Oral History Reveals Landscape Ecology in Ecuadorian Amazonia: Time Categories and Ethnobotany among Waorani People

Abstract

Waorani oral history in Ecuadorian Amazonia reveals that traditional ecological knowledge contributes to the understanding of the natural environment of this human group. When the Waorani interpret the landscape, they identify certain elements that stand out for their cultural and practical value, as these are products of past and present settlements. The oral history and management practices, by two family clusters settled at the riverbanks of the Nushiño River, contributed to assembling an analytical tool called “Waorani time categories.” These four time categories were analyzed with floristic composition based on a matrix formed by 522 plant species collected at 12 forest patches, which either had or lacked social history. The aim of this research was to examine how Waorani oral history records the ecological dynamics of some Amazonian forest patches. The use of multivariate statistical methods made establishing differences in plant diversity, evenness, and richness between managed and unmanaged forests plots possible, thus revealing human impact at specific places in Amazonia. This research confirms that it is important to intertwine social history and landscape ecology in ethnobotany with quantitative statistical interpretation, because it permits the association of a human group with a particular forest.