Abstract
Quichua Indians living in Amazon part of Ecuador are the biggest group of indigenous people in this country. This article is based on the research conducted in the Napo Quichua group, that lives along the Napo River in the Oriente province. This group faces problems related to cultural identity. Old customs, language and handicrafts are disappearing and people are getting used to the Western ways of living. Pottery played an important role in this culture. The ceramic containers were used during every ceremony and their symbolic meaning was crucial part of the celebrations. Traditionally ceramics were created exclusively by women. Some Quichua groups still make decorated ceramic containers, however on the Napo River area women ceased creating them. This article gives the outline of the Quichua culture, the place of the ceramics in it and discusses three types of women's attitude towards this forgotten skill. The research shows that about fifty years ago the last piece of traditional clay bowl was made in the Napo area. At the same time the Quichua women that come from other regions of Ecuador and live in the Napo area, try to create ceramics at least for the tourists' benefit.
References
Cevallos Maria Pilar Merlo de, 1986, Cerámica quichua de la Amazonia, Museo de Banco Central, Quito
Amazon..., 1993, Amazon worlds. Peoples and cultures of Ecuador's Amazon region, red. N. Paymall, C. Sosa, Sinchi Sacha Foundation, Quito
Kohn Eduardo, 2002, Natural engagements and ecological aesthetics among the Avila Runa of Amazonian Ecuador, nieopublikowana rozprawa doktorska, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Uzendoski Michael, 2005, The Napo Runa of Amazonian Ecuador, University of Illinois Press, Chicago
Whillen Dorothea S., 2003, Actors and artists from Amazonia and the Andes, [w:] Millennial Ecuador. Critical essays on cultural transformations and social dynamics, red. N. Whitten, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, s. 242-274
Whitten Norman E., 1976, Sacha Runa: Ethnicity and adaptation of Ecuador Jungle Quichua, University of Illinois Press, Chicago
Whitten Norman E., 1981, Cerámica y Simbolismo del Centro Oriente Ecuatoriano, [w:] Miscelánea Antropológica Ecuatoriana, Boletín de los Museos del Banco Central del Ecuador: 1, Guayaquil, s. 120-135
Whitten Norman E., 1993, The world of the Canelos Quichua. Culture, ceramics and continuity, [w:] Amazon worlds. Peoples and cultures of Ecuador's Amazon region, red. N. Paymall, C. Sosa, Sinchi Sacha Foundation, Quito, s. 96- 111
Whitten Norman E., 1994, Canelos Quichua, [w:] Encyclopedia of world cultures, tom: South America, red. J. Wilbert, Human Relations Area Files, Inc., New York, s. 98-102
Whitten Norman E., 2008, Interculturality and the indigenization of modernity: A view from Amazonian Ecuador, Tipiti. Journal of the Society of Lowland South America, vol. 6, no. 1-2, June-December 2008, s. 3-36
Whitten Norman E., 2011, Ethnogenesis and interculturality in the „Forest of Canelos": The wild and the tame revisited, [w:] Ethnicity in ancient Amazonia. Reconstructing past identities from archaeology, linguistics, and ethnohistory, red. A. Hornborg, J. Hill, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, s. 321-334
Whitten Norman E., Whitten Dorothea S., 1988, From myth to creation, University of Illinois Press, Urbana
Whitten Norman E., Whitten Dorothea S., 1993, Creativity and continuity; communication and clay, [w:] Imagery & creativity. Ethno- aestetics and art worlds in the Americas, red. D. Whitten, N. Whitten Jr, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson-London, s. 309-356
Whitten Norman E., Whitten Dorothea S., 2008, Puyo Runa. Imagery and power in modern Amazonia, University of Illinois Press, Urbana
Whitten Norman E., Whitten Dorothea S., 2011, Histories of the present. People and power in Ecuador, University of Illinois Press, Urbana
Wibbelsman Michelle, 2003, General information on Ecuador, [w:] Millenial Ecuador, red. N. Whitten, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City, s. 375-387
Wierucka Aleksandra, 2012, "Land of no pain" - the influence of an Indigenous Foundation on the Napo Quichua Future, [w:] Społeczne problemy Ameryki Łacińskiej, red. J. Knopek, M. Drgas, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń, s. 166-178