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The Amazonian Social Relation to Nature

An Open Access Environmental Humanities Project

The “social relation to nature” refers to an Amazonian way of engaging the nonhuman world as though it had the full range of human emotions.  Plants, animals, or even earth are believed to feel lonely and to desire company across species lines; but also to be shy, desire privacy, to sometimes be resentful or to withdraw from human company.   Empathy for human needs sometimes causes them to be generous, offering themselves for food or medicine.  On the other hand, they can be ambivalent, resentful,  take revenge for the death of their relatives.  The presernt project links short videos of testimonies, stories, and songs that engage various the forest world to the kichwa and scientific species names of the  various plants and animals present in the narratives.   It also links species and nature to the stages of the human life cycle through which nature is experienced socially..    Kichwa traditions on particular plants or animals can be searched by species.

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Explore the 'Social Relation to Nature" Through a selected species

Click the following icons to search plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates groups. 

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Explore the 'Social Relation to Nature" Through the human life-cycle

Cycles of a Body Shared with Nature

     Childhood

     Adolescence     

     Women

     Men

     Aging, Death, and Ancestors 

Conga ant mother of the tiamshi vine

Bélgica Dagua

Burning dry sticks for a chakra

Eulodia Cadena

Harvesting Palm Heart

Eulodia Cadena

Chikin Pischku In The Chakra

Eulodia Cadena

Chuchu Ala: The Breast Milk Mushroom

Eulodia Cadena

It Is the Trees That Cause Rain

Eulodia Dagua

The smell of a human woman makes a water spirit woman jealous

Eulodia Dagua

A face painted with water animals to resist sickness

Eulodia Dagua

The Path to Chiriboga

Eulodia Dagua

The Loving Dead and Harmful Ghosts.

Eulodia Dagua

The Story of Iluku and the Moon

Eulodia Dagua

Pashpanzhu

Eulodia Dagua

Empathy for the Solitude of the Kukuli Bird

Eulodia Dagua

On harvesting Collybia aurea

Eulodia Dagua

Weather and the Emotions of Birds, Fish, and Humans

Eulodia Dagua

Kichwa Woman Sings to Bird Russet-backed Oropendola

Eulodia Dagua

Wild Birds I Have Raised

Eulodia Dagua

Jiluku, Kingu, and the Moon, Part 2

Eulodia Dagua

On the Origin of the Flute

Eulodia Dagua

Why I Wake Up the Tree to Harvest Its Medicine

Eulodia Dagua

Calling The Wind

Eulodia Dagua

Wamak Kuru

Eulodia Dagua

Napo Yaku Tandishku

Eulodia Dagua

Allpa kumishin

Eulodia Dagua

To escape fiery rain people become chamburu grubs

Eulodia Dagua

It is the trees that call the rain

Eulodia Dagua

Jiluku, Kingu, and the Moon, Part 4.

Eulodia Dagua

The Sound of the Cicada

Eulodia Dagua

Talking About Wanduk Kuru

Eulodia Dagua

Talking About Of Chikin Pishku Story

Eulodia Dagua

Chuchu Ala The Breast Milk Mushroom

Eulodia Dagua

I Paint My Face Like a Harpy Eagle

Eulodia Dagua

Lumucha misha: A medicine to make dogs make dogs hunt pacas

Eulodia Dagua

The Solitude of the Chuchukian Bird

Eulodia Dagua

Our Babies Cry Like the Animals We Eat

Eulodia Dagua

Avoid Angry People Like Chonta Thorns

Eulodia Dagua

On preparing a maitu of wild mushrooms

Eulodia Dagua

Ushpa Oritu The Sound of a Parakeet without its Flock

Eulodia Dagua

Ideophone tuuu

Eulodia Dagua

Kamungui Warmi

Eulodia Dagua

A Bird that Cries When People Die the Chestnut Eared Aracari

Eulodia Dagua

A wild cacao tree kills a man

Eulodia Dagua

Susu Wituk Woman On the waning appeal of an aging body

Eulodia Dagua

Sleep Little Baby! A Hawk is coming" A Kichwa Lullaby

Eulodia Dagua

No name

Eulodia Dagua

Toucans Quichua

Eulodia Dagua

Wild Cacao Tree Kills a Greedy Man

Eulodia Dagua

When people get angry Cicada Woman just keeps on weaving her pottery coils

Eulodia Dagua

A memory painted on a Runa woman's face

Eulodia Dagua

How the birds get their voices

Eulodia Dagua

Chikin Pishku Song

Eulodia Dagua

Wawan kuru

Eulodia Dagua

Jiluku, Kingu, and the Moon, Part 3

Eulodia Dagua

How I feel when I see my interviews on the internet

Eulodia Dagua

A girl receives the ceramic skill of the cicadas

Eulodia Dagua

A cure for jealousy, anger, and bad drunks

Eulodia Dagua

Black-fronted Nunbird

Eulodia Dagua

On Speaking Nicely to a Medicine Tree: Kichwa Harvest of Cespedesia Spathulata

Eulodia Dagua

The Sound of the Banded Owl

Eulodia Dagua

Killu Mandi Sisa Yura

Eulodia Dagua

You Married a Red Pepper Woman

Eulodia Dagua

Do babies love their mothers

Eulodia Dagua

Value of Kichwa Program

Eulodia Dagua

The Garden of Another Will Drink Your Blood

Eulodia Dagua

The Mother of Clay

Eulodia Dagua

Newborn Child Dies Like the Snake His Father Killed

Eulodia Dagua

Dance Like a Deer

Eulodia Dagua

The Solitude of the Chuchukian Bird

Eulodia Dagua

A Generous Host Becomes the Chuku Tree

Eulodia Dagua

Best woods for firing ceramics

Eulodia Dagua

Music, Sadness, and Memory

Eulodia Dagua

Turning of the Earth.

Eulodia Dagua

Napu Yaku Akangaw

Eulodia Dagua

Achuar Kuru Warmi

Eulodia Dagua

How My Grandfather Became a Jaguar

Eulodia Dagua

Toucan Song for a Girl No One Wants

Eulodia Dagua

On eating deer

Eulodia Dagua

The Mother of Clay Survives the Flood

Eulodia Dagua

Shiona panga shina

Eulodia Dagua

Tayras Feed on Chamburu Fruit

Eulodia Dagua

Widowed Toucans Sing Love Songs

Eulodia Dagua

Jiluku, Kingu, and the Moon, Part 5.

Eulodia Dagua

On the Varieties of Manioc

Eulodia Dagua

Wind, Fire and Chakra

Eulodia Dagua

I will disappear in thorny palms: A song for leaving

Eulodia Dagua

Mice teach women how to give birth

Eulodia Dagua

To give birth like a shirkillu tree

Eulodia Dagua

Calling The Wind (Rundu Wayra)

Eulodia Dagua

Origin of the Cunawaro

Eulodia Dagua

A Yachak's Dolphin Wife

Eulodia Dagua

A man's human peccary body

Eulodia Dagua

Talking About Fire And Chakra

Eulodia Dagua

Red Mushroom Woman Give a Rash

Eulodia Dagua

Talking About Of Rundu Wayra (Strong Wind)

Eulodia Dagua

A Ceramic Representation of the Kuaentza River

Eulodia Dagua

The turning of the earth

Eulodia Dagua

Sweeping Away the Breath of Trees

Eulodia Dagua

Some Beginning Time People Become Chamburu Grubs

Eulodia Dagua

Our children now value our culture

Eulodia Dagua

Jiluku Kingu and the Moon Part 1

Eulodia Dagua

Spirit Masters of the Game Slam the Door and Animals Disappear

Eulodia Dagua

Puca Cambiaj Muyu J 2010

Eulodia Dagua

Chuku Kuru

Eulodia Dagua

How My Father Gathered Chicle in the Rubber Boom

Luisa Cadena

On which relatives were friends and enemies

The origin of the mianka

Bélgica Dagua

A Plant To Clean Babies That Attracts Spirits

Awani 1

A spider drags a woman to the river (story)

Papanku Sisa Warmiguna

Bélgica Dagua

The Paspanzhu's Cry Reminds Them of Their Love

Bélgica Dagua

Lamar Kuru Story

Bélgica Dagua

A hummingbird warns of rain

Bélgica Dagua

On the return of the animals and the dead

Luisa Cadena

Children drink like the saltakama catfish

Luisa Cadena

Sound of an Armadillo Snoring

Luisa Cadena

Deer Papaya: A Deceased Grandfather Returns As A Deer

Bélgica Dagua

How Crabs Fight Thunder

Luisa Cadena

More on Andwa Alliance with Canelos

David Dagua

Why strangler figs don't attack kapok trees

Pedro Andi

The Hummingbird Sound of the Anger

Luisa Cadena

How Monkeys Call Their Relatives

Luisa Cadena

No name

A Human Woman Becomes the Tapir's Wife

Luisa Cadena

Origin of the Agoutis

Delicia Dagua

Harvesting Medicinal Bark of Duroria hirsuita, Uchulumbas

Delicia Dagua

Comparing Women Who Wear Makeup to Birds

Delicia Dagua

Smallpox chief follows paths

Luisa Cadena

The Tsuntsu Anga Owl

Pedro Andi

How the Forest Cures Sadness

David Dagua

Lluchu Ruya When the Naked Tree Was a Man

Luisa Cadena

On not telling a medicinal tree before you pull its root

Pedro Andi

On female infanticide

No name 7

Nuspa bujio Song to create binding friendship with a river dolphin

Luisa Cadena

On the Disappearance of White-lipped Peccaries and a Song to Call hem Back

Delicia Dagua

The Use of Cruz Kaspi to Terminate Fertility

Luisa Cadena

How Lila Used Umu Palm Perfume

Luisa Cadena

Wayusa Woman, Her Husband Capuchin Monkey And Sister Little Tinamou

Bélgica Dagua

Waraga Sisa Warmi Song

Clara Santi

Calling Departed Grandmothers to the Manioc Gardens

Delicia Dagua

The one we placed inside the chest of a tapir emerged two days later as a parrot

Girl given fish by unknown lover

Bélgica Dagua

My Experience When I Drank Wanduk

Bélgica Dagua

Punpun Anga Kuru Story

Bélgica Dagua

No name 8

On Chonta and Shiwa

Origin of the Jaguar Leaf Marantaceae

Delicia Dagua

No name 9

On the Amazonian Screech Owl

Bélgica Dagua

A Forest Woman Seeks A Bride For Her Son

Bélgica Dagua

Land Crabs Bring Water

Hearing the Jilucu (Grand Potoo bird) Makes Me Sad

Clara Santi

Origin Of the White Lipped Peccary

Bélgica Dagua

Daughter-in-laws of the bats

Ghosts Scare Thieves from the Chacra

Delicia Dagua

On Conflicts and Relations Before Contact

What happens when the forest gets angry

Pedro Andi

Tupuli Kuru

Bélgica Dagua

Loan Guan

Delicia Dagua

Chakra Song

Ahuani Nihua

On Placing Manioc Head Down Like a Baby in The Womb

Delicia Dagua

Bitirusa A Trogan Love Song

Delicia Dagua

No name 10

No name 11

Munditi Amu: An Encounter With The Master Of The Curassow

Bélgica Dagua

No name 12

No name 13

The Story of Santu Urku

Pedro Andi

A forest flower evokes memories

Delicia Dagua

The Perfume of the Wanduk Flower

Pedro Andi

Satalana

Bélgica Dagua

A Girl Becomes the Tapir's Wife

Luisa Cadena

First Woman Sends Her Children Away to Become Animals

Luisa Cadena

A Cedar Tree Cries Because It Knows It is Going to Die

Pedro Andi

Like the Chuku Tree I Bring Relatives Together

Delicia Dagua

Achuar influnce of songs and ideophones

Delicia Dagua

Story of Sun-Hides-in Branches' encounters with various women

Chukunza Ruya: A Traditional Malaria Medicine

Bélgica Dagua

The Sloth is Still in Her Garden

Luisa Cadena

Bitter, Bitter, Ayambi: A magical song against anger

Narcisa Dagua

Singing with the Toucan's Orphans

Delicia Dagua

No name

Luisa Cadena

Reflections on the Life of an Unknown Sloth

Luisa Cadena

Song of the Taromenane

Disappearance of the Animals

Bélgica Dagua

Male and Female Forest Masters Cooperate to Expel and Oil Company

Pedro Andi

Talking about of Mianka Chini Kuru

Bélgica Dagua

Cicada Woman Song

Delicia Dagua

The Garden of Hummingbird Man

Delicia Dagua

On how she learned languages

Onculu Warmi Simayuka Song

Narcisa Dagua

Ghosts (iwianch) eat the food of the children

Awani 2

A Plant That Attracts Deer And Birds

Sloth marries a girl

Man copies tapir and marries a water woman.

On burning gaps 2

Bélgica Dagua

Brother, face blackened with Wituk Becomes the Moon

Anguila Uma Scares Away The Animals From The Farm

All Videos

All Videos

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Sponsored by Title VI National Resource Centers at University of Wisconsin Madison, the University of Florida, Florida International University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Brigham Young University.

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