Descripción:
Of the many myths generated by white men regarding the Ecuadorian Oriente, one of the oldest depicts the Upper Napo Quichua as the prototype of the tropical forest Indians who were almost completely acculturated and evangelized in the early Colonial period, and a6 apathetic and submissive throughout the heyday of white domination in the Oriente. In sum, it is a portrait of the “Indian" who, unlike the “infidel," was finally subjected to white civilization. The major objective of this book is to demystify the official history on which that image is based. No attempt is made, however, to create a counterimage of the “rebellious noble savage." Therefore, this study includes the life history of Grandfather Alonso, a native Quichua of the Tena-Archidona area in the Upper Napo just as he narrated it. It thus combines two historical traditions, oral and written, to interpret a century of socioeconomic and cultural life in the Upper Ecuadorian Amazon.