Currently, many Shuar live in communities organized around agriculture and hunting, although there are also some who work in mining and the timber industry.

Europeans and European Americans used to refer to Shuar as "jívaros" or "jíbaros"; this word probably derives from the 16th century Spanish spelling of shuar (see Gnerre 1973), but has taken other meanings including "savage"; outside of Ecuador, jibaro has come to mean "rustic", and in Puerto Rico to describe a self-sufficient farmer.

The Shuar are popularly depicted in a wide variety of travelogue and adventure literature because of Western fascination with their former practice of shrinking human heads (tsantsa).

From the time of first contact with Europeans in the 16th century, to the formation of the Shuar Federation in the 1950s and 1960s, Shuar were semi-nomadic and lived in separate households dispersed in the rainforest, linked by the loosest of kin and political ties, and lacking corporate kin-groups or centralized or institutionalized political leadership.

[5] The center of Shuar life was a relatively autonomous household consisting of a husband, his wives (usually two), unmarried sons, and daughters.

Colonization and missionization in the 20th century have led Shuar to reorganize themselves into nucleated settlements called centros.

Centros initially facilitated evangelization by Catholic missionaries but also became a means to defend Shuar land claims against those of non-indigenous settlers.

In the 19th century muraiya Shuar became famous among Europeans and Euro-Americans for their elaborate process of shrinking the heads of slain Achuar.

Shuar men believed that control of the muisak would enable them to pass the soul's power to their wives' and daughters' which would aid them in their labor.

The result was an increase in local warfare, including head hunting, that has contributed to the perception of the Shuar as violent.

Shuar generally do not believe in natural death, although they recognize that certain epidemics such as measles and scarlet fever are diseases introduced through contact with Europeans or Euro-Americans.

They fought primarily with spears and blowguns, but—like many other groups in the region—also believed that they could be killed by tsentsak, invisible darts.

Many Shuar believe that illness is caused when someone hires a shaman to shoot tsentsak into the body of an enemy.

Shuar entered into peaceful trade relations, exchanged land for manufactured goods, and began sending their children to mission boarding schools to learn Spanish.

The Federation assumed the duties of educating children, administering civil registration and land-tenure, and promoting cattle-production and other programs meant to further incorporate Shuar into the market economy.

In the last few years, conflict emerged as result of mining projects in the provinces of Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe[8] On 20 November 2018, Diana Atamaint, a Shuar woman, became the president of the National Electoral Council.