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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Ritual (And Myth) Transformations In The Gran Chaco, Rodrigo Juan Villagra Carron May 2023

Ritual (And Myth) Transformations In The Gran Chaco, Rodrigo Juan Villagra Carron

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Based on the inspiration Peter Gow takes from Lévi-Strauss' canonical formula or double twist and his concept of ensemble, this article aims to illustrate by analogy how the rituals of female initiation, such as the Yammana of the Enlhet-Enenlhet, or male initiation, such as the Debylytá of the Yshiro, exemplify a regional system of "transformation of transformations." In this sense, Gow uses Lévi-Strauss' formula to analyse the myths of the peoples of southeastern Peruvian and western Peruvian-Brazilian Amazonia as a "very specific type of mythic transformation caused by the presence of thresholds, whether cultural or linguistic." The records of …


Desire, Difference, And Productivity: Reflections On “The Perverse Child” And Its Continued Relevance, Christopher Hewlett May 2023

Desire, Difference, And Productivity: Reflections On “The Perverse Child” And Its Continued Relevance, Christopher Hewlett

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article is concerned with the relationships through which children have been born, raised, and made into Amahuaca people over the past 75 years, and within contemporary Native Communities on the Inuya River since their formation beginning in the 1980s. The process of making children into kin among Amahuaca people is similar to that described throughout much of lowland South America. The production, preparation, and sharing of proper food (manioc, plantains, fish, and game) as well as manioc beer are central aspects of sociality and the formation of specific kinds of bodies. While the processes of sharing substances, demonstrating care, …


“Being Flexible”: Reflections On How An Anthropological Theory Spills Into The Contemporary Political Life Of An Amazonian People, Stine Krøijer Jun 2017

“Being Flexible”: Reflections On How An Anthropological Theory Spills Into The Contemporary Political Life Of An Amazonian People, Stine Krøijer

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article examines the work of William T. Vickers and describes how his theory about the flexible adaptation of the Siona-Secoya to their forested environment has spilled into their contemporary political life. Based on recurring fieldwork among the Secoya in Northeastern Ecuador, the article shows that “being flexible” has become a particular way of talking about and managing relations to powerful outsiders such as representatives of oil companies and government officials. The article brings together ethnography on the Secoya’s relationship to Occidental Petroleum Company in 1999–2001 and their turn to oil palm cultivation as subcontractors to a plantation company after …