The Waodani lifestyle involves a lot of moving around. They are
nomads. They rely heavily on foraging, hunting, and fishing to subsist. They are sometimes referred to as "trekkers". They move
through the forest creating trails, and almost reading the forest taking great pleasure in where they live. Trekking just to trek, without complaining of being lost, or of losing time, they
become one with the forest.
Waodani also move to escape predation.
Their stories and oral histories illustrate their fear and constant
struggle against predation. For the Waodani, they are always the victim.
This fear of predation makes isolation and self-segregation essential
for the survival of the Waodani. This nomadic existence made them an
"un-contacted" tribe until the mid 1900s. The fear of predation also has
made them a violent people. The Waodani believe, according to their
creation story, that they are the true people. All others are spirits
taking on an anthropic form to prey upon the Waodani.
Laura M. Rival, Trekking Through History: The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador (Columbia University Press, 2002) 1, 46-66
Reflection:
Their nomadic existence and their struggle against "attack" makes the
Waodani seem mysterious. However, I think it's sad that their culture
revolves around fear from predation. It fuels their nomadic existence,
and causes them to kill outsiders and even themselves. In their history,
it is said that the Waodani were a large group of people but then they
began killing each other and became a small community. Then, they
decided to stop killing each other and become many again. Their history
is marked by killing because of this fear of predation. Perhaps if I
grew up believing their creation story and learning their history I
would understand better, but my own ethnocentrism causes me to disagree with their way of life. I don't think I would like to live in a
culture where homicide and fearfulness was at the forefront of the
community mind.
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