The Ecology of Power: Culture, Place and Personhood in the Southern Amazon, AD 1000-2000 (Critical Perspectives in Identity, Memory & the Built Environment)

431 Pages·2004·4.68 MB·English

by  Michael J. Heckenberger

The Ecology
Power
of
CRITICAL PERSPECTIVESIN IDENTITY, MEMORY,ANDTHE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
HELAINE SILVERMAN, UNIVERSITYOF ILLINOISAT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, SERIES EDITOR
Places in Mind: Archaeology as Applied Anthropology
edited by Paul A. Shackel and Erve Chambers
Identity and Power in the Ancient Andes:
Tiwanaku Cities through Time
John Wayne Janusek
The Ecology
Power
of
Culture(cid:1) Place(cid:1) and Personhood
in the Southern Amazon(cid:1)
A(cid:2)D(cid:2) (cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:4)(cid:4)–(cid:5)(cid:4)(cid:4)(cid:4)
Michael J(cid:2) Heckenberger
ROUTLEDGE
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Published in 2005 by
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
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Published in Great Britain by
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All author’s royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Associação Indígena Kuikuro do
Alto Xingu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heckenberger, Michael.
The ecology of power : culture, place, and personhood in the southern Amazon,
AD 1000-2000 / Michael J. Heckenberger.
p. cm. – (Critical perspectives in identity, memory, and the built environment)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-94598-4 (hb : alk. paper) – ISBN 0-415-94599-2 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Indians of South America–Brazil–Xingu River Valley–History. 2. Indians of South
America–First contact with Europeans–Brazil–Xingu River Valley. 3. Indians of South
America–Brazil–Xingu River Valley–Social life and customs. 4. Chiefdoms–Brazil–Xingu River
Valley. 5. Xingu River Valley (Brazil)–History. 6. Xingu River Valley (Brazil)–Colonization. 7. Xingu
River Valley (Brazil)–Social life and customs. I. Title. II. Series.
F2519.1.X56H43 2004
981’.72–dc22
2004015651
ISBN 0-203-48662-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-57708-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
Dedicated to my parents,
Mary and Victor
and Afukaká,
teacher, friend, and “brother.”

Contents
Preface xi
Illustrations xix
List of Tables xxv
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1
Broken Mirrors: Amazonia as Imagined World 6
Lost Civilizations, Again? 14
History, Ecology, and Power 19
PART I Visualizing Deep Temporality 29
CHAPTER 2 Culture and History: The Longue Durée 37
The Southern Amazon 42
The Southern Periphery 56
Xinguano Cultural Schema 60
CHAPTER 3 Traces of Ancient Times 67
Basic Chronology 68
A Tale of Two Towns: The Western Complex 75
The Eastern Complex 103
vii
viii •Contents
CHAPTER 4 Social Dynamics Before Europe 113
A Thread of Ariadne 117
Ancient Xinguano Regime as Galactic Polity 124
War and Peace in the Age of Inka 133
CHAPTER 5 In The Shadow of Empire: Colonialism and
Ethnogenesis 143
A Brief History of “Contact” 147
The Construction of Xinguano Pluralism 152
Demography and Social Change 163
PART II Body, Memory, and History 179
CHAPTER 6 Landscape and Livelihood: The Ethos of
Settled Village Life 191
Making a Living 192
Basic Diet 198
Objects as Subjects 201
Pottery 209
Productivity 216
CHAPTER 7 In The Midst of Others: Landscapes
of Memory 223
The Mirror World of Dawn Time 227
The Skin of the Land 230
Village and Countryside 236
Place and Place-Making: The Sites of Memory 242
Visualizing Landscape: Memory and Representation 250
CHAPTER 8 Houses, Heroes, and History:
The Fractal Person 255
Xinguano Social Memory: Enchainments 258
Chiefs and Others 269
Village as “House” 284
Contents• ix
CHAPTER 9 The Symbolic Economy of Power:
Plazas as Persons 291
The Xinguano Plaza 293
Making Chiefs 296
Socio-Ethnophysics 302
Plazas as Persons 306
The Symbolic Economy of Power 312
CHAPTER 10 Conclusion: The Pedigree of a Contradiction 319
Persons Large and Small 322
Chiefdoms, or What? 325
Big-Men, Great-Men, Chiefs, and Others 331
The Structural Contradiction and the Theater State 336
Notes 349
Bibliography 361
Orthography and Glossary of Indigenous Terms 385
Index 397