Western music on the traditional music of the Jivaro is discussed in Belzner (1981, no. 35). The formation and activities of the Shuar (Jivaro) Federation in lowland Ecuador are described in Salazar (1981, no. 36), and Harner (1984, no. 37). Two studies of Jivaro anthropometry will be found in Meyers (1937, no. 14), and Wright (1942, no. 24). The Shuar are the best known subgroup and a major focus of this collection.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this collection, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

This culture summary is a greatly expanded version of what originally appeared in the article "Jivaro" in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 7, South America, edited by Johannes Wilbert. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall and Co., 1994. The synopsis, indexing notes and additional data were added to the summary by John Beierle in March 2006.

• ARUTAM - soul - use ANIMISM (774)

• CENTRO - administrative unit - use TERRITORIAL HIERARCHY (631)

• CREA (Centro de Reconversión Económica Del Azuay) - organization representing colonizers from highland Ecuador - use EXTERNAL MIGRATION (167)

• HUISHINU - sorcerer - use SORCERY (754)

• IERAC (Instituto Ecuatoriano de Reforma Agraria y Colonizacion) - government land conveyor agency - use REAL PROPERTY (423)

• NATEMA - alcoholic beverage - use ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES (273)

• TSANTSA - shrunken head - use AFTERMATH OF COMBAT (727)

Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005) Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.

Gippelhauser, Richard. (1990) Die Achuara-Jivaro: Wirtschaftliche und soziale Organisationsformen am peruanischen Amazonas. PU: Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Harner, Michael J. (1973) The Jívaro: People of the Sacred Waterfalls. New York: Doubleday.

Karsten, Rafael (1935) "The Head-Hunters of Western Amazonas: The Life and Culture of the Jibaro Indians of Eastern Ecuador and Peru." Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Commentationes Humanarum, Litteraru. (Helsinki): 8(1).

Murdock, George Peter. (1957) World Ethnographic Sample. American Anthropologist, Vol. 59, no. 4. Menasha, Wisconsin: American Anthropological Association.

Service, Elman R. (1958) "The Jivaro of South America", In: A profile of primitive culture. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.