Joanna Animashaun, Sophie Brown, Naomi Landau with the Tsachila indigenous

Tsachilla Community- Santo Domingo de Los Colorados

We are a group of three friends from London, England, travelling independently around South America. Our first weeks placement volunteering with Ecotrackers, involved staying with a Shaman and his family in the Tsachilla village near the town of Santa Domingo, four hours west of Quito. These are our thoughts on our stay…

Work:

Alfonso´s work as a Shaman was his main employment, supporting the family. From what we saw there was a lot of competition within the community for income from tourism and the services of Shamans. It appeared to us that this may have been the main form of income for the community, although we are not sure how much income came from farming and selling produce. One of the earliest observations we had was how relaxed the lifestyle was, this may in part be due to our experiences in the West where employment is more regimented, but daily work in the village seemed a little lacking once basic needs are met!

Another concern we have is for the viability of Shamanism as a main source of income with the modern lifestyle of the large town encroaching on the more traditional ways of life in the villages. It was obvious to us that Alfonso wanted to increase his business, which is part of the reason he was involved with Ecotrackers, both locally and with the tourist trade. The possible problems with increased income from the tourist trade include how to cut through the local competition, how to successfully advertise beyond his work with Ecotrackers and how to maintain the integrity of the rituals.

With regards to maintaining the Shaman rituals locally we were unsure as to the level of belief held by younger generations. We experienced Alfonso performing a Love Ceremony for the children of their friends, but it was unclear how wholeheartedly they believed.

Belief is obviously still strong within some sections of society. We saw evidence of this when we took part in a night time ritual at the river, by their most sacred stone Uru Soña, with a local man who was facing various problems and hoped to solve them with this ceremony. We later learnt it was expensive to take part, showing his level of commitment.

To us it felt that women within the community were respected and female Shamans were not uncommon with Alfonso´s sister also practicing as one. Although within the household Sandra did all the cooking, duties such as cleaning and caring for the baby were more shared.

Social Problems:

Whilst at the community we became aware of some of the problems within the area. It was apparent that certain members of the village suffered, like many people around the world, with a dependency on alcohol. Within the town of Santa Domingo we also witnessed children obviously under the effects of solvents, wandering the streets. This is another problem which is found in poor areas worldwide, as it is a cheap method of escapism.

It was apparent that the occurrence of single parent families in the village was viewed as an area of concern by villagers. There were worries over finances and maintaining structure and discipline for the children.

Rubbish was a very apparent problem in the village, plastic bags and bottles littered the areas behind the living areas and it was quite obvious that no form of recycling occurred. This was largely because there was no effective means and encouragement to recycle in the area. We spent some time clearing large areas of waste but the only method of disposal was small-scale landfill.

New World versus Old World:

As we spent time in both the community and the town we noticed a lot of big differences between the two but also a lot of crossover.

It felt like a different world when we were staying in our bamboo hut with no running water and five minutes away their friends were living in houses with all the modern conveniences, yet somehow the divide between the people did not seem great. This led us to question slightly how typical of the Tsachilla community our hosts were.

The collision between traditional and modern was never more apparent than during a calming ceremony for the baby, throughout which, the shopping channel was playing in the background. This showed the two cultures could co-exist, yet at times it also jarred for us. When we discovered that a twelve year old boy had quit school to solely train as a shaman we questioned its effects on his long term future and wondered whether his choices were being limited.

In conclusion we had a fabulous experience living with some wonderful and unique people and learnt a lot about a lifestyle very different from our own. It broadened our ideas on what to expect and helped us to question our preconceptions. However we also learnt that no matter how open minded you are you still cannot help but judge people and situations from your own cultural perspective.

Joanna Animashaun, Sophie Brown, Naomi Landau

August 2007