Trekking Through History: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador(Historical Ecology Series)

The Huaorani of Ecuador lived as hunters and gatherers in the Amazonian rainforest for hundred of years, largely undisturbed by western civilization. Since their first encounter with North American missionaries in 1956, they have held a special place in journalistic and popular imagination as "Ecuador's last savages." Trekking Through History is the first description of Huaorani society and culture according to modern standards of ethnographic writing. Through her comprehensive study of their extraordinary tradition of trekking, Laura Rival shows that the Huaorani cannot be seen merely as anachronistic survivors of the Spanish Conquest. Her critical reappraisal of the notions of agricultural regression and cultural devolution challenges the universal application of the thesis that marginal tribes of the Amazon Basin represent devolved populations who have lost their knowledge of agriculture. Far from being an evolutionary event, trekking expresses cultural creativity and political agency. Through her detailed comparative discussion of native Amazonian representations of history and the environment, Rival illustrates the unique way the Huaorani have socialized nature by choosing to depend on resources created in the past-highlighting the unique contribution anthropology makes to the study of environmental history.

Table of Contents:
Preface Trekking in Amazonia The Upper Amazon from Omagua expansion to Zaparo collapse The time and space of Huaorani nomadic isolationism Harvesting the Forest's Natural Abundance Coming back to the Longhouse Eeme Festivals: Ceremonial Increase and Marriage Alliance Schools in the Rainforest Prey at the Center

About the Author :
Laura Rival is lecturer in anthropology and development at Oxford University. She has written several ethnographic articles and papers on the Huaorani Indians, and contributed to several books. She is the editor of The Social Life of Trees: Anthropological Perspectives on Tree Symbolism.

Review :
Rival's fascinating ethnography demonstrates that ecological adaptation cannot be understood as resource extraction alone, it is deeply embedded in Huaorani identity, sociality, symbolism, and historicity... Rival's work represents an important contribution to this developing approach. -- Loretta Cormier Journal of Ethnobiology A superb job in addressing issues of native historicity. -- Michael A. Uzendoski Latin American Research Review [Rival's] rich ethnographic analysis and theoretical discussion provide key arguments and materials to re-think further Amazonian people's relationships to the environment. -- Luisa Elvira Belaunde, University of St Andrews Royal Anthropological Institute