VISITS TO LAND WAORANI

Weddings

For many, many years…Men and women wore just “Come” – a cord of white cotton -- during weddings.

The grandparents selected the couple when they were very young and at 12 years old the wedding took place. In the past, it was obligatory. Another person who asked later could not change the marriage plans and could have problems or even be killed.

During fiestas, a man can say “I want to marry that woman”… During the fiesta, the woman wakes up early to make sweet chicha (indigenous drink) and the man passes out the chicha and gives a toast to the other people there.

The day after the wedding, another fiesta takes place in the house of the parents. The parents help to make the couple’s vegetable garden with the help of their parents.

The fiancée needs to hunt and bring home meat from the jungle to give to his mother-in-law. He gives her all the meat and leaves the tripe for himself. The mother of the bride makes a mud pot in order to make the chicha.

In the past, men had 3 or 4 wives. Today many have just one wife, but there are others who have two.

When there are children in the marriage, the father always asks for grandchildren. If the son dies, the father kills the wife, since the dead son would not have children.

In the past, if a child died, the man could bury the wife alive for not having grandchildren. Now the nature of marriage has changed.

Hunting and Gathering

Starting in puberty, the grandparents are in charge of perforating the earlobes of the grandchildren with a piece of wood of the chonta palm, one or two years before their weddings. In this way the young person starts to occupy a new social position in the group and begins to go with his father to learn the secrets of the jungle and how to be a good hunter and a good warrior.

While the young person learns how to manage the lance and the blow gun, the adolescents accompany their father to learn the secrets of the jungle.

The production of the instruments of hunting and fishing is an activity exclusively for men. We frequently use the blow gun for hunting animals, by means of a dart poisoned with curare (an Amazonian plant).

“My grandfather made beautiful blow guns and never came home with empty hands; he walked down the path with six or seven monkeys on his back; the animals were heavy and fat. Like him, I’m a big hunter. This blow gun will be straight and long; the arrows will fly towards the monkeys and I’ll hunt more than ever.”

Medicinal Plants

We use medicinal plants as part of our ancestral knowledge. They’re part of our culture which we pass on from fathers to sons.
Among the plants we use are:

- APOCYNACEAE(himatanthus bracteatus) The infection of a tropical fly with white latex of this plant will suffocate and kill the larva.
- GUAYUSA (Ilex Guayusa Loesener) We drink an infusion of this plant to calm nerves, for pregnant women and for stomach aches.
- BEGONIACEAE (Begonia Glabra Aubl) We chew this reed as a condiment and it’s very good for colds
- COMMELINACEAE (Campelia Zanonia) We wait till the transparent sage of this plant becomes yellow to put on burns.
- CRASSULACEAE (Kalanchoe Pinnata) We make an infusion of crushed leaves of this plant to treat bruises and broken bones.
- CUCURBITACE (Gurania Spinulosa) We boil the leaves and put them on cuts and wounds.
- CYCLANTHACEAE (Asplundia Peruviana Harling) We treat snake bites with gratings of the internal part of the pulp of the stem of this plant.

Songs and Singing

Singing is an important aspect of our culture and our lives. Every song has its own significance. Some songs tell the story of ancestors: festive celebrations, war, death. Our singing also tells of activities of daily life like hunting, fishing, animals and things that were seen during the day, work in the garden, the preparation of food and taking care of children.

Waorani songs are also important in war. Before embarking on a day of vengeance or attack, the Waorani warriors sang and danced. Having accomplished their objective, when they came home, they would return to singing songs that reaffirmed their motives of attack and the consequences.

We only use one musical instrument: a flute of cane with just one opening for playing.

The ancestors knew how to sing during the day, the night and the early morning. Today we sing more than any other time during fiestas.

For example, the song “Gorongame meñente kengi” has a title in English of “Let’s share our food”, and the words of the song remember a time of sharing products of the garden and the results of the hunt. The song is initiated by the women and includes cries of asking for food and of remembering the previous work of fishing, hunting and cultivating the garden. It is not only the time of the harvest but the time to enjoy the foods that have been prepared.

Typical Dances

The fiesta is the occasion to drink happily, sing and dance. These fiestas take place every time there is an abundance in food production. All the participants bring gifts like yucca, young palm leaves, bird feathers, decorations with drawings, lances, necklaces and bracelets.

During these fiestas the women and the men remain separate, singing. These fiestas last two days until the drinks are gone. During this time no participant in the fiesta can sleep.

Typical Food

The Waorani men hunt monkeys, toucans, guantas, guantusas and other animals. The children help with fishing, and we prepare food and some drinks from platano and yucca.

To prepare “chucula”, a drink with a platano base, up to three hectars of ripe platanos are harvested, cooked and crushed in a pot until they form a liquid.

Another typical Wao food is Chontaduro (fruit of the chonta palm), which is harvested in the month of February every year; this is cooked in big pots to make a drink, as well as to serve in the production of lances.

Typical Houses

The houses that we live in (onko) have a framework of wood and a roof covered with palm tree leaves, in which we live with between 10 and 15 persons of the same family; inside this house there are not rooms, but spaces assigned to each family member.

These houses last a long time since the smoke from our kitchen fires makes the leaves of the roof waterproof and increases its useful life, as well as keeping insects from eating the leaves and other animals from establishing themselves there.

Use of Achiote

The Waorani use achiote (kaka) as a facial coloring and cosmetic, as well as to decorate our bodies; also we decorate our instruments of the hunt, lances and blow guns, in order to hunt well.
When tourists come to our communities, the women paint the faces of the visitors with this seed as a symbol of welcome.

For the Wao, the color red brings good luck and keeps away bad spirits; that’s why the feet of recently born babies are painted with it; it’s also used as an insecticide and to prevent fungus.