Jivaroan peoples
In the 16th century, Jivaroan warriors stopped the expansion of the Inca Empire into the Amazon basin, and destroyed settlements of Spanish conquistadors.
The word Jíbaro thus entered the Spanish language; in Ecuador it is highly pejorative and signifies "savage";[citation needed] outside of Ecuador, especially in Mexico and Jíbaro in Puerto Rico, it has come to mean "countryside people who farm the land in a traditional way".
The Jivaroan worldview is built upon the idea that both animate and inanimate objects hold souls that cannot be seen by human eyes.
The acquisition of this type of soul is considered to be so important to an adult male’s survival that a boy’s parents do not expect him to live past puberty without one.
This “trade-in” mechanism is an important feature because, when a person has had the same arutam soul for four or five years, it tends to leave its sleeping possessor to wander nightly through the forest.
There are different creators and gods that explain the origins of man and animal, the occurrence of natural events and relationships that exist in daily life.
Their creation myths support their violence-based culture as “it is dominated by a series of battles among the gods and an essential duality of where people are the victims.”[11] Among the deities are spirits that are known to provide wisdom and protection to the person they are tied to.
Despite the reliable, elaborate system of horticulture the Jivaro have developed, they still believe the act to be “…as fraught with uncertainty as hunting” as Michael Brown stated in a paper titled, “Aguaruna Jivaro Gardening Magic in Alto Rio Mayo, Peru.” He then went on to say that in order, “To encourage the growth of their cultivated plants they sing magical gardening songs, perform a set of ritual acts when planting a new garden, and observe certain taboos connected with garden work.” Much like similar beliefs and rituals associated with hunting, the Jivaro believe that spirits reside in the plants and they need to be encouraged to grow by various songs, chants, and dances.
Owing to the belief of spirits residing in the plants, the garden is regarded as a place of great spiritual significance.
It offers privacy from prying eyes and ears and is therefore the site of a certain amount of intra- and extra-marital sexual activity"[13] Ayahuasca ceremonies play a large role in the Jivaro culture.
Also it is normally necessary for the shaman to be already acquainted with the distant locale and the route to get there, and preferably he should know the appearance and location of the house of the person being sought.
[2][7] Thus, in 1938 Matthew Stirling commented that:[2] the Jivaros scattered over this vast territory of approximately 22,000 square miles (57,000 km2) are of similar appearance physically; they speak a single language and their customs, beliefs and material culture are closely interrelated.
[2]Prior to colonization and the presence of Christian missionaries, Jivaroan speakers were not organized into any stable and clearly bounded polities or ethnic groups.
[citation needed] At the time of Spanish arrival to South America, the Jivaro were an independent culture and hostile to outsiders.
Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the Jivaroan tribes had only limited and intermittent contact with regional authorities.
