THE BEAUTY AND STRENGTH of South American ceramics were admired by some of the earliest European visitors to what is now known as Amazonia. Today, 450 to 500 years later, an outstanding example of the Amazonian ceramic tradition flourishes in Amazonian Ecuador. Among many sites well known for beautiful pottery are Curaray, Conambo, Montalvo, Sarayacu, Pacayacu, and Cañelos, Puerto Misahualli. Current research suggests that this Cañelos Kitchwa pottery is rooted in the oldest ceramic tradition known in the Americas, with its origins in Central and Eastern Amazonas.

It is less well known, however, that some of the most beautiful pottery is being made in urban Puyo, the capital of Pastaza Province. This pottery, which is rich in evocative symbolism, has been exhibited in museums and sold in galleries not only in Puyo, Quito, Cuayaquil, and Cuenca, but also in Europe and North America.

The Cañelos Kitchwa of Ecuador are representative of contemporary Amazonian peoples without culture. They emerged as the Catholic missions, first Jesuit, then Dominican, finaly Protestant evangelist strove to establish religious hegemony in their territory.

Today, Cañelos Kitchwa continue to demonstrate their adaptability to a modern life, while at the same time losing their traditions.

All Amazonian pottery in Ecuador is made by hand coiling. Indigenous potters never use a potter's wheel. The Cañelos Kitchwa make a fundamental distinction between black ware and polychrome ware. Smoke-blackened pots are made to cook manioc, plantains, other foods, spices and drinks. Blackware bowls are used to serve cooked food. Decorated, polychrome vessels are produced to prepare and serve asua, chicha made from yuca.

Asua is a mildly fermented food beverage that is basic to the Cañelos Kichwa diet. It is made by boiling cleaned and peeled roots of yuca. Cooked roots are pounded into a pulp in a large, flat wooden bowl. Some of the pulp is then gently masticated to provide the proper yeast for fermentation which is necessary for storage in the moist tropics. An enzyme in the saliva, ptyalin, converts starch into dextrin and maltose. Yeasts that cause fermentation also supplement the scant vegetable protein of the starchy, energy-rich root.

Both spheres of activity, making ceramics and making asua are the exclusive domain of women. Women cultivate and carefully prepare manioc from which they make asua. They make an array of polychrome vessels, including large jars in which manioc pulp ferments and is stored, bowls for serving asua daily to household members and guests, plus special bowls and figurines to serve asua during periodic ceremonies and festivals.

The most prominent form of polychrome ware is called asua churana manga (decorated jar for asua). A handful of fermented manioc pulp is taken from the large jar and placed in a drinking bowl, called mucahua. Then it is mixed with previously boiled water and served by women of the household to women, men, and children. Small jars, Sicuanga manga (toucan jar), are used to store feathers, beads, or other secret substances. They are hung high in the rafters, often out of sight. Some figurines replicate in three dimensions the designs painted onto the jars and bowls. All designs represent life forces, living beings and spirits of the rain forest, the garden, and the water world.

A girl may learn to make pottery at her mother's knee, or she may learn later from her mother-in-law or another close female relative. The production of pottery varies according to immediate circumstances, which change as a woman moves through her life cycle. Creative ability is different for each woman; the highest level of skill is achieved only by those whose mastery of knowledge allows them to control the symbolism of their universe. Such a woman is called sinchi muscuyuc huarmi, strong visionary woman.

Basic designs known by all women are natural representations associated with the rain forest and the water world. These are also profound cultural expressions of cosmic forces, symbolized by the anaconda, iguanid, tortoise, and turtle. A simple zigzag represents anything that is bent or twisted, such as a river. A partially filled zigzag symbolizes hills. Anaconda imagery is signalled by a series of diamonds and by spots. Tortoise and turtle images are depicted realistically by the geometric patterns of their shells. An elongated, hexagonal design denotes iguanid imagery.

Three spirit masters are dominant symbols for the Cañelos Kitchwa and in one or another transformation are represented in ceramic art. These are Sungui, spirit master of the water domain; Alunghui, the spirit master of garden soil and pottery clay; and Amasanga, spirit master of the rain forest. The yana puma, or black jaguar, is the corporeal manifestation of amasanga.

Peak creativity occurs when a woman prepares an array of pottery for a kinship festival, ayllu jista. She draws on her cultural heritage, her knowledge of nature, and her personal observations to recreate ancient images. The festival is a time of conceptual expansion, when everything, animals, plants, spirits, and souls, is regarded as existing in the contemporary indigenous world.

Many life forces are represented by jista puruhua, special effigy jars made with spouts to serve asua. Many of these pieces represent mythical and spiritual beings that remind everyone of their shared ancestral roots. Other effigies represent wildlife beside statements about everyday human experience.

In ancient times and places, it is said, monkeys themselves had festivals high in the trees, where they drank from natural containers. One woman may make serving vessels that represent various gourds or nuts, while another makes figurines in the form of monkeys with gourds in their hands.

In their pottery creations, women of Cañelos Kitchwa culture balance traditional knowledge with modern experience through their adaptability and a keen sense of humour. The designs on their polychrome pottery link the general to the specific, the ancient to the present and future, the mysterious to the mundane. Cañelos Kitchwa regard the imagery embodied in their traditional ceramics and songs as an enduring part of their cultural heritage and as a dynamic expression of their cultural vitality. This vitality is manifest from the depth of the tropical rain forest to modern Ecuador.