Analysis of Spirituality Processes in Women of the Waorani AMWAE Indigenous Nationality in Ecuador

Abstract

The Waorani are an Amazonian indigenous nationality with a population of 4,000. They inhabit three provinces of Ecuador: Pastaza, Napo and Orellana, and their ancestral lands contain a wealth of natural resources, which attracts the onslaught of the processes of extractivism. Significant social and economic asymmetries have also arisen in the decades since first contact. It is in this context that the Waorani Women's Association was created in 2005. Its main purpose is to end deforestation and illegal hunting of species in Waorani territory by promoting initiatives such as the cultivation of organic cocoa and handicrafts to improve the economy of families and to diminish the reliance on the preponderant economic system of use and abuse of non-renewable resources. This chapter analyzes how the spirituality of the Waorani nationality, manifested by the women who work in cocoa farms and chambira palm crafts, combine syncretism and ancestral knowledge in their daily work. It also analyzes the change of spiritual identity from the first contact with the Summer Language Institute missionaries, and subsequent evangelical, Catholic, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Church of Latter-day Saints missions to their lands.

Citation

González, A.L., Quishpi Choto, F.R. and Espín Rea, D.F. (2023), "Analysis of Spirituality Processes in Women of the Waorani AMWAE Indigenous Nationality in Ecuador", Özsungur, F. and Bekar, F. (Ed.) Spirituality Management in the Workplace, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 173-196. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-450-020231008