The concept of paju in Napo, Ecuador: Scaling the healing powers of plants, objects and climate

Abstract

This article explores the Amazonian Kichwa concept of paju in Ecuador’s Napo Province, contributing to discussions on the extension of individual bodies to social relations, economic exchanges, and environmental conditions. While anthropological scholarship has often contrasted paju with shamanic knowledge by portraying it as feminine, cooperative, and oriented towards reciprocity, this article complicates this binary. By challenging the established masculine/feminine opposition between shamanic knowledge and paju, the article offers a more nuanced account of Indigenous healing practices. Using ethnographic evidence, I demonstrate that paju, like shamanic practices, entails the accumulation of power and, at times, strategic control over knowledge. I argue that the differences between the two lie not in gender or competition but in the attribution of healing powers to different entities and the offering of distinct explanations for illnesses and climatic changes.