Ownership and Nurture: Studies in Native Amazonian Property Relations

285 Pages·2016·3.41 MB·English

by  Marc Brightman

Ownership and Nurture

Ownership and Nurture
Studies in Native Amazonian
Property Relations
Edited by
Marc Brightman, Carlos Fausto
and Vanessa Grotti
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
Published in 2016 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2016 Marc Brightman, Carlos Fausto and Vanessa Grotti
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Brightman, Marc, editor. | Fausto, Carlos, editor. | Grotti, Vanessa
Elisa, editor.
Title: Ownership and nurture : studies in native Amazonian property
relations / edited by Marc Brightman, Carlos Fausto and Vanessa Grotti.
Description: New York : Berghahn Books, 2016. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2015045877| ISBN 9781785330834 (hardback : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781785330841 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Indians of South America—Material culture—Amazon
River Region. | Indians of South America—Land tenure—Amazon
River Region. | Material culture—Amazon River Region. | Land
tenure—Amazon River Region.
Classifi cation: LCC F2230.1.M34 O86 2016 | DDC 981/.13—dc23
LC record available at hjp://lccn.loc.gov/2015045877
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-083-4 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78533-084-1 ebook
Contents
List of Figures vii
Foreword by James Leach ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction. Altering Ownership in Amazonia 1
Marc Brightman, Carlos Fausto and Vanessa Grotti
1. Masters, Slaves and Real People: Native Understandings
of Ownership and Humanness in Tropical American
Capturing Societies 36
Fernando Santos-Granero
2. First Contacts, Slavery and Kinship in North-Eastern
Amazonia 63
Vanessa Grotti and Marc Brightman
3. Fabricating Necessity: Feeding and Commensality in
Western Amazonia 81
Luiz Costa
4. Parasitism and Subjection: Modes of Paumari Predation 110
Oiara Bonilla
5. How Much for a Song? The Culture of Calculation and
the Calculation of Culture 133
Carlos Fausto
6. The Forgotten Pattern and the Stolen Design: Contract,
Exchange and Creativity Among the K˜ısêdjê 156
Marcela Stockler Coelho de Souza
7. Doubles and Owners: Relations of Knowledge, Property
and Authorship among the Marubo 186
Pedro de Niemeyer Cesarino
vi Contents
8. Ownership and Wellbeing among the Mebêngôkre-Xikrin:
Differentiation and Ritual Crisis 209
Cesar Gordon
9. Temporalities of Ownership: Land Possession and its
Transformations among the Tupinambá (Bahia, Brazil) 232
Susana de Matos Viegas
Index 257
Figures
5.1 Aluminium pans received by the owners of the Takwaga
festival. Kuikuro village of Ipatse, Xingu Indigenous Park,
Brazil, 1998. Photo: Carlos Fausto. 136
5.2 A young woman with chiefl y status leading an internal luki.
Kuikuro Village of Ipatse, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil,
2013. Photo: Carlos Fausto. 138
5.3 Matü confects the akunga, the shamanic doll. Kuikuro
Village of Ipatse, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil, 2002.
Photo: Carlos Fausto. 140
5.4 Kanu sings during a Jamugikumalu festival. Kuikuro Village
of Ipatse, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil, 2010. Photo:
Carlos Fausto. 146
6.1 A K˜ısêdjê couple in full regalia. K˜ısêdjê Kap˜er˜e: alfabetização
na língua suyá. São Paulo: ISA/Fafo, 1999. 159
6.2 Anhi ro kütêmtêm, ‘a spiral on me.’ Drawing: Wetanti Suyá,
2006. 161
6.3 Tepsôk nhõ sôkô, ‘wooden lip plug design.’ Drawing: Wetamtxi
Suyá, 2006. 161
6.4 Anhi ro roptxi, ‘a jaguar on me.’ Drawing: Wetantxi Suyá,
2006. 161
6.5 Recreating the Pyj design: the si pattern. Ngôjhwêrê village,
Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil, 2006. Photo: M.S. Coelho
de Souza. 164
6.6 Recreating the Pyj design: fi lling in the si with the kango
pattern. Ngôjhwêrê village, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil,
2006. Photo: M.S. Coelho de Souza. 164
viii Figures
6.7 The s˜ıpê and kajngõrõ design patterns. Ngôjhwêrê village,
Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil, 2006. Photo: M.S. Coelho
de Souza. 165
6.8 Formal transformations of the Pyj pattern. Drawing: M.S.
Coelho de Souza, 2009. 166
6.9 The chief Kuiussi painted with the anhi ro ku˜ntêmtêm and the
ndo sôkô patterns. Ngôjhwêrê village, Xingu Indigenous Park,
Brazil, 2007. Photo: M.S. Coelho de Souza. 176
6.10 The facial pattern ndo sôkô. Drawing produced during the
Grendene workshop, Ngôjhwêrê village, Xingu Indigenous
Park, Brazil, 2006. Photo: M.S. Coelho de Souza. 176
6.11 The lip plug design painted on the Wadubati’s back.
Ngôjhwêrê village, Xingu Indigenous Park, Brazil, 2007.
Photo: M.S. Coelho de Souza. 177
7.1 Paulino Joaquim Memãpa, ‘Earth Planting Spirits.’ Coloured
pencil, graphite and watercolour on paper, 210 x 297 mm,
2005. Collection of Pedro Cesarino. 190
7.2 Paulino Memãpa, ‘The Emergence of Kana Voã.’ Coloured
pencil, graphite and felt tip pen on paper, 210 x 297 mm,
2005. Collection of Pedro Cesarino. 191
9.1 A dwelling place. Diagram by Susana Matos Viegas. 237
9.2 Genealogical diagram showing distant places of residence in
the territory. Diagram by Susana Matos Viegas. 242
9.3 A non-plastered casa de sopapo or casa de taipa de mão. Bahia,
Brazil, 1998. Photo: Susana Matos Viegas. 243
9.4 The hole from which clay was extracted for a home in a kin-
based dwelling. Acuípe, Bahia, Brazil, 2004. Photo: Susana
Matos Viegas. 244
Foreword
Ownership and nurture.
What if we begin here, rather than with the Lockean assumption of nature,
commonly given to be appropriated by human labour? What if ownership
did not take for its template a world of human subjects in rightful control
over inanimate objects, but the nurture of kin, or of animals? What if nur-
ture also implied superiority, or even capture? Or it implied mutual depen-
dence: an externalized capacity for self-defi nition? These are questions this
volume suggests we should ask. And then, what happens when ownership
over other persons linked to nurture is absolute and institutionalized? Or
objects directly constitute human persons through their ability to inscribe
human qualities? Or when owning comes in many different forms? When
in fact ‘the form and nature of transactions defi nes the relationships be-
tween the objects and transactors involved’?1 Well, for a start we will need
to think again about what property, ownership and belonging implies, how
it is achieved, and under what circumstances.
Just for a moment, imagine that all that you are, your very fl esh and
blood, your body and all that you know, arise and have their origins in
specifi c other people. (Is this so far-fetched?). Those other people have
laboured to produce you, have dedicated their capacities and efforts to
the production of your existence. The substance that makes and sustains
your body, the foods that give it solidity and have grown it, the knowledge
that allows you to do anything: this is what connects you to those other
people. Your status as a human being is dependent upon the recognition
of this reality. There is nothing exclusive about your body because it is al-
ways the outcome and interest of others. In turn, what you do with your
body is not only infl uenced by the ongoing history of your emergence in
relation to other people (and powers) but actually only possible because of
those relations. Close family take different roles in constituting the very
body you operate. More distant kin provide other elements appropriate to
their relation and interest in you. Your body is always their interest, and
whatever you can produce has to be thought about in terms of how you