essay
Effects of contact on revenge hostilities among the Achuará Jívaro
warfare, culture, and environment • Orlando, Fla. • Published In 1984 • Pages: 83-109
By: Bennett Ross, Jane.
Abstract
In this article, Ross examines how internecine conflict among the Jivaro intensified with commercial penetration in the post-contact era. According to Ross, feuds were periodic and originally related to ecological factors, however with the slave trade, rubber boom, gold rush, and in the 20th century, lumbering, Europeans made alliances with certain groups to keep the area safe for commerce, which created the basis for perpetual warfare. Ross focuses on the Achuará, a less studied Jivaro group living along the headwaters and middle ranges of the Pastaza and Morona rivers. In this region, the collection of cinchona bark to make quinine was the principle commercial activity followed by cattle ranching. Shrunken heads were exchanged for guns, escalating fighting between groups. Jivaro groups also blamed epidemics on each other, precipitating additional raids and killing. Ross analyzes a 1973 killing and the failure of commercial interests and relations to trump kinship relations and need for retribution.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2000
- Region
- South America
- Sub Region
- Amazon and Orinoco
- Document Type
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Ian Skoggard; 2005
- Field Date
- 1973-1974
- Coverage Date
- 1815-1974
- Coverage Place
- Peru and Ecuador
- Notes
- Jane Bennett Ross
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-109)
- Hans Stade was a captive among an eastern Brazilian tribe from 1547 to 1555.
- LCCN
- 83021452
- LCSH
- Jivaro Indians/Shuar Indians