THE FISHING

The Shuar is specialist of fishing that developed several fishing systems to capture the fish and other aquatic animals, beginning from the system of grabbing them with the hands, (sounding among the stones where the carachas is stuck), until the use of the lance tsentsanak, fish traps and the fish poison.

The most favorable period for the fishing is in time of flowers (Naitiak), because the fish (teeri) and the carachas are stuck in great number, up to 20 or 30 on a single stone. It is also the time in which the Shuar puts fish traps in the course of the rivers where fall enough fish (namak chumpintai). The fish constitutes an important source of food of the Shuar. Together with the wild meat it provides the necessary proteins in the diet.

The adults to the children, by way of teaching, transmit the cultural facts. They tell the children all their fishing feats noticing about the dangers and the techniques that should be adopted. They also remind them that before entering the river they should observe and to be careful to avoid the dangers.

FISHING WITH BARBASCO (FISH POISON)

To carry out the fishing with fish poison is a common habit of the Shuar people; it is one of the many fishing techniques that they have elaborated. It is carried out in big rivers, which are fished entirely. To fish in a big river they proceed in following order. The adults generally are those that organize, direct their children to make fish poison; the following day, a minga (communal work) is organized to put the fish poison, in quantity corresponding to the size of river. In the preparation of fish poison participate all: men, women and children. They flatten it hitting with sticks and wash it into the river. Those in charge of washing are generally the men. The women, accompanied by an old man, concentrate on harvesting stoned fish. After throwing away the fish poison, all meet down the courant to pick up the fish. It is shared among all equally. In these famous fishing participate a lot of people of different sex and age.

At the present time this form of fishing goes disappearing. The fishing in which participated all has decreased now to a family fishing. Each one looks for the form of subsisting and they only fish for the family.

The fish poison has a narcotic and debilitating power on the fish, without killing them and leaving intact its eggs. I have several testimonies that sustain that the fish poison doesn't kill the fish, but rather the sporin that contains produces foam when entering in contact with the water and it paralyzes the fish. At the beginning all are paralyzed, but those that are in the deep pools and those that have not been picked up, revive. For that reason the use of the fish poison during several centuries has not impoverished the wealth of rivers.

The plants that the Shuar use for the fish poison are: timiu (roots), masu (leaves), payash (another type of timiu) and mayu. The most used are timiu and masu, the most common.

FISHING WITH FISHHOOK

When one fishes with fishhook it is not possible to catch big quantities of fish. With a lot of luck one can catch big fish as súngaro and their varieties, corvine, etc. The fishhook doesn't scare the fish, but sometimes the time passes without catching anything.

Formerly the fishing with fishhook was very popular. The best baits are: tsarur, nukump. As there was abundance they caught enough fish. The Shuar Puenchir counts that he caught fish during the day although the most favorable time to fish with fishhook is at nights. The fishhook is sometimes left in the water tied to a trunk and if one was lucky, he pulled out the catch the following day.

In this brief description without many details, you can imagine that the techniques are varied in the fishing with fishhook and that tabues exists in this respect so that the fishing finishes with success.

THE HAND FISHING

For the fishing of the nayump that lives in the rivers stuck to the stones by a sucker that has in the mouth, the Shuar simply use hands. They submerge the hand and they sound among the stones. With this system the biggest can be selected. You can catch a considerable quantity by this method.

The Shuar when they went of hunt, they also fished, if in the selected place for the hunt had some river. In that way they completed the hunt with the fish and supplied this way food to their family.

FISHING IN DRYING CHANNELS OF THE RIVER

The Shuar people often practice this fishing system. Generally, few families participate in the fishing expedition according to the size of the channel selected. If it is big, five or more families can go or if it is small only one, two or three families participate. The barbasco (fish poison) is used to stone the fish. When arriving to the chosen place the dam is built at the union of the secondary channel with the main one, before beginning to cover with stones the entrance so that the fish don't furrow and run off. The dam construction work begins in the head where the channels are divided, piling stones and placing one above other (patuturma), then covering it with leaves or with the balsa bark. If the channel is very deep, the dam is covered first with the balsa bark and then it is covered with pumpu leaves. If on the other hand, it is not very deep, it is only covered with pumpu leaves, then you throw in the barbasco and the fish are picked up that float up. This type of fishing rewards a good quantity of fish.