An Andoan child in traditional costume
holds a mucawa (cup).
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Cesar Cadena carves a design on the outside of a pot.
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Children often take breaks from their play
to learn traditional Andoan pottery techniques.
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The design motifs on these platters are abstractions of leaves. They
are painted with fine brushes made of human hair. The colors come from
natural pigments found on the jungle floor near rivers or streams. The
trays are simple forms that are used around the home for various
purposes.
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Cesar Cadena paints a snake decoration on a pot.
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Tinaja with Chicha. Tinaja is the decorated clay pot, and
Chicha is the white liquid inside the pot. Chicha, typical to Amazonia,
is a masticated yucca (manioc) root beverage consumed regularly to
replenish bodily fluids.
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| An Evolving Tradition
by Joe Molinaro
Photos by Richard Burkett and Nan Coffin
A tradition adapts as modern life encroaches on an indigenous Amazonian culture. But will it last?
“Indian culture, unlike ours, is a process of accommodation to nature.”
—Alain Greerbrandt from his book The Amazon: Past, Present and Future.
This statement is particularly relevant when examining the lives and cultures of indigenous groups inhabiting the Ecuadorian Amazon region. But today, with the encroachment of modern times, this “accommodation” extends far beyond nature to now include civilization as we know it to exist in most societies around the globe. The accommodation to both nature and the 21st century has forced indigenous people of the Amazon to adjust regularly to a new life in the rainforest. Acts of daily living and the objects used in these activities are significant in helping to define and differentiate the people and cultures from which they come. In the Ecuadorian Amazon where pottery continues to be produced, one can see the delicate balance between tradition and change in the lives of native cultures.
The upper Amazon basin region of Ecuador is home to both people who continue a thriving pottery-making tradition and those who are no longer engaged in any meaningful pottery production. In communities in which pottery making continues, functional objects used either daily or exchanged in a tourist market will often influence how the tradition develops or continues. Many women potters of this area use local materials and techniques that have been handed down over many generations. Yet, of those groups who have a continual pottery making tradition, it is only recently that a newly identified cultural group has been identified as having their own unique style.
The Andoa are a relatively small group of approximately 700 indigenous people inhabiting the Ecuadorian rainforest. Although their normal division of labor today is similar to other indigenous peoples of the rainforest, it is their pottery that, at first glance, serves to differentiate them from their neighbors. Located along the Rio Bobonaza near the village of Montalvo, the Andoa have claimed their artistic identity in part through the distinctiveness of their pottery making.
The village of Pucayacu, located along the Rio Pucayacu, is the largest of three Andoan communities. Because of its proximity to Montalvo, the people of Pucayacu have regular contact with outsiders and subsequently have access to items and supplies brought in through military transport. While pottery making is more common in the smaller villages, the opposite is true in Pucayacu. Here one can easily see plastic and aluminum pots being used for food storage, preparation and serving. During one festival alone in the village of Pucayacu it was noticed that traditional pottery vessels were only used during a typical dance where the pottery was more symbolic than utilitarian. These are typical indicators of a community that is moving away from traditional pottery use since other nonclay items are so easily obtained.
The forming and firing techniques of the Andoa potters in the jungle are consistent with those used by other groups in the Ecuadorian rainforest. However, it is the painting and surface decoration that illustrate the different style of the Andoa when compared to other indigenous groups. These markings, mostly on the outside of the piece and in the form of scratching and carving into the raw clay, are unique compared to the traditional painting with pigments on the clay surface. This surface treatment appears unique in comparison to other cultures in the jungle that produce ceramic objects.
With the steady migration of inhabitants from the larger villages such as Pucayacu to more urban and accessible regions of the jungle, the continuation of pottery making takes on different challenges for the Andoa. Many Andoans have settled near the urban region of Puyo, located at the base of the Andes where the mountains meet the jungle floor. Puyo, a town of approximately 25,000 inhabitants, is a bustling commercial center where jungle products can be easily exchanged and where the indigenous receive both education and medical care. The city is home to many Andoan people (approximately thirty families), who, as a result of seeking either jobs or better education for their children, have chosen to relocate from their jungle villages. It is also where Cesar Cadena, one of the finest and rare male potters of the Andoan people, resides.
Cadena lives outside Puyo with his extended family in the financially depressed area of Plaza Aray, where he and his sisters, still produce a wide variety of ceramics. Cadena claims to have learned how to produce pottery from his mother at the young age of sixteen. Today, he produces some of the finest examples of contemporary Andoa pottery with work that appears to be a slight departure from tradition. His delicate line paintings on the surface of the forms using brushes made of human hair and representing a wide array of animal and insect imagery has been part of the Andoa cultural landscape for generations. Boa Constrictor snakes gently encircle the interiors of bowls with sgraffito patterns etched into the rims, along with carved geometric patterning on the exterior representing mountains, paths and birds. This combination of painting and sgraffito is unique in design and serves as an example of how contemporary Andoan potters, in particular those residing near Puyo, have further refined the distinct Andoan style of carving that separates their pottery from that of other indigenous people of the Amazon. With the change of location from inside the rainforest to cities like Puyo at the edge of the jungle, a fusion of new ideas and techniques may have begun, therefore setting in motion a new look for Andoa pottery.
Cesar’s work area, located outside the rear of the house, is scattered with leaf-shaped trays with simple design decorations and very large puinu forms used for the storage of chicha (a beverage made from manioc root) Children of all ages play around the potters as they work throughout the day, often stopping from time to time to receive basic instruction on how to work in clay themselves, therefore providing insight into the first stages of their own development as young artists. It is no mystery how the pottery making tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next, and by an early age these young children have already observed the entire process of working in clay. Both boys and girls are afforded the opportunity to work in clay, again supporting the notion that gender plays less of a role in pottery making for the urban Andoa.
As the clay work progresses throughout the day and week, the pottery dries evenly in the hot sun and humid air of the jungle and slowly becomes ready for the fire. The firing of Andoa pottery is similar to other indigenous groups in the rainforest who produce clay objects, with the smaller forms fired in open-bottomed bowl-shaped containers, each of which serves as a type of kiln. Ash is scattered over the top of the piece being fired, filling the container in order to insulate and hold in heat during firing. Pieces are fired individually over an open flame for approximately 30–40 minutes as the stoking of a few pieces of wood completes the heating process. After the firing is complete, and while the piece is still hot, a tree sap coating is applied to the form that seals the surface, enhances the colors and adds a glazelike shine to the finished form. This sap coating, while fairly durable and waterproof, is more like a varnish than a glaze, and over time and continual use will deteriorate in the intense jungle heat and humidity.
While the pieces created by Cadena and other Andoan potters exhibit great skill in both design and technique, the Andoa people have not yet found reliable markets for their wares beyond normal daily use. As more Andoa relocate to more urban areas like Puyo, it is likely the need for their pottery in daily indigenous life will continue to diminish.
Therefore, the sale of the work is necessary for continued production. Tourists appear to be unaware of contemporary Andoan pottery and little effort has been made to create markets. Sale venues in Puyo and the capital city of Quito have not yet been pursued or cultivated for the Andoa, and in many cases shop owners are completely unaware of their work. In an age when much of the traditional arts and crafts of the Ecuadorian Amazon landscape are being pushed to extinction, the road for the Andoa to establish tourist markets is difficult. The threat of extinction looms large for Andoan pottery even as Cadena and his sisters continue to produce high-quality work that represents the contemporary Andoan people and their culture. As young Andoa stop seeing the relevance of pottery in their individual lives, their pottery-making tradition slowly dies. With this the world will experience the loss of ceramic objects that help to culturally identify this small group of Andoa.
the author Joe Molinaro is a professor of art at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. He has been studying and writing about the pottery of the eastern Ecuadorian Amazon region for more than sixteen years.
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