Waorani: The Contexts of Violence and War

Waorani: The Contexts of Violence and War. Clayton Robarchek and Carole Robarchek. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. 202 pp.

This excellent book not only makes an invaluable contribution to the study of warfare and violence but provides rich ethnographic description of a much publicized, yet little studied culture. The Robarcheks convincingly demonstrate that the dominant ecological and sociobiological models of warfare cannot explain the case of the Waorani. The authors employ an approach that examines the relationship among multiple contexts related to Waorani warfare. These contexts include the material, historical, cultural, social, and psychological contexts of culture. In their analysis the authors do not uncover any single "cause" for Waorani violence and war. Instead they demonstrate how various culturally institutionalized themes related to Waorani violence are redundantly shaped and expressed throughout the culture. One of the more salient themes that emerges is the emphasis placed on individual autonomy. Throughout the book, the authors demonstrate how the emphasis on autonomy underlies different manifestations of Waorani warfare and violence.

The Robarcheks' approach is exciting in that they do not assume a unilinear, evolutionary approach in examining the dramatic changes that have occurred in Waorani patterns of warfare. They describe how the Waorani make conscious decisions concerning their practice of warfare based on the availability of new information and changing circumstances in their environment.

While reading this book I was...