Janet Chernela

This study considers narratives collected among fishing populations, known locally as caboclo, in the central Amazon of Brazil. The article utilizes these narratives to oppose prevailing conceptions of the riverine populations of Amazonia as derivative of former aboriginal cultures. The issue raises the larger problematic of identifying any group as “a culture,” defined as a collectivity that recognizes a shared set of meanings. Such a definition presents a “culture” as a perceivable and tangible entity, having inflexible features and ...

Background Roraima is located in the northernmost extreme of Brazil's Legal Amazonia, bordering Venezuela to the north and Guyana to the east. It encompasses the drainage basin of the Rio Branco, a northern tributary of the Amazon mainstem. The area lies within the equatorial humid tropics, yet altitudinal and geological variation sets the region apart from the dominant landscapes of Amazonia and accounts for its high biodiversity, among the highest in the New World Tropics. The range of habitat types includes dense evergreen ...

Speakers of Eastern Tukanoan languages in Brazil and Colombia construe linguistic differences as indices of group identity, intrinsic to a complex ontology in which language is a consubstantial, metaphysical productda 'substance' in the development of the person. Through speech, speakers of the same language signal a corporality based in theories of shared ancestry and mutual belonging while speakers of different languages signal difference. For Tukanoans, then, one creates one's self in the act of speaking. These ontological beliefs underlie speech practices, influencing language maintenance and contributing to one of the most extreme examples of multilingualism reported in the literature.

This article considers a set of postcards purchased in the Amazonian city of Manaus between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The cards upend the prominent narrative suggested in most visual imagery of the period that depicts the Amazon basin as a wilderness peopled with uncivilized natives. The postcards, instead, portray a technoscape of urban mo-dernity—orderly, not chaotic; domesticated, not wild. Missing from the sanguine depictions of prosperity and progress are the vast bulk of Manaus residents, members of the working classes , who were overwhelmingly non-white and impoverished. Rather than reifying Otherness, these postcards present an aspirational Europeanization of Amazonia—an end to difference.

BACKGROUND Defined by the headwaters of the Rio Negro, the largest of the Amazon's tributaries which flow southeasterly through southern Colombia, northern Brazil, and portions of southern Venezuela, the region known as the Northwest Amazon exhibits immense linguistic diversity (Aikhenvald 2002, 2003a; Barnes 1984, 1999; Epps 2003; Gomez-Imbert 1993, 1999; Sorensen 1967, 1973; Stenzel 2005, 2007; Waltz 2002; Waltz and Waltz 2000). The area's estimated 25,000 residents speak more than twenty ...

"Advances in indigenous rights in Latin America’s largest nation-state, Brazil, unfold through history like a tango,with every succession of steps forward followed by as many backward. A deconstruction of the choreography of this danse macabre reveals a dialectic between norm and practice, as actors press to serve competing agendas through strategic maneuvering. A recent victory for indigenous rights in Brazil was the ratification, after 30 years of struggle, of the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory,home of nearly 22 thousand indigenous peoples of the Makuxi,Wapichana, and Ingariko ethnicities in Roraima state.Using this case, I present some of the recent moves and alliance configurations that have emerged in the contest over land, as diverse actors and interests shift and expand their strategies in the face of new political challenges and opportunities."

Captives were found in societies of all social levels throughout much of history and prehistory. They were frequently women, and they could be potent agents of culture change. In some societies they entered a highly stigmatized slave class, while in others they might be fully incorporated into the society of their captors. Regardless of their social position, captives played an important role in the transmission of cultural practices and ultimately in culture change, but few studies have explored the role of captives in culture change, especially in nonstate societies. I begin that process, using ethnohistoric, historic, ethnographic, archaeological, and other data. I document the prevalence and antiquity of captive-taking around the world, its gender selectivity, and the rights of social personhood that captives were accorded in captor societies and assess factors that affected captives' ability to effect culture change. The focus is especially on craft activities, because captive influence is likely to be most evident to archaeologists in the production of craft goods. The wives and children of those whom they had defeated were frequently made slaves. (Ellis 1828:147) The Huron took prisoners in war.. .. They seldom put to death women and children, but kept some for themselves or made presents of them to those who had previously lost some of their own in war. (Tooker 1991 [1964]:31) The major motives for warfare [among contact-period people of the Llanos of South American] seemed to be to capture women and children and loot villages and gardens. (Morey 1975:282) On their return [from war], they handed any prisoners over to the relatives of their victims: Women and children for enslavement, men for torture and death. (Galloway and Jackson 2004:607) Intercultural interaction encompasses a large segment of archaeological research, including trade and exchange, culture contact, and migration. Archaeological approaches to inter-cultural interaction have been criticized for their unidirec-tional and macroscale focus (Cusick 1998b; Stein 2002), and we have recently seen calls for a reassessment of how inter-cultural interaction produces culture change (Kristiansen and Larsson 2005). In this paper, I consider a single type of in-tercultural interaction that was common throughout prehis-Catherine M. Cameron is Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Colorado (233 UCB, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0233, U.S.A. [cameronc@colorado.edu]). This paper was

ABSTRACT Poetic performance has often been relegated to secondary status by social scientists who may consider it epiphenomenal to everyday life. This argument is deftly countered in Anthony Seeger's acclaimed book, Why Suyá Sing, now in paperback with accompanying CD. In impeccable, economic, prose Seeger shows that performance is more than the artful use of music and language (though it may be that). Grounding his argument in rich description gathered in two years of fieldwork among the indigenous Suyá in the Brazilian Amazon, Seeger demonstrates that performance is not only integral to social life, it plays a crucial, generative role in its construction. A Kantian aesthetic that positions art as independent of and isolated from the ordinary is not sustainable in light of these insights and the data that support them. Brazil is one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. When Europeans first arrived there were some four million people belonging to more than 1,000 denominations. In Brazil today about 370,000 individuals speak over 180 different, native Amerindian languages. Among them are the Suyá of the Xingu River basin, whose language belongs to the Gê family. Seeger's principal argument in this slim but densely packed volume is that singing, an experience of the body, is a means of producing (and reproducing) the social person and society. To spell this out Seeger uses the illustration of the Mouse Ceremony, a fourteen-day event of embedded performative acts. He shows how the ceremony establishes domains and transformations among and across entities, as men are transformed into mice and back again in a process that is simultaneously personal, historic, and symbolic. In this and other ways the Suyá articulate the experiences of their lives with the processes of their society. Performance, and song in particular, is a powerful vantage point for considering the musical life of society and the social life of music. As anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, and musician, Seeger is exceptionally prepared and positioned for such a holistic enterprise. In exploring the matter of rising pitch, for example, a phenomenon of considerable concern and mystery to ethnomusicologists, Seeger drew on a combination of approaches. Comparing his original recordings to archival ones and submitting both to laboratory tests, he located a slight rising of the pitch in the middle of a syllable. Through participant-observation Seeger was able to discern the roles of local specialists in pitch changes, and to contribute to growing discussions among researchers on the role of pitch change in coordinating unison singing. While scholars have long shown interest in culture change and ethnogenesis, the mechanisms of these processes remain unclear. This is especially the case when it comes to the role of discourse forms in identity formation. The Suyá and other societies of the Upper Xingu eloquently demonstrate that ethnic identity is a dynamic process, not a state. Settlement in the region is fairly recent, and the processes of borrowing and incorporation of discourse forms related to ceremonial practices continue to be very active. The Suyá, like most of the 17 indigenous groups in the area, were relocated in the 1950s and 1960s when the Villas-Boas brothers created the Xingu National Park in Mato Grosso state. Before arriving at their present village at headwaters of the Xingu, the Suyá migrated hundreds of miles from what is now the state of Maranhão. During two centuries the Suyá fought enemies and incorporated their innovations, including technology and song. In a strategy that may remind readers of the twentieth century Brazilian literary discussion of antropofagia, the Suyá have treated all powerful strangers alike, incorporating that which they value into their own repertoires. At least ten songs performed by the Suyá originated from interactions with outsiders. Seeger juxtaposes the songs and beer obtained by the Suyá from the Tupian-speaking Juruna, with the songs and maize received from the Mouse (and highlighted in Suyá myth and ceremony recounted here), and the songs learned from Seeger himself, the North American anthropologist the Suyá call "Our White man." Seeger's work contributes to an important and growing corpus of internationally recognized literature on public performances and their distribution in the Upper Xingu (see Basso for the Kalapalo; Seki...

In recent years at The American Museum, spring has brought with it a rush of inquiries about summer field programs. A large portion of those inquiries have come from high school students seeking opportunities to participate in archeological excavations. High schools ...

Scratches have long gone without their due eulogy. Old, clear abrasion on archeological specimens should be a welcome sight to any investigator of ceramic collections but, alas, the Study of the Scratch has been sorrowfully neglected. For purposes of this paper I would like to ...

" Chapin blames large NGOs for failing in their stated mission to benefit indigenous groups, he does not examine the shortcomings of specific partnerships and the factors that drive their failure. It is important to dis-assemble these partnerships to identify positive and negative outcomes and link them to process. I will attempt to do that here with a case that I regard as successful. The case is pertinent in that it involves one of the world's largest NGOs, Conservation International (CI). The project, which is admittedly new, is the partnership in territorial surveillance between CI and the Kayapo NGO, the Protected Forest Association. I will briefly describe the project, based largely upon my own observations and interviews, and then turn to why I think it works. "

More Info: "Full citation: Chernela, Janet (2008) Guesting, Feasting and Raiding: Transformations of Violence in the Northwest Amazon. In Revenge in the Cultures of Lowland South America, ed. Stephen Beckerman and Paul Valentine. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. Pp. 42-59. " ... Thank you! Your feedback has been sent. ... Want an instant answer to your question? Check the FAQs.

In recent decades science has reached a critical juncture that calls our attention to its fundamental character and the contradictions within it. The crisis was brought about by the observation, by some scientists, that the Earth is facing a massive sixth extinction, one that may have been provoked by human activity. Reaction to this revelation has been complex; it points to some of the ways in which science is influenced by and inextricably integrated into the social fabric.

Applied anthropologists have neglected the processes involved when spokespersons from international and local organizations come together to find or to build common ground.  Decisions made at the intersections of "glocality" (Brenner 1998) may hinge on issues of communication about which we know very little.  This paper considers an Amazonian chief's report of a conversation between himself and a representative of a carbon sequestration project involving his village.  By using the chief's own evaluation of the success or failure of the communication, this paper analyzes several processes through which speakers incorporate and employ novelty, thereby expanding frontiers of knowledge.  The analysis points to the importance for international interlocutors, including applied anthropologists, to ensure that appropriate conditions are met so that speakers can successfully assimilate novel information, assess their own level of comprehension, and properly analyze the issues before them.

This paper describes three cases where communities have developed innovative approaches in order to conserve imperilled aquatic systems and promote ecotourism. Each demonstrates a strategic use of fisheries legislation supplemented by customary laws and practices to manage local protected areas with protection status equivalent to IUCN/WCPA Category V or VI, with small strict (Category I) preservation areas.

As an object of anthropological debate for three decades, Yanomami ethnology mirrors the schisms and disputes within the discipline and points to the historic embeddedness of the anthropological project. Ferguson's volume is a significant contribution, both substantively and theoretically, to the growing Yanomami literature.

Texts, including the symbolic configurations borne by material objects, are the tools through which social structures are constructed. Among the most important sets of meanings are those that signify group identity and the placement of any group vis-a-vis others. Each generation reproduces these symbolic complexes through a cultural transmission process in which sets of meanings are deconstructed, manipulated, reconstructed, and reified.