The Shuar are a group of people that live in the Amazonian jungles of Ecuador. They have lived there before the arrival of the Spaniard conquistadors and continue to do so. Throughout Shuar history, they did not have a king to rule over them; instead, they have an Egalitarian society in which every man is equal and each governed himself. It was only until January 1964 that they set up the Shuar Federation as a governing body to represent them in dealing with the Ecuadorian colonists (Salazar, 1977).
The Shuar tribe entered history in 1549 when the Spanish came in contact with them. By then, Spaniards had already conquered the Inca Empire and were beginning to explore its frontiers. Hernando de Benavente led an expedition into the territory of the Shuar tribe and attempted to settle in it. Benavente’s expedition failed because the Shuar were hostile to them.
Shortly after the first expedition, the Vicoroy of Peru sent a second expedition. This time the Spanish settlers initiated peaceful trade relationships with some of the Shuar and created peaceful relationships with them. The peaceful trades allowed the settlers to set up two settlements, Logrono and Sevilla del Oro in 1552. Even though some of the Shuar cooperated with the settlers, others still remained hostile and continued to terrorize the settlers by killing them.
Eventually, the settlers were able to take over all of the Shuar people and forced them to pay mita, by working in gold mines. The Shuar were also forced to pay tributes to the Spainish crown in gold dusts. As time progressed, the Spanish demanded more and more gold dust from the Shuar. This made the Shuar unhappy, so in 1599, the Shuar rebelled against the Spanish.
In the rebellion, the cities of Logrono and Sevilla del Oro were sacked and the governor was captured. Molten gold was poured down the throat of the governor to satisfy his thirst for gold.
Overall, the rebellion resulted in the death of 30,000 Spaniards in one week and ended Spanish rule in Shuar territory. Later expeditions were sent to colonize the Shuar territory but was met with hostility and failed. The Shuar enjoyed their independence and isolation from the white settlers up until the mid 1900s when the Ecuadorians (who are the descendents of the Spaniards) began penetrating and seizing their land. To this day, the Shuar still struggle against being colonized and assimilated into mainstream Ecuadorian culture (Harner, 1972).
Created by Shoua Vang
Latin America 260
Professor Leigh Payne
University of Wisonsin Madison
The myth of the violent Shuar is that the Shuar were viewed as a violent group of people. The following quote depicts this myth very well as a 16th century Spaniard described the Shuar as a warlike people:
“They [the Jivaro (Shuar)] are a very warlike people, and have killed a great number of Spaniards, and are killing them everyday. It is a very rough land, having many rivers and canyons, all of which in general have gold and in such quantity that the Spaniards are obliged to forget the danger and try to subject them for the profits they can obtain and which the land promises.” – A statement by Juan Aldrete in 1582 [Harner, 1972].
The myth of the violent Shuar probably emerged in the mid 1500s with the hostile contacts between the Spanish and the Shuar. It was the rebellion of 1599 that probably solidified the Shuar as a violent tribe since they killed nearly 30,000 Spaniards in one week. Subsequent contacts after the rebellion between the Shuar and the Spaniards remained hostile until a peaceful trading relationship was re-established in the mid 1800s.
Due to the peaceful trading relationship the Shuar ended its violence against the whites of Ecuador (who were descendents of the Spanish settlers). It could be assumed that since the Shuar had stopped their hostilities toward the whites, the myth of the violent Shuar should slowly dissipate into history. But this was not the case. Due to the peaceful relationship between the two groups, some of the white traders were able to visit the Shuar. As a result, aspects of Shuar culture emerged which further fueled the myth that the Shuar were a violent tribe.
It was the tsangtsa that intrigued the white traders most. The tsangtsa is a shrunken head made from the head of Shuar enemies who were killed during raids. The tsangtsa was something interestingly new to the white traders so the white traders began trading with the Shuar for the shrunken heads.
The shrunken head trade stimulated the Shuar to obtain more heads so that they can trade it in for more goods. It was then that the Shuar became known as the head hunters which further supported the myth that the Shuar were a violent people. Click here to see the tsangtsa
The shrunken heads from the trade were circulated worldwide and as a result, more people became aware of the existence of the Shuar and the Shuar’s association with the shrunken heads (and in turn, the shrunken heads imply how violent the Shuar were). This is probably how the myth of the violent Shuar came to be.
The myth of the violent Shuar tribe emerged from the violent struggles between the conquering Spaniards and the Shuar. This myth may not be true because it only came from one side of the struggle, the Spaniards. In the eyes of the Spaniards, the Shuar seemed cruel and violent because they were in fact killing the Spaniards. But in the Shuar’s view, this myth may not be true. They may view the violence against the Spaniards as a struggle against slavery and for freedom. In fact throughout history, the Spaniards have been the crueler one in which they conquered and then imposed forced labor on those remaining.
The view of the Shuar as the head hunters further also imply how violent the Shuar were. It may imply that the Shuar were so violent that they simply went around searching for human head to chop off for trophies (as popular culture misunderstood them to be). This may not be the case since it was the white traders who stimulated the head hunt. In the Shuar religious belief, the purpose for the shrunken head was not to take the form of a trophy, but to capture the enemy’s spirit. So, by creating the shrunken heads, a Shuar can use an enemy’s spirit to make himself more powerful. The following quote was by a researcher who has had first hand experience with the Shuar:
“The Shuar were considered fierce warriors; I heard many stories about their raids, head-hunting, and savage rituals, although from personal encounters I found them to be a compassionate people who were gravely concerned about the impact colonists were having of the fragile rainforest ecology (1994: 13)”- A quote within the book, A Shuar Healer in the Margins of History (Rubenstein, 2002).
The above quote allows us to see that the Shuar may have been misrepresented with the myth of them being violent. The quote above also tell us that the Shuar might not be as violent as they were portrayed to be and that they were just people like us who also have values and concerns about life.
The myth of the violent Shuar should not be taken seriously because the myth came from the view oppressor (which was the Spaniards and the Ecuadorian colonists) of the Shuar and therefore might be distorted.
The Myth of the Violent Shuar
