This book revolves around two concepts: ownership and nurture. The objective is twofold: on one hand, it is an attempt to bring into dialogue (and into tension) these concepts such as they appear in the anthropological literature and such as they are expressed in indigenous practices and concepts; on the other hand, it is to articulate them, investigating the practical and emotional nexus between ownership and nurture that exists in native Amazonia. The idea of nurture has been explored in the ethnography of this region since the end of the 1980s, especially through processual studies of kinship. A rich literature has grown around notions such as care, feeding and commensality, focusing on the processes through which identity and kinship are constituted. The fundamental vector of identification here is food, the artefact par excellence of culture. In contrast, until recently indigenous Amazonia appeared refractory to the notions of ownership and mastery. This image results as much from the theoretical options available as from empirical phenomena with their own historicity. A substantial part of the ethnographic record of Amazonia coincides with the demographic nadir of the indigenous peoples since the beginning of the Conquest. This was reached between the 1940s and the 1960s, and the reversal of the downward trend began only from the 1970s onwards. A large number of the studies written towards the end of the 20th century reflect to a large extent this historical moment, during which indigenous Amazonia was characterized by small, mutually isolated populations, which resulted from the breakdown of native social networks through the process of colonization (Fausto and Heckenberger 2007). At the time, this historical situation was seen as corresponding to an original state expressing an essential characteristic of Amazonian societies: their aversion to power, to hierarchy and, of course, to property. It was this conjuncture between a historical situation and an anthropological imaginary that made Amazonia seem a terra nullius for the concepts of ownership and mastery.
Introduction: Altering Ownership in Amazonia
Brightman, MA
;Grotti, Vanessa
2016
Abstract
This book revolves around two concepts: ownership and nurture. The objective is twofold: on one hand, it is an attempt to bring into dialogue (and into tension) these concepts such as they appear in the anthropological literature and such as they are expressed in indigenous practices and concepts; on the other hand, it is to articulate them, investigating the practical and emotional nexus between ownership and nurture that exists in native Amazonia. The idea of nurture has been explored in the ethnography of this region since the end of the 1980s, especially through processual studies of kinship. A rich literature has grown around notions such as care, feeding and commensality, focusing on the processes through which identity and kinship are constituted. The fundamental vector of identification here is food, the artefact par excellence of culture. In contrast, until recently indigenous Amazonia appeared refractory to the notions of ownership and mastery. This image results as much from the theoretical options available as from empirical phenomena with their own historicity. A substantial part of the ethnographic record of Amazonia coincides with the demographic nadir of the indigenous peoples since the beginning of the Conquest. This was reached between the 1940s and the 1960s, and the reversal of the downward trend began only from the 1970s onwards. A large number of the studies written towards the end of the 20th century reflect to a large extent this historical moment, during which indigenous Amazonia was characterized by small, mutually isolated populations, which resulted from the breakdown of native social networks through the process of colonization (Fausto and Heckenberger 2007). At the time, this historical situation was seen as corresponding to an original state expressing an essential characteristic of Amazonian societies: their aversion to power, to hierarchy and, of course, to property. It was this conjuncture between a historical situation and an anthropological imaginary that made Amazonia seem a terra nullius for the concepts of ownership and mastery.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
