Indigenous Amazonians Research Articles

Extreme normalcy: The place of violence in indigenous Amazonians’ well-being

While our own notions about well-being tend to foreground peaceful and amicable relations with fellow humans, for many Amazonian peoples the achievement of well-being, manifested in healthy, well-nourished and fertile bodies, requires engaging in harrowing, agonistic relations with others through warfare, shamanism, dreams and ritual practice. Drawing on the ethnography of two Lowland peoples – the Wari’ of Brazil and the Aents Chicham (Jivaro) of Ecuador and Peru, we will examine how a certain kind of person is constituted through ‘extreme’ relational experiences that, while dangerous, are considered necessary for leading a meaningful life. Further, we will discuss how the complex forms of subjectivity fostered by these experiences challenge our ideas on the presumed opacity of minds and on what psychology are about. Finally, we will show how the gradual disqualification of these extreme yet expected ways of interacting with others, following Cristianization and sustained contact with Western lifeways and forms of knowledge, leads to impoverished and monotonous lived worlds, in short to states of (ill)being antithetical to indigenous notions about proper ways of living.

Diverse mathematical knowledge among indigenous Amazonians

We investigate number and arithmetic learning among a Bolivian indigenous people, the Tsimane', for whom formal schooling is comparatively recent in history and variable in both extent and consistency. We first present a large-scale meta-analysis on child number development involving over 800 Tsimane' children. The results emphasize the impact of formal schooling: Children are only found to be full counters when they have attended school, suggesting the importance of cultural support for early mathematics. We then test especially remote Tsimane' communities and document the development of specialized arithmetical knowledge in the absence of direct formal education. Specifically, we describe individuals who succeed on arithmetic problems involving the number five-which has a distinct role in the local economy-even though they do not succeed on some lower numbers. Some of these participants can perform multiplication with fives at greater accuracy than addition by one. These results highlight the importance of cultural factors in early mathematics and suggest that psychological theories of number where quantities are derived from lower numbers via repeated addition (e.g., a successor function) are unlikely to explain the diversity of human mathematical ability.

Different reference frames on different axes: Space and language in indigenous Amazonians.

Spatial cognition is central to human behavior, but the way people conceptualize space varies within and across groups for unknown reasons. Here, we found that adults from an indigenous Bolivian group used systematically different spatial reference frames on different axes, according to known differences in their discriminability: In both verbal and nonverbal tests, participants preferred allocentric (i.e., environment-based) space on the left-right axis, where spatial discriminations (like "b" versus "d") are notoriously difficult, but the same participants preferred egocentric (i.e., body-based) space on the front-back axis, where spatial discrimination is relatively easy. The results (i) establish a relationship between spontaneous spatial language and memory across axes within a single culture, (ii) challenge the claim that each language group has a predominant spatial reference frame at a given scale, and (iii) suggest that spatial thinking and language may both be shaped by spatial discrimination abilities, as they vary across cultures and contexts.

Covid-19 in Brazil in an era of necropolitics: resistance in the face of disaster.

The Covid‐19 pandemic has been a massive disaster in Brazil, causing more than 350,000 deaths as of April 2021. Moreover, President Jair Bolsonaro suggested that already marginalised groups should take what came to them, as if they were an expendable surplus in his necropolitical perspective. However, civil society initiatives are emerging to tackle the impacts of this crisis. This paper adds to current literature on the forms and levels of resistance to disasters, using primary and secondary data pertaining to three key Brazilian groups: domestic workers; the urban poor in favelas; and indigenous Amazonians. The analysis indicates that their historical, political resistance has been a foundation upon which to develop disaster mitigation and their actions have built on and gone beyond previous modes of organising. More specifically, their responses have replaced a ‘present–absent’ federal government, entailed local, innovative adaptations, led to new public–private sector relations, and may offer the prospect of consolidation.

Mercury in wild animals and fish and health risk for indigenous Amazonians

ABSTRACT Total mercury (T-Hg) was determined in fish and wild animal meat consumed in indigenous villages in the Brazilian Amazon region, where there is no history of gold mining. The analyses were performed in an atomic absorption spectrophotometer by generation of cold vapour. Regardless of the dietary habit, 42.0% of the fish had levels of T-Hg higher than the values considered as safe for human health by the World Health Organisation. Exposure to mercury in the villages was higher due to the consumption of fish compared to the consumption of meat of wild animals. Carnivorous species showed a higher concentration of T-Hg, both in fish and in wild animals. It is preferred to consume meat from fish and non-predatory wild animals, which can reduce the risk of diseases resulting from high concentrations of mercury in the body of the studied indigenous people.

What is care and what is not caring? The challenges of cultural diversity

This article uses evidence from Peru to examine issues of care and its absence, both in the sense of "giving care" and concern with someone or something. The two cases analyzed bring into consideration separate couples trying to agree on the care obligations of non-custodial male fathers and the distance between the care practices of indigenous Amazonians and urban Peruvian society. The discussion highlights emotions, motivations, systems of morality, and cultural identities that support care and define the lines beyond which denial of care may be inevitable and even defensible. The argument points to privileged status of hope as an emotion of particular importance in systems of care on a personal and collective level and also with respect to States and national policies.

Wild Meat Species, Climate Change, and Indigenous Amazonians

People throughout the world are adapting to alternative livelihoods as climate change transforms the earth. The western Amazon basin has recently gone through extreme flood levels that resulted in population declines of species used for wild meat, principally white-lipped peccary ( Tayassu pecari), collared peccary ( Pecari tajacu), red brocket deer ( Mazama americana), lowland paca ( Cuniculus paca), and black agouti ( Dasyprocta fuliginosa). The Cocama (Kukama) people of the Samiria River have adapted to the declining wild meat populations by greatly reducing hunting and increasing their fishing activity. We evaluated the sustainability of subsistence hunting of peccaries, deer, lowland tapir ( Tapirus terrestris), large rodents, and primates in flooded forests of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve using camera trap capture rates, density from distance transects, and participatory interviews with Cocama villagers from 2009 to 2018. Peccaries, deer, and large rodents are recovering from population declines that occurred during extreme floods, which suggests that hunting levels are allowing these populations to grow. The primates and lowland tapir have healthy population sizes and stable numbers, which suggests people are hunting these species at sustainable levels. Our results indicate that changes in hunting patterns by the Cocama have permitted peccary, deer, and large rodent populations to recover to varying degrees during years of normal flood levels. The Cocama people are adapting to climate change in a way that agrees with conservation goals and reinforces the importance of community-based approaches to conservation in the Amazon.

The 'enigma' of Richard Schultes, Amazonian hallucinogenic plants, and the limits of ethnobotany.

This story is about the twentieth-century ethnobotanist, Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001), and his research on hallucinogenic plants. Ethnobotany can contribute directly to science and technology studies in that the discipline makes cultural ways of knowing its scientific subject. Ethnobotanists must learn about plants through people, and are not able to conceal their interactions with indigenous informants and other ethnobotanists. I focus on an 'enigma' that Schultes presented, concerning the peculiar ability of indigenous Amazonians to distinguish between local varieties of vine that he was unable to tell apart, notably those used to prepare the hallucinogenic beverage ayahuasca. The enigma describes a complicated and irresolvable question thrown up at the uneasy intersection between different ways of knowing about the world, and shows how modern scientific travellers might navigate - or fail to navigate - the uncertain passage between them. Together with Schultes's accounts of his own non-ordinary states of consciousness elicited by ayahuasca, and his writings on the Victorian botanist Richard Spruce, I chart an epistemological gulf between Schultes's modern scientific cosmology and that of his Amazonian informants. In describing his inability to learn about the ayahuasca varieties from Amazonians, Schultes's enigma traces the very limits of the ethnobotanical discipline and reveals the fragility of the processes by which scientific naturalists might impose categories such as 'nature' and 'culture'.

Indigenous Amazonians on air:Shipibo–Koniboradio broadcasters and their social influence in Peru

This article describes how Peruvian Shipibo–Konibo people instrumentalize local radio stations to participate in civil society and to become social leaders supported by their communities. The investigational group consisted of Shipibo–Konibo communicators, all of them are men, who work at local radio stations located in the region Ucayali, Amazonas, Peru. The indigenous radio broadcasters interviewed were chosen from the most popular radio stations of Ucayali. Topics in radio programs are politics, corruption, abuse, mishandling, as well as celebrations, traditional holidays, communities’ anniversaries, and other cultural activities. Promoting social demands of their localities has given rise to new generations who now attend university and conduct radio programs in Shipibo–Konibo and Spanish, to communicate their concerns. It is an exploratory type research with a qualitative approach, focused on radio programs that got more local audience in the Peruvian Amazonia.

Traversing the margins of corruption amidst informal economies in Amazonia

ABSTRACTThis article focuses on local idioms of extra-legal economic activity among indigenous Amazonians in eastern Peru. I argue that these idioms are part of a broader context in which indigenous people are compelled by a variety of factors to act in ways that are perceived as corrupt by other non-indigenous actors. I suggest that within such a context these idioms are not solely confined to the informal economy but are also used to refer to activities that fall within the formal economy, thus providing an indication for how the orthodox economy is imagined. I further argue that corruption within Amazonian economies is commonly perceived by non-indigenous people as contrasting with the workings of the orthodox economy without proper consideration of the economic conditions and bureaucratic structures that give rise to it. Lastly, I offer a morally based rather than legally based analysis of corruption and argue that, in the case examined here, corruption can contravene bureaucracy by restoring the humanity that bureaucracy rejects through its acts of indifference toward individuals.

"An Unusual and Fast Disappearing Opportunity": Infectious Disease, Indigenous Populations, and New Biomedical Knowledge in Amazonia, 1960-1970.

In the twentieth century, biomedical researchers believed the study of Indigenous Amazonians could inform global histories of human biological diversity. This paper examines the similarities and differences of two approaches to this mid-century biomedical research, comparing the work of virologist and epidemiologist Francis Black with human geneticists James V. Neel and Francisco Salzano. While both groups were interested in Indigenous populations as representatives of the past, their perspectives on epidemics diverged. For Black, outbreaks of infectious diseases were central to his methodological and theoretical interests; for Neel and Salzano, epidemics could potentially compromise the epistemological value of their data.

GIS and the A'i of Colombia

This paper presents the work of the WCS with the A'i Indigenous people in Colombia as part of a USAID-funded project between 2009 and 2011. The project had several dimensions that make it unusual. Unlike conventional “counter-mapping” attempts to represent Indigenous land claims as a counter to government representations, the project sought to create maps and analyses that represent prior land assignments to the A'i by the Colombian government itself. These land assignments were not supported by geo-referenced maps and, in the case of Indigenous “reserves” the original boundary markers were only known to the oldest of the A'i people. Analysis of forest cover in lands controlled by the A'i reveal that they are highly protective of forests; indeed their collective identity is strongly related to forest cover. The process described also illustrates the difficult position many Indigenous Amazonians face in an era of drug wars, uncontrolled colonization, and in the case of Colombia, the lack of follow-up to the political and social measures envisioned in the 1991 Constitution.

Indigenous Social Media Practices in Southwestern Amazonia

This article discusses how the use of social media fosters, motivates, and regulates social relations among the Arawakan-and Panoan-speaking indigenous groups in the state of Acre and the southern part of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, where even the smallest towns have recently received high-speed internet connections. The research this article is based on analyzed what motivates indigenous social media users in Amazonian Brazil. I have gathered ethnographic data over a number of fieldwork trips since 2003 and followed indigenous Facebook users since 2009. The article shows how social networking sites have become a powerful tool for (re)producing relationships and social economies. It looks at what social networking sites offer for indigenous people and how they impact and alter their social relationships. The findings suggest that social networking sites are generating new reflections on Amazonian indigenous traditions and knowledge, and changing the way indigenous Amazonians relate to the outside world.

Hepatitis C and Metabolic Disorders: Genetics, Mechanism, and Therapies (Clinical and Experimental)

Hepatitis C and Metabolic Disorders: Genetics, Mechanism, and Therapies (Clinical and Experimental)

Mammalian Diversity and Matses Ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru Part 1: Primates

This report is the first installment of a monographic study of mammalian diversity and ethnomammalogy in a sparsely inhabited rainforest region between the Yavarí and Ucayali rivers in northeastern Peru. Our study is based on several large collections of mammals (totaling about 3500 specimens) made at various localities in this region between 1926 and 2003, and on our long-term ethnobiological and linguistic fieldwork with the Matses, a Panoan-speaking group of indigenous Amazonians who still obtain most of their dietary protein by hunting mammals. Our primary objectives are to document the species richness of the regional fauna through taxonomic analysis of collected specimens, and to assess the detail and accuracy of Matses knowledge of mammalian natural history by linguistic analysis of recorded interviews.The regional primate fauna is definitely known to consist of at least 14 species documented by collected specimens and/or repeated sightings of taxa with visually conspicuous diagnostic traits. This fauna includes three atelids (Alouatta seniculus, Ateles belzebuth, Lagothrix lagothricha), eight cebids (Aotus nancymaae, Callimico goeldii, Callithrix pygmaea, Cebus albifrons, Cebus apella, Saguinus fuscicollis, Saguinus mystax, Saimiri sciureus), and three pitheciids (Cacajao calvus, Callicebus cupreus, Pithecia monachus). All 14 species are known to occur sympatrically at one inventory site, but Goeldi's monkey (Callimico goeldii) is rare and uakaris (Cacajao calvus) seem to be patchily distributed, so some local faunas may have only 12 or even fewer species. This regional fauna is unique because neighboring interfluvial regions lack some species that are present in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve, and because some species that are present in neighboring interfluvial regions are not known to occur between the Yavarí and the Ucayali.Matses knowledge about primate natural history is clearly correlated with size and cultural importance. For example, information obtained from standardized interviews about spider monkeys (Ateles belzebuth, a large game species) can be parsed into 86 observations about its ecology and/or behavior, whereas interviews about pygmy marmosets (Callithrix pygmaea, a small nongame species) contain only nine observations on these topics. Item-by-item comparisons of Matses observations about spider monkeys with the published results of scientific field research suggests that the Matses are generally accurate observers of primate natural history, a conclusion that is additionally supported by comparing community patterns of resource use compiled from our interview data with community-ecological studies of primate faunas in the scientific literature. Most exceptions (discrepancies between Matses observations and the scientific literature) can be explained by cultural inattention to small nongame species.Although these results suggest that archiving native Amazonian knowledge about mammalian natural history might be a cost-effective alternative to lengthy fieldwork for some research objectives, there are significant linguistic barriers than can inhibit effective cross-cultural communication. Among the Matses, these include a surprisingly large number of zoologically redundant names (synonyms and hyponyms). Relevant primate examples are discussed in substantive detail.

Does civilization cause discontentment among indigenous Amazonians? Test of empirical data from the Tsimane’ of Bolivia

Despite the pervasiveness of international trade, the effects of trade opening on the psyche have received scant attention. We present three hypotheses about the likely effects of trade opening on the following five dimensions of the psyche: mirth (smiles), anger, addiction, stress, and regret. To test the hypotheses we use a survey of ∼605 people ⩾16 years of age from a highly autarkic native Amazonian society of foragers and farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane’) with high levels of impulsivity. As explanatory variables we use four measures of trade opening and a wide range of controls. Regret at buying durable assets during the previous year and addiction bore a positive association with two measures of trade opening: monetary income in the last 2 weeks and outstanding monetary debts owed to one or owed to the rest of the world. International trade theory predicts that trade opening expands choices in consumption, but among impulsive people in a highly autarkic society, more choice can beget more addiction and buyer’s regret. We found no association between trade opening and smiles, anger, or stress, consistent with recent findings from industrial societies suggesting weak or ambiguous links between monetary income and these indicators of subjective well-being.

RISK FACTORS FOR HTLV-II INFECTION IN PERUVIAN MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN

Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-II (HTLV-II) infection is endemic in indigenous groups in the Americas and injection drug users (IDUs) worldwide. In Peru, HTLV-II infection was previously identified in two indigenous Amazonians. We examined risk factors for HTLV-II infection in 2,703 Peruvian men who have sex with men (MSM): 35 (1.3%) were HTLV-II positive. HTLV-II infection was associated with syphilis, HSV-2 infection, unprotected receptive anal intercourse, and older age. This is the first report of HTLV-II in a non-indigenous non-IDU population in Peru. Additional studies are needed to determine if HTLV-II is a sexually transmitted infection in this and other sexually active populations.

Parakari, an indigenous fermented beverage using amylolytic Rhizopus in Guyana

The alcoholic beverage parakari is a product of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) fermentation by Amerindians of Guyana. While fermented beverage production is nearly universal among indigenous Amazonians, parakari is unique among New World beverages because it involves the use of an amylolytic mold (Rhizopus sp., Mucoraceae, Zygomycota) followed by a solid substratum ethanol fermentation. The mycological significance of this dual fermentation process previously was unrecognized. A detailed study of parakari fermentation was made in the Wapisiana Amerindian village of Aishalton, South Rupununi, Guyana. Thirty steps were involved in parakari manufacture, and these exhibited a high degree of sophistication, including the use of specific cassava varieties, control of culture temperature and boosting of Rhizopus inoculum potential with purified starch additives. During the fermentation process, changes in glucose content, pH, flavor, odor and culture characteristics were concomitant with a desirable finished product. Parakari is the only known example of an indigenous New World fermentation that uses an amylolytic mold, likely resulting from domestication of a wild Rhizopus species in the distant past. Parakari production is remarkably similar to dual fermentations of Asia, yet it was independently derived.

Parakari, an indigenous fermented beverage using amylolytic Rhizopus in Guyana

The alcoholic beverage parakari is a product of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) fermentation by Amerindians of Guyana. While fermented beverage production is nearly universal among indigenous Amazonians, parakari is unique among New World beverages because it involves the use of an amylolytic mold (Rhizopus sp., Mucoraceae, Zygomycota) followed by a solid substratum ethanol fermentation. The mycological significance of this dual fermentation process previously was unrecognized. A detailed study of parakari fermentation was made in the Wapisiana Amerindian village of Aishalton, South Rupununi, Guyana. Thirty steps were involved in parakari manufacture, and these exhibited a high degree of sophistication, including the use of specific cassava varieties, control of culture temperature and boosting of Rhizopus inoculum potential with purified starch additives. During the fermentation process, changes in glucose content, pH, flavor, odor and culture characteristics were concomitant with a desirable finished product. Parakari is the only known example of an indigenous New World fermentation that uses an amylolytic mold, likely resulting from domestication of a wild Rhizopus species in the distant past. Parakari production is remarkably similar to dual fermentations of Asia, yet it was independently derived.

Book Review:The Xavánte in Transition: Health, Ecology, and Bioanthropology in Central Brazil.By Carlos E. A. Coimbra Jr., Nancy Flowers, Francisco M. Salzano, and Ricardo Santos. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2002, 344 pp., index

The Xavante in Transition: Health, Ecology, and Bioanthropology in Central Brazil. By Carlos E. A. Coimbra Jr., Nancy Flowers, Francisco M. Salzano, and Ricardo Santos. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 2002, 344 pp., index. Coimbra, Flowers, Salzano, and Santos have written an unusual book, and one that will change the way we think about indigenous Amazonian peoples. It is unusual on two counts. First, the book synthesizes the work of several investigators over a long period of time, as well as the collaborative work of the authors over a 10-year period. Second, the book is truly collaborative; the authors wrote all the chapters together. Their goal in writing the book is to explore some of the fundamental changes the Xavante have experienced in their 50 years of contact with Brazilian society, and connect these changes to the political and economic forces in the dominant society. The Xavante are a group of indigenous Amazonians living in central Brazil, probably best known for their visits to Brasilia in paint and feathers to press their demands of the national government. The history Coimbra et al. write is a recent history, focused on the past 50 years. And it is a history they sometimes sketch in very broad strokes because of the paucity of information available. They do, however, have good data from five points in time with which to anchor the analysis: The ethnographic accounts of David Mayberry-Lewis from 1957 to 58, the biological data of James Neel and associates from 1962, the ethnographic and demographic data of Nancy Flowers from 1976 to 77, the ethnographic work of Laura Graham from the 1980s, and their own fieldwork in the 1990s. The book is divided into 10 chapters. The first four chapters identify the Xavante, compare them biologically with other indigenous Amazonians, and place them in their social, historical, and ecological setting. The Xavante are Je speaking peoples of central Brazil. They inhabit the cerrado, a mixed grassland and scrub forest landscape cut by galley-forested rivers. The Xavante are distinctive morphologically, in that they are the tallest of the indigenous Amazonians. They are also distinctive genetically to some degree. The Xavante now number about 8000 individuals, spread among six different federal reservations. The book focuses on the Etenitepa Xavante at Pimental Barbosa. The authors emphasize that each Xavante group has a different history of contact with the national society and a different degree of interaction with it. The focus on the Etenitepa Xavante makes the book a case study and limits the generality of the analysis. On the other hand, it provides a richness of detail and a sense of the importance of place that could not have been achieved by reviewing all Xavante groups. The Etenitepa Xavante continue to maintain the essence of the traditional Xavante social organization even though they are in continuous contact with Brazilian society. Their relatively large reserve provides a degree of isolation, but they are within an easy drive of a Brazilian town. The historical account the authors provide demonstrates quite clearly that the Xavante have been interacting with non-Indians for a long time. This interaction has been driven by the expansion of Brazilians into the interior of the country, which in turn was the result of economic and political processes taking place in the larger society and the world. The title of chapter 3, "Confrontations and Connections," sums it up nicely. The next two chapters are historically structured analyses of the changes in demography and subsistence in the 50-year postcontact period. The demographic analysis relies on data collected by Neel in 1962, by Flowers in 1976-77, and by the authors in the early 1990s. Using these data, the authors sketch a picture of the demographic crisis (increase in mortality and decrease in fertility) associated with contact, and also explore some of the effects that postcontact epidemic diseases probably had on village-level demographic and social dynamics. …