Melding Data Collection Methodology with Community Assistance: Benefits to Both Researchers and the Indigenous Groups They Study

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONFor anthropologists in the field doing research with indigenous groups, the question is no longer, Can we preserve the culture or protect them from modernization by non-interference? but rather, How can we help indigenous groups adapt on their own terms to the severe changes that are occurring due to globalization, both for the individual humans we work with and for their overall cultural integrity? Scientific detachment at the expense of human suffering has damaged researcher relationships with indigenous groups to the extent that many groups resent the intrusion of researchers who often come wanting information but offer little in return of value to them.Our study compared and evaluated the relationships between food systems and health across two Ecuadorian Amazon indigenous groups, the last confirmed close-to-full-foraging Kawymeno Waorani sub-group in Ecuador, and the other a neighboring remote Kichwa indigenous community practicing subsistence agriculture. My wife and I lived and worked during 2009-2011 in these two relatively isolated Amazonian communities. We camped in the rain forest many days travel in canoe from the nearest town or airstrip. We collected data on dietary and health differences between these foraging and subsistence farming groups.Yost spent years studying the Waorani. His accounts give an idea of their isolated lifestyle (Yost 1981, 1983), food and medicinal system (Davis and Yost 1983), and health in a series of articles with coauthors Larrick and Kaplan (Kaplan et al. 1979, 1980; Larrick et al. 1979) in the early years of contact with outsiders. More recent articles discuss changes that have taken place in Waorani groups in recent years (Rival 1993, 2002) including economic patterns (Lu 2001; 2006) subsistence patterns (Lu et al. 2010; Mena et al. 2000) and efforts at conservation involving the Waorani (Lu et al. 2010; Winterhalder and Lu 1997). The Kawymeno Waorani subgroup we carried out research with is a predominantly foraging-based community and rarely mentioned in recent academic literature, although Kron visited in 2000 (Kron 2000). Kawymeno is in the middle of the protected Yasuni National Park and not on the fringes as are other Waorani groups, making visits difficult. In fact, we found most Waorani in the more acculturated Waorani communities, on which most recent Waorani scholarly literature is based, have never visited Kawymeno. We were the first foreigners they had allowed to live in their hunter-gathering community. We had no means of communicating with anyone outside the community, where we stayed for months at a time, and depended on the Waorani for food as only a limited supply could be brought in with us via canoe.Other Waorani subgroups (e.g., Tagaeri, Taromenane) may still exist largely out of contact with global society. However, changes are now occurring rapidly in post-study Kawymeno because they are the closest Waorani group (25 minutes in canoe) to the remote untapped oil reserves of Ishpingo-TamboocochaTiputini. Shortly after our study completion, regular oil company intrusion is now ending an era when Kawymeno was so removed from the global food system that they ate only wild fruit and meat and did not use salt, sugar, cooking oils, grains and other agriculturally-based food. The Ecuadorian government has recently announced drilling will commence in Yasuni National Park.We wanted to build a collaborative relationship and to give back something of value immediately to the people who so generously allowed us to stay with them. I had worked in the public health field aiding indigenous groups for 15 years prior to becoming an anthropologist. International aid projects I worked on typically have built-in, preconceived objectives resulting in inflexible projects that the community has to accept or reject as whole and cannot greatly modify. Anthropologists, unlike aid workers, can have extended community relationships beyond a grant or project cycle and can modify an aid project in collaboration with the indigenous community. …