Editing Shuar (section)

==Shuar and the Ecuadorian state==
{{organize section|date=June 2022}}

The discovery of [[petroleum|oil]] in the upper Amazon has motivated Ecuadorian and Peruvian interest in the region. In the 20th century Ecuadorian Shuar and Peruvian groups like the Achuar have had significantly different histories.

[[File:Shuar in Parque de Logroño.JPG|thumb|300px|Shuar in [[Logroño, Ecuador]].]]

There are at least 40,000 Shuar, 5,000 ''Achuars'' and 700 ''Shiwiars'' in Ecuador.

At the end of the 19th century [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Jesuit]]s re-established missions among the Shuar, and poor and landless Euro-Ecuadorians from the [[Altiplano|highlands]] (''colonos'') began to settle among Shuar. Shuar entered into peaceful trade relations, exchanged land for manufactured goods, and began sending their children to mission boarding schools to learn Spanish. In 1935 the Ecuadorian government created a Shuar reserve, in part to regulate Euro-Ecuadorian access to land, and gave [[Salesian]] (Catholic) missionaries charge over the reserve.

Missionaries were largely successful in the [[acculturation]] process, teaching Shuar Spanish, converting Shuar to [[Christianity]], encouraging the Shuar to abandon warfare and the production of shrunken heads, encouraging Shuar to abandon the puberty rites through which Shuar acquired an ''arútam wakaní'', and encouraging Shuar to participate in the [[market economy]]. They were largely but not completely successful in encouraging Shuar to abandon [[polygyny]] for [[monogamy]]. They were relatively unsuccessful in discouraging the practice of shamanism.

By the 1950s Shuar had lost a considerable amount of land to settlers. At this time they abandoned their semi-nomadic and dispersed settlement pattern and began to form nucleated settlements of five to thirty families, called ''centros'' (Spanish for "centers"). These ''centros'' facilitated missionary access to Shuar. They also provided a basis for Shuar petitions to the Ecuadorian government for land; in return Shuar promised to clear rainforest to convert to pasture, and the government provided loans for Shuar to purchase cattle which they would raise for market.

In the 1960s Salesian missionaries encouraged leaders of the ''centros'' to meet and form a new organization. In 1964 they formed the ''Federación Interprovincial de Centros Shuar-Achuar'' ("Interprovincial Federation of Shuar and Achuar Centros"; many ''Achuar'' live in Ecuador, although most live in Peru). The Federation is democratic and hierarchically organized, most of its leaders are salaried by the Ecuadorian state.
[[File:Asambleísta Diana Atamaint (3860584752).jpg|thumb|300x300px|Diana Atamaint, Ecuadorian Shuar politician]]
In 1969 the Federation signed an accord with the Ecuadorian government in which the Federation assumed administrative jurisdiction over the Shuar reserve. The Federation assumed the duties of educating children, administering civil registration and land-tenure, and promoting cattle-production and other programs meant to further incorporate Shuar into the market economy. Since that time the Federation has splintered into several groups, including a separate Achuar Federation, although the various groups maintain cordial relations.

Thanks to the work of the Federation, Shuar identity is very strong. Most Shuar also identify strongly to the Ecuadorian [[nation-state]] and have entered Ecuadorian electoral politics.

In the last few years, conflict emerged as result of mining projects in the provinces of Morona Santiago and Zamora Chinchipe<ref name="elcomercio">{{cite web|title=La CIDH pide a Ecuador explicaciones por la muerte de tres líderes indígenas &#124; El Comercio|url=http://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/cidh-ecuador-explicaciones-muerte.html|access-date=2 September 2016|publisher=elcomercio.com}}</ref>

On 20 November 2018, [[Diana Atamaint]], a Shuar woman, became the president of the [[National Electoral Council (Ecuador)|National Electoral Council]].<ref name="distance">{{Cite web |date=2019-02-28 |title=Pachakutik marca distancia de Diana Atamaint y rechazan "vinculos" con Nebot|url=https://www.larepublica.ec/blog/2019/02/28/pachakutik-marca-distancia-de-diana-atamaint-y-rechazan-vinculos-con-nebot/ |access-date=2022-07-13 |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-11-20 |title=Diana Atamaint, nueva presidenta del Consejo Nacional Electoral, con votos de tres vocales |url=https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2018/11/20/nota/7060419/falta-acuerdo-impide-elegir-nuevas-autoridades-consejo-nacional |access-date=2022-07-13 |website=El Universo |language=es}}</ref>