THE ACHUAR PEOPLE
The House /
Marriages /
Hunting and Fishing /
The Chacras /
The Chicha /
Medicine /
The Spiritual World
There are approximately 6,000 Achuar (year 2007) living inside the territory of the Achuar Nation, which extends over Ecuadorian and Peruvian land. The Ecuadorian part of the territory has an extension of 681,218 hectares, the majority of it being Amazon primary rainforest.
The Achuar culture has existed long before the Spanish conquest in the 1500's. Due to their location in the depths of the forest, the Achuar were able to defend themselves and their territory against foreign invaders and continue to live their nomadic life style in their land with their ancestral customs.
Even today, the Achuar people continue practicing the subsistence life style that their ancestors practiced too. Furthermore, at the present time, the Achuar combine their use of wild plants with the hunt of wild animals and their traditional agriculture, as well as with the products they bring from outside the Rainforest, such as salt, metal pots, batteries, clothes, shotguns, lighters, etc.
The House
The Achuar build their houses using the wood of a palm called chonta pambil (Iriartea deltoidea). The posts are made of the durable wood of the balsamo tree (Myroxylon balsamum). The frame for the roof is made using bamboo steams (Guadua angustifolia), and then it is covered with woven turuji leaves (Hyospatha tessmannii).
The Achuar houses are formed into the shape of an ellipse. There are two doors, located on the opposite extremes of the house, the women enter through one side and the men enter through the other. The area inside the house is also divided into an area designated for the men, an area designated for the wife (or wives in case there are more than one living in the house), and an area for the children. The size of the house depends on the social importance of the man and the number of wives he has.
Image: Franco Róvere, taken from the collection "Mundo Shuar", Series "B", vol. 9, page 43-44.
Marriages
Even though since the missionaries came it is not such a common thing, still some Achuar practice polygamy. Nowadays not all their wives are Achuar, some of them are Shuar, Shiwiar, or even Kichwas. These intercultural marriages are now very common and they contribute to the cultural interchange, including traditions and ancestral values. Another advantage of this fact is that the people are often trilingual, speaking Achuar-chicham, Kichwa and Spanish.
When a young couple gets married, before they can move to their own house, they have to spend at least half a year in the house of the wife parents. During this period of time, the husband helps his parents-in-law, and they can test if he is going to be a good husband. When a sufficient period of time has passed, the man can ask his parents-in-law permission to move out with his wife to their own house. Some other times it is the father-in-law himself who decides that it is time for them to move on.
Hunting and Fishing
By hunting and fishing the Achuar men provide with protein the family's diet. Their traditional hunting weapons were the blowgun and the spear, but nowadays they often use shotguns. Saddly, due to the rise of the Achuar population and the high hunting pressure, the hunting trails are further away from the community than they used to be not so long ago. In order to find the animals, now the Achuar hunters have to walk sometimes even two more hours than they used to.
The men used to go hunting or fishing almost every day, however, nowadays they only set out on the hunt once a week. The causes for this are the scarcity of animals, the Achuar commitment to conservation, and the fact that most men have to do new jobs. In order to keep having a permanent source of meat, they now grow chickens, ducks, and even cows some times.
The Achuar hunters set out on the hunting trails in the morning, returning in the afternoon. If they did not hunt any animal, they would go again the nex day, but if they did, they will not go hunting until they run out of meat again. For special occasions like parties or ceremonies, all the hunters of the community set out on hunting excursions that take anywhere from days to weeks to complete. Only when they have hunted enough animals to be able to offer meat to all the visitors they will go back to the community.
The most common game animals for the Achuar are: agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa), guans and curassows (Familia Cracidae), collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), white-fronted capuchin (Cebus albifrons), wooly monkey (Lagothrix lagotricha), howler monkey (Alouatta seniculus), tamarins (Saguinus spp.), oropendolas (Psarocolius spp.), tucans (Familia Ramphastidae), spotted paca (Cuniculus paca), tapir (Tapirus terrestris), black caiman (Melanosuchus niger), spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), river turtle (Podocnemis expansa), from which they also eat the eggs found on river beaches, and yellow-footed tortoise (Geochelone denticulata).
When the Achuar men go fishing, first thing they have to do is to look for the poisonous Barbasco plants (Lonchocarpus sp.). They know two different kinds of barbasco, they use the roots of one and the leaves and fruits of the other. When they fish with these plants, they first pound them and then they squeeze out the juices several times inside the water. This poison eliminates the oxygen dissolved in the water thus suffocating the fish, and then the Achuar can catch them using a simple net or their bare hands. Sadly, the higher Achuar population is also negatively affecting the fish populations, due to the indiscriminate use of this non-selective fishing technique.
The Achuar are recently substituting the use of barbasco with the use of fishing-nets. They now know different techniques to fish using these nets. To fish in ponds, they leave the net all night long and come back the next day; in the sallow parts of the rivers they throw their net and hold it from one of the ends, then they move slowly along the riverside, dragging the net, finally they take it out; when a temporary pond has formed, several men get into the water from one side holding tight a big net, then they drag the net to the other end and get out of the water.
The fishing hooks are also becoming very popular among the Achuar. As a bate, they often use earthworms or chontaduro worms, big white worms that live inside the rotten wood of several chonta palm species and are the larva of a beetle.
The Achuar go fishing once or twice every week. Depending on the abundance of fish, the fishing can last one or two days. As happens when they go hunting, if there is going to be a big party or celebration at the community, they will go fishing for a longer period of time.
The most common fish caught by the Achuar are: bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), sábalo (Prochilodus lineatus), and several species of catfish (Family Loricariidae).
Image: Franco Róvere, taken from the collection "Mundo Shuar", Series "B", vol. 12, page 32.
The Chacras
The chacras are the traditional gardens of the Achuar, where they grow many of the plants they use for food, along with some medicinal plants. Every Achuar family owns two or three chacras, and, when they want to make a new one, the men are the ones responsible of cutting the trees and prepare the area for it. They don’t usually burn the area, as other indigenous groups do. The men usually work in mingas (communal work) and during this time, women help by making chicha and offering it to the men to drink. Once the area is ready, the women are the ones that sow the plants and take care of the chacra. Nowadays it is more and more common to see the men helping the women in these tasks.
Some of the species cultivated in the chacras are: sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), chili pepper (Capsicum sp.), naranjilla (Solanum quitoensis), pineapple (Ananas comosus), papaya (Carica papaya), Chinese potato (Colocasia esculenta), Chinese onion (Allium cepa var. Aggregatum), banana tree (Musa x paradisiaca), corn (Zea mais) and the most important of them all, manioc (Manihot esculenta).
Women do not only grow plants for food in their chacras, they also grow a certain amount of medicinal plants. Among them, the guayusa (Ilex guayusa) is probably the most important in the Achuar life. This plant has the highest caffeine concentration in the whole world and the Achuar drink its tea every morning. The tea is so strong that it makes them vomit, and so, they get rid of all the parasites inside their stomachs. The tea also gives them enough energy for the rest of the day. The plant is so important for the Achuar that most families grow it right next to their houses.
The Chicha
Manioc is the most important plant of the Achuar chacra. They usually eat it boiled, but this plant is also the main ingredient in the making of the chicha. This fermented drink is basic for the Achuar, and, apart from playing an important role on the Achuar social life, it also is a healthy source of nutrition and energy.
Although it can be prepared using other plants, the most popular chicha is made of manioc and sweet potato. The women chew the boiled tubercles and spit the resulting pulp in a clay pot where they let it ferment until the next day. The final product is a mild alcoholic drink rich in vitamins and minerals. The chicha is drunk every day and offered to any visitor. If the chicha is going to be drunk in a party or a ceremony, it will be allowed to ferment for two or three days in order to get a stronger drink.
Medicine
When the Achuar get ill, the first thing they do to try to cure themselves is to use the medicinal plants that the women cultivate in their chacras. They also know the medicinal properties of a lot of different plant species growing wild in the forest, and use them frequently.
However, for more serious illnesses they visit a shaman, a male member of the community that is in contact with the spiritual world. The shaman uses his strong healing powers to help the person. For these rites, he often drinks ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis sp.), a strong plant that helps him to have visions and find the cure to the illness.
The arrival of foreigners to the Achuar communities brought the knowledge of western medicine. When a person becomes so gravely ill that cannot be cured by the shaman, he/she is taken out of the community by method of small airplane in order to seek medical care in the hospitals of Shell or Puyo (Ecuador), returning to the community once he/she is cured.
The Spiritual World
Some plants cultivated by the Achuar aid in the contact with the Spirits and Gods, which give the Achuar people certain powers. Some examples of these plants are angel trumpet (Brugmansia sp.), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis sp.). These plans can be cultivated in the chacra, but they usually grow them next to their houses.
Arutam is their highest deity and the Achuar believe that he has always existed. He is the spirit of the forest and can be seen in many different forms, including that of a puma, a jaguar, a boa constrictor, various types of birds or even the shape of a man. Among the powers that Arutam can give to the Achuar people are the power to hunt, protection in war, and a long life.
When the Achuar want to ask Arutam for a favor, they have to go to a waterfall, for there is where he lives. They have to sing some traditional songs and drink the juice of the angel trumpet's bark. Then, they ask Arutam for the favor, and if they sang well, Arutam will help them.
Image: Franco Róvere, taken from the collection "Mundo Shuar", Series "B", vol. 6, page 17.
Amasang is the goddess of animals and lives in the forest. According to the legend, a long time ago Amasang lived with a family and looked like a coral snake. When the man went hunting, Amasang usually went with him, but as soon as she went out the house, she adopted the form of a woman. One day the man’s wife saw this and got very jealous, so she bit Amasang very badly and threw her to the forest. Amasang lives there since then.
According to the myth, while Amasang lived with this man, she taught him a lot of songs. These songs have been passed on through generations and the Achuar sing them to ask Amasang for a good hunt. If the Achuar sing well Amasang will put a lot of animals in the forest.
Tsunki is the goddess of the rivers and the ponds. She has the shape of a woman and lives inside the water. She is the goddess of all the animals that live in the water and can give the men the power to fish.
Nunkui is the goddess of the chacras. She lives under the chacras and has the shape of a small black earthworm. The Achuar would never kill her if they see her. When they are working at the chacra, the Achuar women sing to Nunkui asking for abundant crops. This goddess can leave certain kind of rocks that act as talismans, and when the women see those rocks, they paint them in red using achiote seeds (Bixa orellana) and leave them again in the chacra.
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