Políticas públicas e indígenas en aislamiento en Perú y Brasil

This article comparatively reviews the role of public policies in the situation of indigenous peoples in isolation in two countries, Brazil and Peru. It presents the great paradigms that have dominated national policies on indigenous peoples in the Amazon, assimilation (or integration) and autonomy, analyzing how they have affected the situation of peoples in isolation in the past and how they do it today. As a case study, we developed that of the Mashco Piro indigenous people of the Alto Madre de Dios River (Madre de Dios, Peru), which highlights the complexity of the application of policies on the ground, in a context of growing threats to the Amazon territories. Finally, we explore the problematic relationships between policies related to indigenous peoples in isolation and those related to the economy and the use of the territory, which are closely linked in the Amazon region.El presente artículo revisa comparativamente el papel de las políticas públicas en la situación de los pueblos indígenas en aislamiento en dos países, Brasil y Perú. Presenta los grandes paradigmas que han dominado las políticas nacionales sobre los pueblos indígenas en la Amazonia, la asimilación (o integración) y la autonomía, analizando cómo han afectado la situación de los pueblos en aislamiento en el pasado y cómo lo hacen hoy en día. Como estudio de caso, desarrollamos el de los indígenas mashco piro del río Alto Madre de Dios (Madre de Dios, Perú), que pone de relieve la complejidad de la aplicación de las políticas en el terreno, en un contexto de crecientes amenazas para los territorios amazónicos. Finalmente, exploramos las problemáticas relaciones entre las políticas relativas a los indígenas en aislamiento con aquellas relacionadas a la economía y el uso del territorio, las cuales se encuentran estrechamente ligadas en la región amazónica

Políticas públicas e indígenas en aislamiento en Perú y Brasil: Entre la asimilación y la autonomía

El presente artículo revisa comparativamente el papel de las políticas públicas en la situación de los pueblos indígenas en aislamiento en dos países, Brasil y Perú. Presenta los grandes paradigmas que han dominado las políticas nacionales sobre los pueblos indígenas en la Amazonia, la asimilación (o integración) y la autonomía, analizando cómo han afectado la situación de los pueblos en aislamiento en el pasado y cómo lo hacen hoy en día. Como estudio de caso, desarrollamos el de los indígenas mashco piro del río Alto Madre de Dios (Madre de Dios, Perú), que pone de relieve la complejidad de la aplicación de las políticas en el terreno, en un contexto de crecientes amenazas para los territorios amazónicos. Finalmente, exploramos las problemáticas relaciones entre las políticas relativas a los indígenas en aislamiento con aquellas relacionadas a la economía y el uso del territorio, las cuales se encuentran estrechamente ligadas en la región amazónica. </p

Senses of Self, Society, and Cosmos

The pervasiveness of ayahuasca use in lowland South America, alongside its rising global diaspora spurred by ayahuasca tour-ism, religious movements, and the psychedelic renaissance, makes Gearin and Calavia Sáez’s critical scholarship particularly welcome. The authors’ comparative attention to visualise and individualism across“glocal” contexts of ayahuasca practices, namely, neoshamanic uses in Australia and indigenous practices in Amazonia, is compelling. They invite us to focus on diverging notions of property and personhood to understand ayahuasca visualism as an expression of divergent cultural viewpoints. I concur with their proposal that ayahuasca visions are sites of equivocation whose interpretations are rendered meaningful by particular socialities. They view the Australian neoshamanic individual as a product of the philosophical Enlightenmentwho becomes the center of the ayahuasca experience, interpretation, and outcome, while for“Amazonians,” the centrality of the individual is a product of animistic and perspectival ontologies and is therefore by default fractal and more broadly connected to larger social worlds

Objeto, sujeito, inimigo, vovô: um estudo em etnomuseologia comparada entre os Mebêngôkre-Kayapó e Baniwa do Brasil

International audienceAbstract Ethnomuseology seeks to put indigenous people in dialog with their own material culture heritage. This article reflects on collaborative research carried out with Mebêngôkre-Kayapó and Baniwa consultants on important collections of both groups from the early twentieth century. In addition to noting differences between museological or scientific and indigenous concepts about museum objects, we also noticed a number of cultural differences in the way the two indigenous groups related to objects from their past. While both cultural groups attributed subjective characteristics to museum objects, for the Mebêngôkre-Kayapó this subjectivity expressed itself mostly in terms of possible threats to visitors of the museum collections, leading to a hesitancy to handle museum objects, assumed to be war trophies captured in the past from dangerous enemies. The Baniwa, by contrast, expressed great affection for ‘grandpa’s things’, and they felt they had a right to handle objects that represent the heritage of patrilineal clans. This experience in ethnomuseology highlights the diversity of indigenous concepts, attitudes and expectations about museum collections and the need for the dialogical approach to collaborative research.Resumo A etnomuseologia visa engajar os povos indígenas em um diálogo com a sua cultura material. Este artigo reflete sobre uma experiência efetuada no acervo etnográfico do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi com interlocutores Mebêngôkre-Kayapó e Baniwa sobre importantes coleções de seus respectivos povos, as quais datam do início do século XX. Além de perceber diferenças entre conceitos museológicos, ou científicos, e indígenas sobre as peças e os processos de musealização, também foi possível observar uma série de diferenças culturais entre os Mebêngôkre-Kayapó e os Baniwa no que concerne à maneira de se relacionar com os objetos de seu passado. Ambos os grupos atribuíram características subjetivas aos objetos no acervo, mas, no caso dos Mebêngôkre-Kayapó, a subjetividade das peças antigas representava uma ameaça aos visitantes do acervo, levando a um certo receio em manusear as peças, concebidas com troféus de guerra capturados de inimigos perigosos. Os Baniwa, ao contrário, expressavam grande carinho com os ‘objetos do vovô’ e sentiam-se no direito de manusear as peças que representam o patrimônio de clãs patrilineais. Esta experiência em etnomuseologia comparada ressalta a diversidade de conceitos, atitudes e expectativas dos povos indígenas perante às coleções museológicas, e a necessidade desta nova abordagem de pesquisa colaborativa

The Floating Forest: Traditional Knowledge and Use of <i>Matupá</i> Vegetation Islands by Riverine Peoples of the Central Amazon

<div><p><i>Matupás</i> are floating vegetation islands found in floodplain lakes of the central Brazilian Amazon. They form initially from the agglomeration of aquatic vegetation, and through time can accumulate a substrate of organic matter sufficient to grow forest patches of several hectares in area and up to 12 m in height. There is little published information on matupás despite their singular characteristics and importance to local fauna and people. In this study we document the traditional ecological knowledge of riverine populations who live near and interact with matupás. We expected that their knowledge, acquired through long term observations and use in different stages of the matupá life cycle, could help clarify various aspects about the ecology and natural history of these islands that field biologists may not have had the opportunity to observe. Research was carried out in five riverine communities of the Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve (Brazil). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 inhabitants in order to register local understandings of how matupás are formed, biotic/abiotic factors related to their occurrence, the plants and animals that occur on them, their ecological relevance, and local uses. Local people elucidated several little-known aspects about matupá ecology, especially regarding the importance of seasonal dynamics of high/low water for matupás formation and the relevance of these islands for fish populations. Soil from matupás is especially fertile and is frequently gathered for use in vegetable gardens. In some cases, crops are planted directly onto matupás, representing an incipient agricultural experiment that was previously undocumented in the Amazon. Matupás are also considered a strategic habitat for fishing, mainly for arapaima (<i>Arapaima gigas</i>). The systematic study of traditional ecological knowledge proved to be an important tool for understanding this little-known Amazonian landscape.</p></div