Games of Daze/Infomagic - Games of Daze (Summer 1995) (Disc 1 of 2).iso/x2ftp/books/misc/crisucan.rvw

Internet Message Format | 1995-02-25 | 5KB

Date: Wed, 15 Feb 95 11:22:42 -0800
From: Steve Cisler <[e-mail]>


Crisis Under the Canopy: Tourism and other problems facing the present
day Huaorani.  Randy Smith, Ediciones Abya-Yala, Avenida
12 de Octubre, 14-30, Quito, Ecuador.  ISBN 9478-99-090-9. Price:
between $7 and $12 US in Quito.

At about 1 degree south latitude, in the Ecuadorian Amazon
basin, live a people known as the Huaorani. The author of
Crisis Under the Canopy, a 37 year old Candian who worked most
of his adult life for Bell Canada, is an amateur in the best sense of
the word. He has traveled extensively in the Brazilian, Venezuelan,
and Ecuadorian Amazon, particularly in El Oriente where the
Huaorani and other tribes live.

This book is part of an investigative report by the Rainforest
Information Centre (RIC) in Quito whose director, Douglas Ferguson,
writes:

"...the center of the 'story' is the existence and tenacity of the
last wild paradise and the damage that tourism has done to a
recently pristine tribe.

"...If the Huaorani as a people do not remain bound together as
a cultural entity there will be no one to defend the forest at the
headwaters of the Amazon."

However, Smith's report (in Spanish on the left page and
English on the right) portrays a situation much more complex.
Whether or not the Oriente is "the last wild paradise" it
certainly is an area of greater biological diversity than most other
tropic areas, even in the Amazon. The area also holds oil and
gas deposits that are a major export for the government of
Ecuador, a country that is trying to raise the standard of living
for all of its citizens and to avoid some of the problems
encountered in Peru and Colombia.

The Huaorani, also known as the Auca, or 'savage' in the Quechua
language, used to be an extremely violent people. They were
presecuted during the 1875 to  1925 rubber trade and were sold
as slaves in Iquitos, Peru, and Manaus, Brazil. Anthropologists
estimated that the tribe has a homicide rate of  60% (40% from
inside the tribe, 20% from outside attacks) in the mid 20th
century.

Since the rubber trade there have been contacts by Protestant and
Catholic missionaries in the 1950's, anthroplogists, and in the
1970's by oil exploration teams and in the 80's and 90's by
tourist guides and their clients. The book focuses on the latter
group rather than oil and religion, as Joe Kane did in the
recently published essay in the  9/27/93, New Yorker, "With Spears
>from All Sides" which  is quite different from Smith's book.
Smith's is the product of a much more prolonged contact with
the Huaorani, whereas Kane, as a journalist, came, probed,
experienced, and then left.

I was vacationing in the Oriente and read the book, took some
notes, wrote this review, and tried to contact the author in Quito.
He was in the Oriente and phoned my hotel in Quito, but I had
managed to get lost in a biological preserve near Quito, and when
I arrived in my hotel room, it was too late to call, and I was
exhausted. I returned to the U.S. early the next morning..

Smith is extremely sympathetic to the Huaorani, but he is not a
blind romantic. He is aware of the forces that break down the
Huao culture and also those that tend to help keep it intact. Some
parts of the missionary  efforts fall into the former, and some
fall into the latter. He acknowledges the assistance of the
Ecuadorian military and also relates some unfortunate contacts
between the Huaorani and naive environmental groups.
Tour groups and adventurer/guides seek to extend contact
with the Huaorani as well as other tribes with whom there has
been little or no contact.

Smith and the RIC have performed two concrete acts (aside from
this valuable report): a census of the Huaorani communities and a
demarcation project to mark off the Huaorani territory by cutting a
5-6 meter swath and planting it with different varieties of palm
trees.  The project brought many Huaorani members together
to talk, to learn, and to work together on the strenuous and
dangerous month-long affair.

Smith interviews tourists, guides, and Huaorani about the effects
of tourism. He recommends that a tourist center be developed
where Huao will staff it and the tourists will avoid going to the
villages which have been affected strongly by contacts with
outsiders.  Although Smith and others want to minimize
contacts, they are well aware of the forces working against that:
missionaries, oil company gifts and subsidies, highland Indians
moving on to land bordering oil line roads, or Indians marrying
Huaorani and then bringing their own relatives into the community.
The Huaorani are a very individualistic people, and some
communities want more contact. It is clear that culture is not
static and that change is inevitable. What is tragic is the rate
and kind of changes so far. What is encouraging is that the Huaorani
are sometimes the pro-active change agents--as when they decided
to stop killing each other--and that they have on their side someone
with the energy and knowledge of Randy Smith.

Steve Cisler
Apple Library
[e-mail]