The Huaorani of Ecuador lived as hunters and gatherers in the
Amazonian rainforest for hundred of years, largely undisturbed by
western civilization. Since their first encounter with North
American missionaries in 1956, they have held a special place in
journalistic and popular imagination as "Ecuador's last savages."
"Trekking Through History" is the first description of Huaorani
society and culture according to modern standards of ethnographic
writing. Through her comprehensive study of their extraordinary
tradition of trekking, Laura Rival shows that the Huaorani cannot
be seen merely as anachronistic survivors of the Spanish Conquest.
Her critical reappraisal of the notions of agricultural regression
and cultural devolution challenges the universal application of the
thesis that marginal tribes of the Amazon Basin represent devolved
populations who have lost their knowledge of agriculture. Far from
being an evolutionary event, trekking expresses cultural creativity
and political agency. Through her detailed comparative discussion
of native Amazonian representations of history and the environment,
Rival illustrates the unique way the Huaorani have socialized
nature by choosing to depend on resources created in the past --
highlighting the unique contribution anthropology makes to the
study of environmental history.
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