Wari Culture

According to Conklin, the Wari’s death procedures both before and after contact with European settlers center around respect for the deceased, their family, and their social identity . From the moment of death, the body is never left unheld by mourners until its disposal. Close kin will express the will to die along with the deceased by fainting and piling on top of each other with the corps placed on top. The mourners also keen for the dead through a mix of wailing and the repetition of phrases relating themselves to the deceased as kin, emphasising the deceased as a part of a larger social network.

In Wari funerals, close blood relatives (the consignes) arrive first for mourning, followed by those related through marriage (Affines).
Wari culture considers the earth cold and polluting, making the idea of burial _________. Pre-contact, the wari participated in endocannibalism, which in many ways was considered preferable to today’s burial practises by elder Wari. When mourning was finished, a senior consines was presented with the firewood bundle and roasting rack. The senior consignes would then publicise his sorrow before calling on the affines in song to begin the roasting process, which was completed in the house of the deceased. The male affines cutting the deceased’s body were covered with black genipap and red annatto to protect themselves from the corps pollution and odour. Consignes would beg the affines to eat the corps, while the affines resisted, finally giving in out of respect. When the affines did consume the corps, they never made direct contact with the flesh, eating off splinters of wood. The Wari took great care to prevent the body’s substance from touching the ground. At times, mourners would allow the roasted body to be placed on them to prevent any part of the body’s substance from being lost. It is important to realise that to the Wari, consuming the corps prevented the deceased from decomposing into the cold, polluting earth and was therefore a sign of outmost