Book

Sicuanga Runa: the other side of development in Amazonian Ecuador

University of Illinois Press • Urbana • Published In 1985 • Pages:

By: Whitten, Norman E..

Abstract

This monograph focuses primarily on the site of Nayapi Llacta/Nueva Esperanza (pseudonym for a composite of three hamlets) in Ecuador in order to explore the theme of the duality of power patterning in the community. In general this book is about a couple of hundred people whose lifeways reflect remarkable consistency in a situation characterized by radical change, It is about people who participate in a subsistence economy and in a market economy, who live in both dispersed and nucleated residential patterns, who speak two (and sometimes three) languages, who may be seen as assimilating to modern Ecuadorian ways, and who are developing into a militant ethnic bloc. It is about a people who, like other people, become ensnared in binding sociopolitical networks generated by negotiation, transaction and various forms of attachment, and about a people who act so as to cut the the very bonds that imprison them. This book is, above all else, about a people who maintain a capacity to respond--a power--based in internal integrity (or structure) and on adaptability. It is about cultural continuity: it explores the nature of contradiction and antinomy in social life and seeks to contribute to a theory of power-- to understand the ability to carry out one's will, despite resistance (p. 19). Each of the above factors are discussed in detail in the text, with comparisons made to the more urban town of Puyo.

HRAF PubDate

2010

Region

South America

Sub Region

Amazon and Orinoco

Document Type

Book

Evaluation

Creator Type

Ethnologist

Document Rating

5: Excellent Primary Data

Analyst

John Beierle; 2009

Field Date

1961-1982

Coverage Date

1968-1983

Coverage Place

Nayapi Llacta/Nueva Esperanza (pseudonym), near Puyo, Pastaza province, Ecuador

Notes

Norman E. Whitten, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-300) and index

LCCN

84000155

LCSH

Canelo Indians

Indians of South America--Ecuador--Ethnic identity

Power (Social sciences) Ecuador--Ethnic relations

Amazon River Region--Ethnic relations