Caught in the web, but still in the past: Foraging, Farming and Socioeconomic Relations between the Awá-Guajá and their Neighbors.
Louis C. Forline
- Osaka-JP : National Museum Ethnology, 2016.
- páginas 227-253: ilustraciones en blanco y negro.
- no. 94 (2016)
- Senri Ethnological Studies ; no. 94 .
- National Museum of Ethnology Osaka. .
Examining Amazonia in hindsight and evaluating recent evidence reveals rich and complex past that demonstrates a unique dynamic between fonigers and farmers. As relations are played out between these groups a number of scenarios unfold. Both parties may be engaged in relations of friendly exchange, tenuous alliances, hostility, or in recent times, forced merger or separation by mainstream society. Similarly, it also becomes difficult to discern differences between foragers and farmers as both include varying degrees of hunting, farming, fishing and gathering. Recently, studies in historical ecology, archaeology, ethnohistory and linguistics help reconstruct a past that explains the present in forager-farmer relations. In this article, the author examines these questions among the Awa-Guaja of the Brazilian Amazon and how they have engaged with their neighbors, the Ka'apor and Tenetehara. The Awa-Guaja came into permanent contact with Brazilian national society in 1973, and were settled into four semi-nucleated communities by Brazil's Indian Service (FUNAI). As the Awa-Guajá are transitioning to a settled, farming mode of subsistence, there has emerged a compression of evolutionary time as contact has intensified the use of resources, engagements with horticultural groups, and mainstream players. Regional development and lumber activities have also impinged on these groups, inducing a number of individuals to participate in illicit activities. The paper is concluded by examining how each of the four Awa-Guajá communities has embraced contact, by providing a narrative of their experiences and their involvement with different interlocutors.