PART III Miñe A Man of the Snippet It has been stated that stories told by an oral culture have a unique construction, emphasize different events, and are bound by rules other than those of a culture based in a writing system (e.g., Zumthor 1986, Ong 2002). All of this is undoubtedly true, however, theory and even the most insightful preparations cannot brace a researcher for an interview with a member of an oral culture. It is not only the way of constructing sentences that is different. The whole thought process, finding context, adding digressions, time reference, and recalling memories vary from what we are used to. The encountered tales are not myths or legends, therefore, these differences are not a result of various mnemonic techniques. These are live tales, full of emotions, and they are slightly modified every time they are told. Modern history also influences the story as past events are conformed to a modern reality. Researchers base their interpretation of facts on the information they are given by informants. However, sharing knowledge is a courtesy of the interlocutors and they choose what to include and how to present the stories. Writing a biography is not an easy task. Some aspects or events of one s life are hidden, some openly talked about, and others
138 Huaorani of the Western Snippet emphasized (despite not being brought up when other researchers ask). Some people claim that we know only as much as we ask about. This is not entirely true when working with oral cultures. Sometimes a simple question leads to many complex memories, which further expose tales of other events. However, these stories may bring back memories of incidents or aspects of life that one may not want to share and then the subject ends abruptly. Writing a biography is only possible when people are kind enough to devote their time and share their personal memories; therefore, we have to respect boundaries of privacy drawn by the interlocutors. In our perception, a biography (similar to time) progresses linearly. It cannot be assumed that the life story of someone who perceives time cyclically (as a returning, changing, but renewable dimension) will be told the same way. What is a person s role in cyclic time? How does one perceive change? Maybe it is more of a spiral that goes in circles, repeats its course, and yet is new and different each time? Oral cultures perceive the world in a unique way that cannot be fully understood by people raised in the Western culture as we are bound by our beliefs, mindset, and preconceptions even as anthropologists we try to overcome our way of thinking. This is especially true for the spiritual and symbolic aspects of indigenous cultures. We can try to define terms, organize memories, but the written version of the tale will be different than the oral one. Several books presenting tales of indigenous cultures have been published. 1 Some of them were based on oral reports. Researchers have always struggled with accurately reflecting spoken words in written form. Despite attempts to transfer all the important aspects of an oral tale, stories become different once they are written down. Taking this into account, after careful consideration I decided to write the following chapter in the simplest way possible. I tried to present events similar to the way they occur in real life resulting from one another. However, this does not mean that it is an exact transcript of what my interlocutor said. The information had to be organized and adapted to the framework of
Miñe A Man of the Snippet 139 a written tale. Without these measures, presenting the biography would not be possible. The following text is not a detailed report of the last 70 years of a person s life. Instead, it consists of stories describing incidents my interlocutor considers most significant in his lifetime and important events that have shaped him as a human being, as a Huao. Following ethnographic ethical guidelines, I do not give the real names of my informants. I believe it is inappropriate to present names that are used on an everyday basis and recognized by friends and family when describing delicate issues of one s life memories, emotions, and opinions. First, I would not want my interlocutor to suffer from potential consequences of publishing this book. Researchers never intend to leave a footprint and citing real names of people or places could influence relationships between family members or groups. Second, I do not feel the need to prove that the facts presented in the study are true by emphasizing my close relationship with the person I have interviewed. Giving fictitious names is also my way of showing respect to those who have not only devoted their time but also were willing to relive the past and share the memories and emotions accompanying it. Research would be impossible without cooperation and trust, and I consider studies as joint projects involving multiple people, during which I was lucky enough to take on the role of the scribe and put all the pieces together. People who I have worked with trusted my opinion and I aspired to present the relationships, context, and knowledge as accurately as possible. However, I do not have a full understanding of oral cultures perception of the world no one who reads, writes, and was brought up in the Western culture does. As a result, the tale presented below has been simplified. For obvious reasons it does not incorporate important elements of oral tales such as gestures, mimics, nonarticulated sounds, and sighs. This chapter is the effect of a six-year-long research project. During these years I was conducting interviews with the Huaorani shaman. I met him in 2007 during my first research in Ecuador
140 Huaorani of the Western Snippet and the idea of writing down his biography came to my guide and me few months later. At first, shaman was surprised that I would like to listen to his story, nevertheless he agreed to the long process of interviewing. He speaks exclusively Huao Terero, so his grandsons, who are fluent in Spanish, helped with the translation. We would meet in shaman s village or he would come to the Quichua settlement where I was staying at the time. My interlocutor agreed to spend many hours sitting on a hard wooden bench telling his tales regardless of the weather or the passing time. Despite his age and many responsibilities, he made time to meet whenever I arrived, and planned his activities and chores in a way to ensure that we continue interviews. I am extremely grateful for this, however, I will probably never be able to fully express my gratitude. Surely this project could have lasted several more years, however, there comes a point where certain information is repeated, typically signaling the need to finish a project (see Hammersley and Atkinson 1995: 116). Despite continuing my research about the Huaorani culture, my work on the biography had to come to an end. Undoubtedly, future studies will show gaps in the data I have gathered and questions I could have asked will be thought of, however, today I am not able to predict what those might be. Gaps in the following biography reflect the calm periods of my interlocutor s life. Oral cultures measure time from one event to another. An extraordinary or unusual incident becomes a fixed point in the ever-flowing and returning time. If no such events occurred and life followed its normal course not many memories exist from that period of time. Some tales change over time. On one occasion the events are said to happen in a given order and have a specific meaning. Next time the same story is told, the events or significance vary from what was said in the previous version. This is common for oral tales. On the one hand, it raises doubts as to what really happened and how to portray these events in writing. On the other hand, it may be worth considering what is more important: the objective truth or its interpretation.
Miñe A Man of the Snippet 141 I named the main character of this chapter Miñe. As I mentioned earlier, this word means shaman in Huao Terero. I named this person after his role in the Huao society he has been a shaman for many years. I changed the names of all others who appear in the tales, however, for simplification I usually refer to them according to their relationship to Miñe. This was not always possible as close relationships and affinity exist between family as well as friends and very often the same term is used to refer to them by the interlocutor. The geographic names have also been changed Huaorani groups live relatively far away from each other and real names of rivers or regions would give away which nanicabo the tale is about. My interlocutor perceives time differently and does not use a calendar. As a result, years presented in this chapter may not be entirely accurate as they are estimated based on other information (such as the age of a child at the time of a particular event). Each year estimate is triangulated with information about other events to obtain an accurate time frame of each incident.