Amahuaca

The Amahuaca are an indigenous South American group living in what is now eastern Peru and Brazil. This entry focuses on ethnographic evidence collected during fieldwork with the Peruvian Amahuaca around 1960, at which time Amahuaca society had been drastically reduced to a fraction of its former population through a combination of external warfare with encroaching rubber prospectors and introduced disease. In 1960, most of the Amahuaca resided with Protestant or Dominican missionaries (Dole, 2020:1). However, many aspects of the traditional religion were maintained. The Amahuaca believed in a variety of non-human spirits that could reside in specific animals or plants. These spirits were generally feared, but could be manipulated and communicated with (Dole, 2020:7). Magic played an important role in ensuring success in hunting or other risky endeavors. For the Amahuaca, religious beliefs were inseparable from almost all aspects of social and political life. Therefore, this entry considers the religious group to be coterminous with the society at large.