Huaorani Lifestyle (Chapter Fourteen)

The Huaorani

The Huaorani have long inhabited the headwaters of the Amazon, living as nomadic hunters and gatherers with no outside contact until the end of the 1950s, at least one clan continues to shun all contact with the outside world. According to their traditions, they migrated to this area a long time ago to escape from cannibals. The Huaorani speak a language unrelated to any other; their name means "the people", while everyone else is cowore, or "non-human" (that's you).

In 1956, when the Huaorani were first contacted by missionaries, their territory extended from the Napo River in the north to the Curaray River in the south. After the missionaries, the oil companies came looking for new reserves as the global demand for fossil fuels increased. The Huaorani live on top of one of Ecuador's largest oil deposits and since its discovery have been forced to deal with the presence of oil companies and other outsiders on the land they have called home for at least a thousand years.

Numbering approximately 2,400 individuals, the Huaorani maintain a largely traditional lifestyle living directly in and from the rainforest. Nowadays, their territory - some 680,000 ha/1.7 million acres -- is only about one third the size of their traditional land, and they have no oil or mineral rights. The first Huaorani protectorate was created in 1983, followed in 1990 by the current, much larger, Huaorani Ethnic Reserve. The Huaorani then formed the Organización de Nacionalidad Huaorani de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana (ONHAE) to defend their interests, which in 2007 became the Nacionalidad Waorani del Ecuador (NAWE).

Review of Chapters Fourteen, Fifteen and Sixteen

Chapter Fourteen was so interesting to me because it talked about the Europeans and their various conquests in the Americas. I was specifically interested in the Spanish Conquest of the Indigenous cultures of Mexico, Central America, and South America. Many people think that because the Spanish conquest happened about 500 years ago that discriminating and threatening indigenous cultures in Latin America is a thing of the past. However, it still happens today. I took a class at NDNU and learned about a tribe in Ecuador called the Huaorani. A couple of other people in our class will be familiar with this story, because they were in the class with me. =) Still, it is something we should be aware of and possibly get involved with. See if this story touches you as much as it affected me.

The Huaorani are an Indigenous culture in Ecuador. Roughly sixty years ago, some missionaries from the U.S. entered their territory. The Huaorani are an isolated tribe and saw these people as intruders. So, they killed them. Rachel Saint, the sister of one of the missionaries who was killed, saw the Huaorani as savages who worshipped demonic Gods and needed Christ to save them. She set up missionaries on their land and changed their culture dramatically. Her settlement brought disease to the people, and dramatically changed their culture. In addition, oil companies began drilling on the Huaorani's sacred land. The people had less access to clean water and were relocated off their land so the oil companies could continue drilling. The Huaorani have tried to fight the oil companies, even sending one of their own to America to advocate for the tribe. By some of the Huaorani, Rachel Saint was considered a sister of the tribe and was respected. To others, she dissolved their culture, imposed a new one on them, and introduced decades of hardships with the oil drilling that followed her arrival. Check out these articles and video clips in the following blog post, and see what you think. What do you believe about the Huaorani?

Review of Chapters Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen

My favorite part of this section was learning about how interesting Europe was in the fifteenth century! The rising population, the Hundred Years War, and the Renaissance- so amazing! i thought in this blog I would post some pictures from my trip to Italy last year. The pictures are from this time frame. Some are of palaces and buildings that we visited that were constructed and renovated at various times but remained in use during the fifteenth century. Some are also replicas of famous statues. I don't have pictures of the actual ones because you are not allowed to photograph in the museums. Enjoy!

History Channel - The Plague part 6

History Channel - The Plague part 5

History Channel - The Plague part 4

Review of Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten

The Silk Roads... The Sea Roads... The Sand Roads...

Trading at it's finest!

I was in absolute awe at the extent of these trading networks. People always ask, what would we do without the Internet, telephones, electricity, cars, or air travel?!

Well, it may take a little longer, but it seems with these trade routes as evidence, we may be able to get by without online ordering and overnight shipping.

One would assume that what was in transit here was an array of goods from various countries. They would be correct. What I was more surprised by was the extent of travel of religions, cultures, and disease. The Black Death really doesn't sound like it was any fun. The book only touches on it briefly, but it is quite interesting. It is regarded as the "greatest biological disaster in the history of mankind" by the History Channel. Check out this documentary I found about it. It's unbelievable! The videos are attached in former blog posts.

One thing I was always fascinated with was the art of foot binding that is discussed in chapter nine. It was such a painful procedure, and just to be considered dainty and beautiful! While reading this section of the chapter, I thought of how lucky I felt that our society doesn't do anything similar to foot binding. However, we have things like plastic surgery, Botox, face lifts, etc. that many women go through in order to look beautiful. A less extreme thing women do is wear high heals. People who don't wear them may not realize it, but they over time change the shape of the woman's foot and cause pain. I don't know about the rest of the women in our class, but I wear heels about three times a week- and serious ones. I'm talking four inches. I laughed when I thought about this. I may be damaging my feet over a longer period of time, but it seems I am being a hypocrite in judging the Chinese practice of foot binding.

Chapter ten brings in an interesting conversation about Christianity during the time of the Byzantine Empire. I really learned SO much about the differences between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. I was raised a Catholic, and still, I do not know all of the differences and similarities between the two. I didn't even know the two cultures had been so competitive in the past. Here is a simple outline of the differences from a bible website. All of these differences are based on history and tradition, just the things that are outlined in chapter ten.

Roman Catholics and Eastern Greek Orthodox churches accuse the other of false doctrines both base upon tradition:

1. The Catholics reject several of the specific canons of the early ecumenical councils, but the orthodox accept them as inspired.
2. Catholics and Orthodox disagree on the dates of Christmas and Easter. While the Orthodox church claims council at Nice was inspired, yet is rejects the canons of Nicea on the date of Easter which the Catholics accept.
3. The Catholics teach purgatory, yet the Orthodox reject it.
4. Universal papal jurisdiction was a rather large dogfight in 588-606 AD.
5. Although the Orthodox reject Papal infallibility, the decisions of the orthodox synods are considered infallible.
6. The Immaculate Conception is utterly rejected by the Orthodox.
7. The orthodox baptized by full immersion (thrice), the Catholics sprinkle.
8. In the Orthodox Church married men can become priests. In the Catholic church married men are forbidden to marry. (except for one small part of the world)
9. The Roman Catholic church introduced instrumental music no earlier than the 7th century and the Orthodox church has never used instrumental music, but like the apostles, sang without instrument.
10. In Catholic communion, the cup is withheld from the members, while the Orthodox float the "crouton looking" bread cubes in the wine. Catholics believe the bread and wine (transubstantiation) become the literal body of Christ when the priest says, "this is my body". The Orthodox disagrees and says the change takes place at prayer. Catholics use unleavened bread, while Orthodox use leavened bread. Orthodox must keep a ridged schedule of fasts in order to have communion every week, but the most common practice is a minimum of four times a year during the four Orthodox Lents "Christmas, Easter, Peter and Paul, The virgin Mary. Catholics on the other hand, must not eat the hour before, to have communion every day. In the end, Orthodox offer communion weekly and Catholics daily. In practice most Orthodox laity have communion four times year and Catholics weekly. So which of these two traditions is the one the apostles used? All this proves that they have no valid "apostolic tradition", otherwise they would all agree! They differ on the frequency of communion, the fasting requirements and the actual method of partaking.
11. Transubstantiation is a false doctrine that says the bread and grape juice of the Lord's supper actually molecularly change to become the flesh and blood of Jesus. Of course this old doctrine was formulated before the advent of molecular microscopes which see no change. For Catholics the "Transubstantiation" occurs when the priest says the words, "this is my body". For Orthodox the change occurs when the priest offers the prayer of thanks.
12. The "Filioque" scandal: Following the Nicene creed, the Orthodox Church believed the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone. Then in 1054 AD the Roman church added to the wording of the Nicene creed "And the Son" or the "Filioque." The Roman church believed the Holy Spirit proceeded from BOTH the Father and the Son.
13. Orthodox keeps the original Nicene Creed, accepted by the Universal Church, East and West, during the first millennium without the addition of "And the Son" or the "Filioque." It accepts, on faith, Christ's words in the Gospel, that the Father is the Unoriginate Source of the Life of the Trinity, with the Only-Begotten Son and the Holy Spirit Proceeding from the Father Alone. We cannot know how the Begetting of the Son and the Proceeding of the Spirit from the same Father is different, only that it is and this distinguishes the two Persons.

Summary on Chapter Seven

The main idea of this chapter was to highlight the various cultures during the Classical Era. The author wants readers to recognize the different ways these societies varied from one another and what society today has learned from them.

It is important for everyone to take a few things away from this chapter. Here are some things to think about when studying my outline:

-How certain cultures are similar, how they are different

-Things that generated change (agriculture, trade, etc.) for various cultures

-How the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa differed and why

-The important, main characteristics of certain cultures (like the Bantu and their many forms of the same language)

One helpful thing to do is to flip to page 206 in the book and look at the section titled "What's the Significance?" This section gives a list of the main cultures that were discussed. If you study from this list, it is easier to differentiate one culture from another. Hope this summary helps a little :-)

Chapter Seven Outline

Chapter Seven Outline: Classical Era Variations

1. Opening of the Chapter
1. Still 6 million Mayan people left in Latin America
2. 1994: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation
1. Rebellion of the Mayas to revive their culture
2. Mayas began making history again
3. Classical Era: People usually think of the Greeks, Romans, Persians, etc.
4. Many other civilizations around the world that existed at the same time
1. Mesoamerican Maya, Peruvian Moche, African Meroe, Axum, and Niger River valley
5. Human cultures around the world evolved similarly
1. Hunting and Gathering -> Agriculture
2. Uprising of organized civilizations
6. Major differences between the continents
1. 80% of population in Eurasia, 11% in Africa, 5-7% in the Americas
2. Americas had no pastoral societies, less developed in writing and tools
3. Highly developed in the Eastern Hemisphere
4. Africa received domesticated animals with Eurasia
7. To what extent did the histories of Africa and the Americas parallel Eurasia?
8. In what ways did they forge different Paths?
2. The African Northeast
1. “Africa” usually refers to the land mass and not a cultural identity
2. Hosted numerous separate societies
1. Grew out of the environmental variations in the continent
1. Mediterranean climate in the northern and southern most parts, deserts, rain forests, grasslands, and mountains
3. Most tropical of the world’s supercontinents
1. High temperatures, rapid decomposition of vegetation
2. Less fertile soils
3. Disease carrying insects and parasites brought health issues
4. Close proximity to Eurasia
1. Northern parts were associated with Roman Empire
1. Wheat, olives, slave labor
2. Christianity spread to Africa from Eurasia
5. Arabia
1. Domesticated camel came to Africa from Arabia
1. Brought nomadic and pastoral way of life
2. Made Saharan commerce possible
6. Egyptian, Roman, Arab merchant trading
1. With East Africa
2. Brought Africa into the Indian Ocean trading networks
3. Meroe: Continuing a Nile Valley Civilization
1. Nubian Civilization
1. Traded and fought with Egypt
2. When Egypt fell under foreign control, Nubian civilization became centered in Meroe
3. Governed by a monarch
1. Buried with sacrificed humans
4. Had merchants, weavers, potters, masons, servants, laborers, slaves
5. Smelting of iron for tools and weapons was lucrative
6. Rainfall-based agriculture
1. Didn’t need to concentrate too heavily on the Nile
7. Very wealthy and great military power
1. Distant trading connections
2. Iron weapons and cotton cloth
3. Access to gold, ivory, tortoise shells, ivory
8. Declined due to deforestation because of the need for wood
9. Three separate Nubian states emerged, Coptic Christianity reigned
10. Later, Christianity disintegrated and Nubia became part of the Islamic world
4. Axum: The Making of a Christian Kingdom
1. Marked the emergence of a new African civilization
2. Located in what is now Ethiopia
3. Highly productive agricultural system
1. Plow-based farming
2. Wheat, barely, millet, teff
4. Adulis: The largest African port by the Red Sea, close to Axum
1. Merchants wanted goods from the interior of Africa
2. Taxes on these products provided a major source of income for Axum
5. Capital city of Axum
1. Huge monuments and buildings
1. Obelisks: Royal graves over 100 ft tall
6. Language was called Geez
7. According to the Romans, Axum was considered the greatest empire third to them and the Persians
8. Introduced to Christianity by the Red Sea trade and the Roman Empire
1. Christianity still remains in most of the area
9. Made imperial expansion into Meroe and Yemen
10. Decline of empire came after
1. Exhausted natural resources, Islam changed trade routes
5. Along the Niger River: Cities Without States
1. West Africa, urbanization
1. Many people came from the Sahara for water
2. Cattle, sheep, goats, and farming skills
2. Distinct city-based civilization, no larger states
3. No larger, imperial system like Egypt, Rome, or Axum
1. “Cities without citadels”
4. Jenne-jeno and others had economically specialized settlements
1. Iron smithing, cotton weavers, potters, leather workers, etc.
5. Stimulated by West African commerce
1. Larger cities emerged
6. South of the Equator: The World of Bantu Africa
1. The most significant development of the classical era
2. 400 closely related languages that are all known as Bantu
3. Spread to Eastern and Southern Africa for the most part
4. Slow movement of people, not a conscious migration or invasion
5. Gave all of Africa a cultural and linguistic commonality
7. Cultural Encounters
1. Bantu speaking cultures interact with societies
1. Bantu (agriculture) and hunting and gathering societies share ways of life
2. Bantu farmers’ advantages
1. Agriculture was more productive, supports more people
2. Brought diseases to people who were not immune
3. Hunting and gathering was almost obsolete
3. Some hunting and gathering cultures (the San) existed into modern times
4. Batwa (Pygmy) were forest experts, worked with the Bantu
5. Bantu influenced by many cultures
1. Switched to grains instead of yams, domesticated farming animals
2. Bantu culture spread across Africa
8. Society and Religion
1. Many new specific societies and cultures
1. Zimbabwe and Lake Victoria areas
2. East Africa coast
3. Kenya
2. Religion was based on spirits of ancestors and pieces of nature
1. Less focused on a specific God
2. Made sacrifices to deceased ancestors
3. Believed in witches
9. Civilizations of Mesoamerica
1. Many important civilizations before the well-known Inca and Aztec empires
2. Highly developed agricultural system
3. All civilizations traded with one another, had similar religions
10. The Maya: Writing and Warfare
1. Classical era civilization
2. Calendar, writing and mathematical systems
3. Extravagant architecture
1. Temples, pyramids, plazas, etc.
4. Human engineering involved in agriculture
1. Drained swamps, water management system
5. Arranged in city-states
1. Frequent wars
6. Rapid collapse in numbers and strength after a large drought in 840
11. Teotihuacan: America’s Greatest City
1. In 400 years population grew to 100,000 to 200,000
2. Most about it is still unknown
3. Had artisans who specialized in different techniques
4. Little evidence of rulers (oligarchy)
5. Greatly influenced the rest of Mesoamerica
1. Armies influenced surrounding areas
2. Traded with other societies
3. Other people adapted their architectural styles
6. Mysterious fall in 650 c.e.
7. Aztecs named the city, means “city of the gods”
12. Civilizations of the Andes
1. Rich marine life
1. Lots of birds and fish for food
2. Central Peruvian coast: Notre Chico
3. Chavin
1. Complex temples, many ceremonial centers discovered
2. Religion based on nature, mainly forests and deserts
4. Moche
1. Andean civilization, north coast of Peru
2. Complex irrigation system
3. Ruled by warrior priests
4. Sacrifices, rituals, burials, use of hallucinogenics
5. Nazca, Huari, Chimu in the same area
13. North America in the Classical Era: From Chaco to Cahokia
1. Eastern woodlands of North America, Central America, Caribbean and Amazon
2. Hunting and gathering groups still populated the Americas
14. Pit Houses and Great Houses: The Ancestral Pueblo
1. Southwestern North America
1. Maize (corn) civilization
2. Established villages
1. Pit houses in smaller villages
2. Ceremonial structures in larger villages
3. Many trading structures
4. Major pueblos emerged
5. Largest town was Pueblo Bonito
6. Warfare increased and eventually ended the society
15. The Mound Builders of the Eastern Woodlands
1. Agricultural revolution in the Mississippi River Valley
2. Large mounds marked the creation of new societies
1. Elaborate mounds, geometric earthworks
2. Artifacts found in them
3. Strategic astronomical orientation
3. Chahokia
1. Created larger population with maize farming
2. Central mound: pyramid that was four stories high
3. Trade network that spread for miles
4. Stratified class system
5. “Great Suns” were the main chiefs
6. Very strong military

Chapters One Through Three

Ok! Now that we had our second class and the requirements for the blog are more clear to me, I can write my review of the first three chapters...

These chapters talk mostly about the earliest people. I didn't study a lot of this part of history in my other classes, because it seems most of this material is saved for anthropology classes. It is shocking that it is not talked about more the Paleolithic Era takes up 95% of our human existence. Even though it lasted for so many years, it still fits into just a section of our history books. This shows how little we really know about this period of our existence, and how much of it is still considered speculation. I understand why people are so fascinated by it. It is all such a mystery! All we can do is make educated guesses based on what we find.

I thought it was really interesting to find out that the organization of cities and states is considered a recent phenomenon. This organizational pattern has been around for centuries, so compared to our lives, it seems like they have been around forever. However, when compared to our human existence as a whole, the amount of time that people have been living in cities and states is minuscule. I realized that in order to read this material, I needed to change my mindset. It made me realize how small my existence really is in the grand scheme of things.

One thing I really liked talking about in class was the differences between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. I liked looking at the bone structure and recreations of their faces based on skulls that were found. I found an article online that really high lights the differences between the two. Even just looking at the pictures and charts is interesting.

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/who-was-neanderthal-man-was-he-the-missing-link.html

The link is to a site called biblestudy.org which is a site that seeks to answer science related questions with religious answers. However, the information on the Neanderthals is interesting!

I also really liked the part in the book (mainly chapter three) that talks about the introduction of cities and states. It talks about Mesopotamia, the Olmecs, and others. I liked reading about this because it shows pictures and talks about art forms from these cultures, like the Olmec Heads. I am really interested in art and architecture, and I love it when it is applied to my history classes!

One of the most fascinating things about the Olmec Heads is that La Venta, the site where the Olmec civilization flourished and where the heads are located, is a swamp land. So, how did the Olmecs, without tools, move these huge pieces of stone without any tools are wheels from their nearest basalt source to La Venta? This video that I found seeks to answer these questions, as modern day archeologists use ancient Olmec methods to move 10-20 ton stones. There are two separate parts to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpAdEmR2PW4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4pm5Q4Dnp8&NR=1

I don't know how to attach the links here so that you can just view the video from my blog, so just copy and paste the link!

First Night of Class: This should be interesting...

This should be interesting...

I was checking out the course schedule in class and I was so overwhelmed. I am taking two other summer school classes and I work about thirty hours a week. Luckily, my school year with my preschoolers ends in three weeks. I then have some time off, and my classes will pretty much be my only obligation. Even though it looks like I am going to be pretty busy with school, I am determined to keep all of the courses I am signed up for. I have a goal of graduating this coming May, and as long as I have that in sight, I (hopefully) won't get off track. Right now, I'm exploring my blog and how to use it. Contrary to most people my age, I am COMPLETELY technologically challenged and "out of the loop" with all the new Internet crazes, with the exception of Facebook (I definitely jumped on that bandwagon like, four years ago). I have never blogged before in my life and I'm excited to figure it out. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can get the most out of this thing, let me know! See you all next week =)