Publication Date: 2022
Revista de Antropologia (00347701)65(3)
This paper is devoted to the means at amerindians’ disposal to augment personal effi-cacy, that is, props used to increase influence on others. My argument, in a nutshell, is that dreams, magic plants (and other substances classed together with them), and metaphorical discourse are such means of aiding one’s influence on others-or avoi-ding being the target of others’ influence. The second point is that such props, aids, or intensifying devices must involve the interaction of what are normally translated as ”souls“, ”vital images“, or “doubles“-the immaterial aspects of the person-if they are to be effective. © 2022, Universidade de Sao Paulo. Museu de Zoologia. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2022
Vibrant Virtual Brazilian Anthropology (18094341)19
This paper presents and discusses some examples of how mathematical figures and engineering approaches can be detected in anthropological theorizing and how a mathematical reading of certain anthropological theories is possible and sometimes fruitful. The paper proceeds in three steps: a comparison between experimental measuring and engineering “black boxing” as different ways of representing ethnographic reportage and anthropological theorizing; a discussion of feedback loops in anthropological theorizing; and a discussion of chaos theory and fractal geometry and some of their uses in anthropological writing. I finish by hinting at the fruitfulness of making allies across disciplinary boundaries given our anthropocenic predicaments and limitations in our cross disciplinary analogies. © 2022, Brazilian Anthropology Association. All rights reserved.
Publication Date: 2019
Mana: Estudos de Antropologia Social (01049313)25(2)pp. 391-426
This article sketches some elements of what we suggest to call a "politics of regard" pertinent to the forms of action and organization of indigenous collectives in the lowlands of South America. The purpose is to analyze the relation between two Strathernian ideas with applicability in the region: a) any meaningful action could be explained, understood or justified as involving the separation between a person who acts and another person taken as the cause of action; and b) being recognized as a person, or occupying the place of a moral agent, implies being under the regard of another person. Considering these two ideas, we also revisit some classic themes of the ethnological literature, namely: the relation between power and coercion, and the theme of the masters-owners. © 2019 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro-UFRJ.
Publication Date: 2017
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory (20491115)7(2)pp. 403-426
Agribusiness has unprecedented leverage over highly unpopular Brazilian president Michel Temer, who is faced with several corruption charges and is struggling for political survival. In a little over one year, the agribusiness lobby and its allies have managed to erode thirty years of human rights and conservation laws. Indigenous peoples and their territorial rights are among the main targets of such policies, and there is no resolution to the situation in sight. With the insight of several scholars, the following forum assesses the consequences of losing the protection the Citizens' Constitution of 1988 once afforded indigenous peoples in Brazil. © Giovanni da Col.
Publication Date: 2011
Journal de la Societe des Americanistes (19577842)97(1)pp. 339-357
Amazonian indigenous peoples have preserved many aspects of their culture and cosmology while also developing complex relationships with dominant non-indigenous society. Until now, anthropological writing on Amazonian peoples has been divided between "traditional" topics like kinship, cosmology, ritual, and myth, on the one hand, and the analysis of their struggles with the nation-state on the other. What has been lacking is work that bridges these two approaches and takes into consideration the meaning of relationships with the state from an indigenous perspective. That long-standing dichotomy is challenged in this new ethnography by anthropologist José Kelly. Kelly places the study of culture and cosmology squarely within the context of the modern nation-state and its institutions. He explores Indian-white relations as seen through the operation of a state-run health system among the indigenous Yanomami of southern Venezuela. With theoretical foundations in the fields of medical and Amazonian anthropology, Kelly sheds light on how Amerindian cosmology shapes concepts of the state at the community level. The result is a symmetrical anthropology that treats white and Amerindian perceptions of each other within a single theoretical framework, thus expanding our understanding of each group and its influences on the other. This book will be valuable to those studying Amazonian peoples, medical anthropology, development studies, and Latin America. Its new takes on theory and methodology make it ideal for classroom use. © 2011 The Arizona Board of Regents. All rights reserved.
