It was knowledge.
Academic research on Shuar communities has documented the importance of detailed ecological knowledge for hunting, fishing, gardening and gathering. In traditional communities, this knowledge is closely connected to everyday life and is passed between generations.
Justin had to begin learning that knowledge from scratch.
The Boa That Changed His Relationship With the Community
One of the experiences Justin has described involved catching a boa.
For him, catching the snake was an encounter with a powerful animal.
For some members of the community, however, the event carried a deeper cultural significance.
According to Justin's account, the boa was regarded as a spiritually significant animal. After the encounter, he was reportedly prohibited from approaching pregnant women until he had undergone a cleansing intended to remove what the community considered "bad energy."
Whether or not an outsider shares those spiritual beliefs, the experience exposed Justin to an important lesson.
Cultural traditions cannot always be understood through a purely Western framework.
Across Indigenous societies, animals can have meanings that extend far beyond their biological identity. They may be connected with stories, spiritual beliefs, social rules and relationships between humans and the natural world.
Research on Shuar culture likewise documents a worldview in which animals, forests and other elements of the environment can have profound symbolic and spiritual importance. Academic and educational sources describe traditional Shuar beliefs as involving a close relationship between people, the forest and powerful beings associated with the natural world.
For Justin, the experience was therefore not merely about catching a snake.
It was about learning that his actions in the forest could have social and spiritual consequences he had never considered.
The Humbling Experience of Chopping Down a Tree
Perhaps one of the clearest examples of Justin's struggle to prove himself came when he was given a physically demanding task: cutting down a tree with an axe.
Justin reportedly spent approximately 90 minutes working on it.
Experienced Shuar men, he said, could complete a comparable task in roughly 30 minutes.
The difference was not simply strength.
It was technique.
People who grow up working in the forest develop an intuitive understanding of tools, wood, terrain and movement. An experienced person knows where to strike, how to position the body and how to conserve energy.
Justin did not have that experience.
He had enthusiasm.
He had determination.
But he was still learning.
The three-hour-or-less difference between an experienced worker and a newcomer therefore became a kind of lesson in humility.
For Justin, the important thing was not whether he could outperform the men around him.
It was that he was willing to work.
His persistence reportedly helped change the way some members of Maria's family viewed him.
He was no longer simply the American outsider filming their community.
He was becoming someone willing to participate in the difficult work of everyday life.
Chicha: The Drink That Was Almost Impossible to Love
Food created another major challenge.
One of the most important traditional drinks associated with Shuar life is chicha, a fermented beverage commonly made from manioc, also known as cassava or yuca.
For Justin, chicha was initially extremely difficult to accept.
He has described suffering intense stomach discomfort after drinking it.
Eventually, however, his relationship with the beverage changed.
He became accustomed to it and eventually said he came to enjoy it.
The experience is especially interesting because chicha is not simply a beverage in many Amazonian communities.
It can be connected to hospitality, family life and social interaction.
Academic research has documented the importance of fermented manioc beverages in Shuar communities. A peer-reviewed study examining chicha collected from Shuar households in Morona-Santiago found distinctive bacterial communities associated with the fermentation process. The researchers noted that chicha is traditionally consumed regularly and that fermentation may have nutritional and cultural significance beyond simply producing an alcoholic drink.
Other ethnographic research describes chicha as an important part of social life, with its preparation traditionally associated with women and its consumption integrated into everyday community interaction.
In other words, Justin was not simply learning to tolerate an unusual drink.
He was learning to participate in a social tradition.
And that distinction mattered.