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Study Abroad
For my study abroad I went to Ecuador. I stayed at Andes and Amazon field school for three weeks which is located in Tena and for one week we stayed at Pontificia Universidad Catolica in Yasuni National Park. We learned about the Quichua and Waorani tribes and how they were colonized yet still held on to a lot of their culture. During my time abroad, I learned that the Quichua people in the Tena area have such close ties to their land and everything in it. It is very refreshing to see a group of people who care about the environment and have special connections with certain animals, spirits, and plants. The people in the field school do not take things from Earth without asking for it first. They do not take the environment for granted and they do not believe they are entitled to the resources surrounding them. They have a level of respect for the forest where they believe they must flatter and ask for whatever it is they want. It is very interesting to see how they use cross-gender antics to speak with these spirits. Flattery is what gets you what you want with the supais (forest spirits), which is similar to human behavior. At first, it was difficult for me to grasp the idea that the other realm is here amongst us. We just see the people from the other realm as trees, anacondas, mountains, jaguars, etc. yet non-human beings see themselves as being humans.
Each ceremony had a common theme of using natural material from the forest and asking the supais for their help. Without the other realm helping the people living in this realm would not be able to help themselves out. They heavily rely on the spirits who bring them strength and knowledge. People have treated these indigenous groups as if they were totally different from Western groups; however, they are not that different in the grand scheme of things. They believe in spirits and they also believe in a separate realm. The missionaries who came to evangelize them did not see that they also believe in something you cannot see.
Mama Carmen, the head cook of the tribe there, told us that the garden is an extension of her, the vegetation she is growing are considered to be her children. We painted our faces orange with achote so we could show respect to the yucca and show them that we are like her children as well. Mama Carmen started chanting in Quichua before planting all of the yuccas. She asked the supai to please let this yucca be healthy and to grow tall and strong. She wants her children to grow and to help her feed her other family members. She was also asking the chakra supai (garden spirit) to approve of her planting the yucca.
The Quichua community believes that the trees are people at night when they are all asleep during the day. To extract something from a tree they must knock on trees to wake up the owner. It’s like a doctor who will heal you. If you are estranged from the tree the spirit inside of it will go away. One must keep good relationships with the trees so the spirit will stay. When approaching a tree, you must knock on it so the spirit can wake up and you can ask for permission. Seduction helps you seduce the tree into helping you. The tree will become soft-hearted through attraction and help you with whatever you need. Most plants they specifically use haven’t been tested sufficiently. When speaking to spirits there is a cross-gender, where women flatter men spirits and men flatter the women spirits.
We all depend on nature, the way we interpret it is the only difference. In this indigenous culture, for example, they believe that the trees call on the rain for water. Without trees, humans could not get rain. The spirits are the ones that help humans obtain the things we need to live. Their interpersonal relationships have to be good with humans as well as with the spirits. In my opinion, it makes this indigenous group more aware of their surroundings and more conscious of the decisions they have to make. The difference is that they are motivated by a chain of empathy. I believe we can all learn from them and begin to treat everything around us with respect.
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