Pilgrimage Through the Americas: Living with the Shuar: Headhunters of Amazonia

Shuar Healing Ritual

“Please come quickly, she’s in a lot of pain. It’s her stomach.” Tunki, Shuar shaman, turned to me and asked if I wanted to come with him. He was going to do a healing ritual. I said, “Yes”. He grabbed his clear bottle of fifteen different wild jungle plants and herbs he had collected. He showed me the bottle and said they’re in concentrated form.

Tunki, 34 year old Shuar shaman, drinking chicha from traditional carved bowl

Bottle of medicinal "sacred" plants

“Ahhhh! . . . Ahhhh! . . . Ahhhh! . . .” Screams of pain greeted us as we entered the two room raised shack. From the sound and constant hollering, the woman was in extreme pain. She was wildly tossing and turning in bed, foaming at the mouth, and delirious. She is Tunki’s sister-in-law, sister of his wife.

Tunki opened the bottle of “sacred plants”, pinched off a thumbnail amount and placed it in a glass. He filled the glass with about three ounces of river water, stirred it until diluted. He drank it in one swallow.

Tunki went into the woman’s room and examined her abdomen. He placed his hand on her stomach and lightly massaged in a clockwise motion. He neared his face to her belly button and blew three quick puffs. Almost touching her stomach with his lips, he inhaled a deep gulp of air. He quickly got up and ran outside where he violently threw up. He continued to retched for about a minute. He came back inside and repeated the ritual three more times. Each time ending with him vomiting deep from inside his body. After the fourth time he was out of breath and looked exhausted.

The woman stopped screaming and moaning in pain. She sat up in bed and said she was hungry. Tunki requested that some food be brought to her. She looked physically better and starting eating some yucca, rice and drank some water. She said she was no longer in pain.

Next day, no longer in pain Tunki's sister-in-law able to perform

the hard work of harvesting wild fruits

Tunki looked drained. The wife’s husband, Vicente, gave Tunki a plastic cake mixing bowl size of chicha - fermented yucca. He slowly drank it all. His strength returned to him. He looked renewed. He explained to me that when people are made fun of or are disparaged by others, negative energy enters their body and causes stomach aches. He captured this energy with the help of the “sacred plants”, consumed it in his stomach, and expelled it through the vomiting.

Harvested yucca next to fermenting chicha, both staples of the Shuar diet

We stayed fifteen more minutes. After eating the woman said she was feeling better. We left and went back to Tunki’s home in the dark. During our walk he said he frequently has to expunge negative energy that causes illness, that it’s a matter of creating balance between negative and positive energy, and that the plants and herbs help in this process. He said, “The plant medicine is sacred and has power to heal, but also to harm if used in that manner. Some people are trained to help cure like myself, but others use the plant’s power to cause damage towards others. It’s far more difficult to cure than to create negative energy that injures people.”

Shuar Family

The three hour boat ride down the Napo River to the Shuar community was magical. I would be staying four days with the descendants of a tribe of former headhunters. I was nervous and apprehensive about potential dangers to my health or life. Thick green pristine jungle bordered both sides of the river. Brownish green hanging vines dropped overhead, showering the boat in shade. Blue Morpho butterflies danced above the water dipping low, but not touching the river, and quickly, daintily spiraling up into the dangling tree branches. Others joined the dance. All swiftly and gracefully disappeared into the banks of dense impenetrable dark jungle.

My transportation down the Napo River

View inside the boat; yes, it's leaking water

View outside the boat, the left bank

View of the right bank

Unseen birds serenaded us as we passed underneath their perches. Occasionally we had to stoop down to avoid low hanging branches and renegade wild vines. The scenery was something out of a Tarzan movie. We passed dugout canoes beached on the shore, motor-less and lifeless without their Shuar paddlers. The scene epitomized from time immortal that the only way to travel through Shuar territory was through the waterways.

Small fast flowing tributaries dumped into the Napo River. As I looked up the streams the deep green tree canopy rendered water and sky a hue of emerald color. What lies down those watery corridors? Unmolested, unfriendly tribes practicing rituals of blood lust and empowerment from taking one’s head? To venture up those dark green tunnels of water is unwelcoming. Travel up those side channels takes one back a couple of millenniums. A time when modern humans would struggle to survive. I’ll stay on the main river content to be led and safeguarded by Tunki the healer, organizer, visionary, devoted family man, and leader.

The people of the jungle live in communities with invisible spirits - spirits of the moon, animals, birds, and died ancestors. Besides the invisible spirits, Tunki’s family includes his wife, Margo, two daughters Nunkui (three years old), and Kintihunh (one and half years old), his invalid father who suffered a stroke, Antich, mother Chaphik, and occasionally Margo’s mother. Extended family members, brothers, sisters, cousins come by to visit and end up staying the night. Tunki and Margo have been living together for four years, married for three. Their two room shack or “home” is four feet off the ground raised on stilts. Because of venomous insects and ants, poisonous snakes, and other deadly creatures no one sleeps on the ground, either up on a hammock or in the raised shack.

Manny de with Shuar family enjoying a meal

Tunki's family home, sleeping room to the right, cooking and living area to the left

Where Manny de slept inside the sleeping quarters.

I needed the tent to keep out the mosquitoes and other insects.

Room where Tunki, Margo, and their two daughters slept

Area where Tunki's father (in the bed), mother, and mother-in-law slept

The living conditions are even more crude, remote, and primitive than the “campo” I stayed at in Miraflor, Nicaragua. There is no electricity or indoor running water. The “bathroom” is literally over the river with wooden planks, to accommodate the invalid father, to use to squat and poop. It is outdoors, no enclosure, no commode, no privacy, and located a thousand yards from the home. Tunki said when it rains it washes everything down the river. Therefore, there isn’t any major smell, since it rains almost everyday. There are big black and brown horseflies buzzing over the hole.

The "bathroom", hole in the middle of wooden planks is where you drop your load;

there is a small stream that flows underneath

When I had to use it, it hadn’t rained and there was a stench coming out of the hole. While I was using the bathroom, flies kept landing on my arms, legs, back, and butt. I was swiping them and trying to poop at the same time. It was very uncouth. I quickly did my thing, wiped with toilet paper I brought on the trip, used a handy wipe to clean my backside and hands. The system and construction of the “bathroom” had to be something used since antiquity. It hasn’t changed in thousands of years. I asked what if I had to urinate in the middle of the night, where should I go. Tunki said, “Go ahead and urinate where ever you want, even on plants. Urine has medicinal curing power and energy. It can’t harm you.”

There is a constant wood fire burning outside near the outdoor cooking and dining area. It’s used to roast chicken, boil water for yucca, rice, and greens harvested from the garden. The staple diet is yucca and plain white rice, both are grown in the garden. Chicha is also a staple. There are two kinds: one is fermented and contains alcohol and is mostly drank by men. The second is unfermented, sweet and drank by women and children. When we arrived from the river canoe trip, chicha was offered in a community bowl and drank vigorously. Tunki said that usually that’s all he’ll have for breakfast, and will go all day until the evening when he eats a meal of yucca, rice, some vegetable harvested from the garden, and occasionally meat from fresh game. Chicha is drank at night when sitting around in the house, talking and telling stories before going to sleep. The family lives outdoors and only uses the house to sleep. The Shuar wake with the sunrise, and retire with sunset. They’re all asleep by 9:00 - 9:30 PM, and up by 5:00 AM. A life tied to daylight, a custom and practice since ancient times.

Most meals are cooked outdoors in this fire pit.

There is a small propane stove that's used when it's raining, but

fuel is expensive and hard currency is hard to come by.

Vicente helped unload supplies from the canoe and shared

in the community bowl of chicha

Sunrise at the Shuar family home

Margo does all the cooking. Her mother and mother-in-law help with the youngest child, cleaning the area, washing pots and dishes. They sweep the platform where food preparation occurs, and sweep the dirt floor under the raised sleeping area. The oldest daughter, Nunkui, is always with Tunki. He is responsible for watching over her. They are very close.

Margo preparing some "greens" for dinner

Margo applying healing herbs on her mother's injured ankle

Three year old Nunkui is a handful and follows her father everywhere

One and a half year old Kintihnuh is better behaved and takes after her mother

I was treated as an honored guest and not expected to help with chores, though I volunteered to help Tunki bring water in four, five gallon bottles from the small stream that looked stagnate, where they bathed. It’s done twice a day, in the morning and afternoon. This water is used to wash dishes, hands, and Tunki said they boil it to drink. I brought a five gallon bottle of purified water to drink. Margo offered some of the river water for tea. It was brackish and light brown, but was boiled, before I put the tea bag in. I made the tea and drank it. It was a kind gesture on her part and I didn’t want to offend anyone. These people are poor. We really only ate two meals a day. Yet, they always served me first, with the largest portions and best part of the chicken or the only one who had eggs in the morning. They are honorable, kind, and generous people.