Strange Enemies: Indigenous Agency and Scenes of Encounters in Amazonia (The Cultures and Practice of Violence) - Softcover

Vilaça, Aparecida

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0822345730 ISBN 13: 9780822345732

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 2010

Synopsis

In 1956, in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, a group of Wari’ Indians had their first peaceful contact with whites: Protestant missionaries and officers from the national Indian Protection Service. On returning to their villages, the Wari’ announced, “We touched their bodies!” Meanwhile the whites reported to their own people that “the region’s most warlike tribe has entered the pacification phase!” Initially published in Brazil, Strange Enemies is an ethnographic narrative of the first encounters between these peoples with radically different worldviews.

During the 1940s and 1950s, white rubber tappers invading the Wari’ lands raided the native villages, shooting and killing their victims as they slept. These massacres prompted the Wari’ to initiate a period of intense retaliatory warfare. The national government and religious organizations subsequently intervened, seeking to “pacify” the Indians. Aparecida Vilaça was able to interview both Wari’ and non-Wari’ participants in these encounters, and here she shares their firsthand narratives of the dramatic events. Taking the Wari’ perspective as its starting point, Strange Enemies combines a detailed examination of these cross-cultural encounters with analyses of classic ethnological themes such as kinship, shamanism, cannibalism, warfare, and mythology.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"This intimate portrait of a remarkable people who insist on encountering modernity on their own terms challenges us to think beyond outmoded notions about acculturation and loss of tradition. Deftly weaving the insights of Amazonian perspectivism with history, myth, and personal experience, Aparecida Vilaca shows how Wari' choices to live with whites and adopt many of their ways are part of the logic of being indigenous. Empowerment derives from seeing the world through the eyes of others. "Strange Enemies" invites us to see the world through Wari' eyes. The view is fascinating."--Beth A. Conklin, author of "Consuming Grief: Compassionate Cannibalism in an Amazonian Society"

About the Author:

Aparecida Vilaça is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology in the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology of the Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro. She is a co-editor of Native Christians: Modes and Effects of Christianity in the Americas.

About this edition

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0822345730
• ISBN 13: 9780822345732
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 392