ETHOS GUERRERO Y EVANGELIZACIÓN CRISTIANA: LOS INDÍGENAS WAORANI DEL ECUADOR

• DOI: 10.37572/EdArt_3004241471

• Palavras-chave: Ecuador, misiones, waorani, cristianismo, interculturalidad

• Keywords: Ecuador, missions, christianity, interculturalism, waorani

• Abstract: This chapter analyzes the encounter between two diametrically opposed cultures: the waorani—hunter-gatherers who had been living in the Ecuadorian tropical forest for more than 10,000 years—, and Protestant missionaries and their modern Western culture. This cultural clash extended beyond a disagreement of the senses, notions, sensitivities, and respect. Through their desire to teach Christian dogmas and beliefs, Protestants belittled a society that had reached a high degree of ecological adaptation and held a complex system of beliefs and behaviors in relation to their human and non-human counterparts. This work is based on extensive ethnographic research and two primary sources: 1) the Summer Institute of Linguistics' (SIL) documents, diaries, books, and films; 2) more than twenty-five interviews, carried out between 2018 and 2023, with the pikenani or elders of the waorani communities of Keweirono, Nenkepare, Guiyero, Bameno, Dicaro and Toñanpare. These life stories are important because they reflect how the first generation of waoranis in Ecuador transitioned from living in isolation to a modern Western life. Their perspectives, before and after, shed light on the lives of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and the culture shock suffered from Christian civilization and evangelization. This chapter seeks to recognize cultural diversity while highlighting the misplaced views of intercultural contact that seek new forms of relationship with “others.”