Jumandy, a Still Living 16th Century Indigenous Rebel
In this article, I report on a research device set up by Mishqui, one of my Napo Runa’s collaborators from the Ecuadorian Amazon, with the aim of knowing the story of Jumandy, an indigenous warlord of the 16th century. This research is not based on written documents, but on oral tradition, dream experiences, ingestion of visionary plants and contact with forest beings and deceased ancestors. In this way, Mishqui discovers information about Jumandy’s life that is not recorded in any archival document. Through experiential ethnography, I present Mishqui’s research without distancing myself from the napo runa’s epistemology that supports it.