Victims and Warriors
Victims and Warriors
This chapter brings together several strands of the book's argument that memories of violence are not only about establishing a sense of mutual experience and kinship but are also the basis of alterity and revenge. Located at the intersection of indigenous cosmology, intercultural relations, and ongoing social transformations, these memories construe the relationships between past and present in ways that challenge dominant ideas about tradition, modernity, and indigenous peoples as historical objects. Just as shamans, kowori outsiders, and “uncontacted” people become targets of violence, so too are they remembered in certain contexts as kin. For many Waorani, violence not only leads to feelings of loss and anger but also to a certain “mutuality of being” with people whose kin become victims of violence. This chapter also considers recent events that have important consequences for the future of Waorani communities, such as changes in Ecuadorian national politics, proposals to halt oil development in the Yasuní National Park, and the escalation of violence between Waorani and Taromenani people.
Keywords: violence, kinship, intercultural relations, indigenous peoples, shamans, kowori, Waorani, Ecuador, Yasuní National Park, Taromenani
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