Previous articleNext article FreeBook ReviewsHuaorani Transformations in Twenty-First-Century Ecuador: Treks into the Future of Time. Laura Rival. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016, 352 pp. $65.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-8165-0119-9.Flora LuFlora LuUniversity of California, Santa Cruz Search for more articles by this author University of California, Santa CruzPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreOver the past two and half decades, Laura Rival has established herself as one of the eminent ethnographers of the Huaorani of Northeastern Ecuador. This Native Amazonian population, whose ancestral lands constitute some of the most biodiverse and threatened forests in the world, has captured global attention and imagination. Spanning topics, time periods, and theoretical approaches, Huaorani Transformations is best characterized as a compilation of some of Rival’s contributions to Huaorani ethnobiology, historical ecology, and cultural anthropology. It is a fitting moment for such a publication, which is focused on conveying ancestral lifeways, or durani bai: the last remaining areas of traditional Huaorani territory are being opened up for oil extraction, few elders who vividly remember the time before sustained contact with missionaries are still living, and Huaorani clans in voluntary isolation are attacking and even seeking contact, presumably out of desperation.In Part I, “Among Forest Beings,” Rival, as do many Amazonianist scholars, asserts that humans and their rainforest environment are inextricably intertwined, challenging dichotomous notions of nature vs. culture, pristine ecosystems vs. degraded landscapes, wild vs. domesticated. The Huaorani perceive their forested home-lands as anthropogenic landscapes that are shaped by the actions of ancestors; as they trek, moving through ancient dwelling sites and forest groves, they recognize these transformations and “reproduce society through time” (p. 49). Their subsistence focus on foraging and hunting is a cultural choice linked to a collective desire for sociality, Rival argues, not a necessity stemming from repercussions of the Spanish conquest nor merely a form of adaptation to ecological and/or economic constraints. More mobile and less interested in agriculture than other Amazonian indigenous groups, the Huaorani have a wealth of ethnobotanical knowledge, especially of wild species used as food plants.Rival shifts in Part II to a discussion of the quality and nature of relations “In the Longhouse” between members of the nanicabo, the basic social unit of Huaorani society. Rival engages themes of procreation, maturation, intimacy, and affinity. The nanicabo is a community of substance, in which connection is forged from sharing food, space, time, and touch. She goes into detail about the institution of couvade, or the perinatal dietary and activity restrictions for expectant parents, with a focus on the rites of fatherhood as a means of forging ties in an uxorilocal marriage pattern. The longhouse “objectifies important symbolic and organizational aspects of kinship, in particular the identity of women with uninterrupted consanguinity, men with domesticated affinity, and coresidency with sensual intimacy” (p. 151).Part III, “In the Midst of Enemies,” explores the engagement of the Huaorani, from their “position of radical difference” (p. 198), with the rest of Ecuadorian society. In her investigation of their diachronic encounters, Rival was one of the first scholars to make the connection between the activities of the oil companies and Huaorani notions of natural abundance, a windfall of things that are encountered unexpectedly without the need for labor. Stealing from oil camps, requiring oil companies to helicopter in food rations for families, and gifts of clothing and tools in exchange for extraction to proceed without disturbance were all forms of harvesting this corporate-provisioned abundance. As the Huaorani changed their settlement pattern to live along oil roads, then the logic of procurement changed to one of obtainability; concessions from oil companies are not seen so much as a generous “gift” but rather the reward of a hard-won battle after a targeted and willed effort, a task made more difficult as the Huaorani face increasingly opaque and complex institutions and governance structures.Rival touches upon issues of political economy at the end of this book, considering the government of President Rafael Correa and its developmentalist program of poverty alleviation and human capital investment (known as the Revolución Ciudadana). She also mentions the plight of Native Amazonians living in voluntary isolation, the well-received 2008 Constitution, and the Yasuní ITT Initiative that sought to keep oil underground in exchange for international financial support. Rival even reprints a letter she wrote to the president, imploring him not to expand drilling in Yasuní National Park. If this book leaves anything to be desired, it is a more systematic engagement with the ideologies, structures, subjectivities, and practices of broader Ecuadorian society that have significantly complicated contemporary Huaorani identities and sociocultural practices, changes especially prevalent since the advent of the Correa administration and its ideological and material push into Amazonia. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 73, Number 1Spring 2017 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/690533 © 2017 by The University of New Mexico. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.