Amazonian Exchanges: Txema's Lessons With Outboard Engines, Mosquito Nets and Images

• Authors: Bárbara Maisonnave Arisi
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This article provides an ethnographic analysis of lessons given by an Amazonian Indian elder called Txema concerning transactions of objects and images. Txema has lived until 1978 in the Amazon as a hunter and farmer in very small communities spread in the forest mainly avoiding conflict with non-indigenous people. The Matis established contact with the Brazilians in 1978 and now Txema deals with British TV crews and researchers. This paper brings detailed information on how Txema transacts many objects like outboard engines and mosquito nets for images and care. Values are discussed in those transactions. Drawing an ethnographic description as the way to achieve reflection, this paper tries to show a close approach to what kind of transformation a lot of industrialized objects provoke in an indigenous community. Material culture exchanges are closely related to values and Txema teaches us what is valuable for this elder Amazonian man.

Keywords

EN

value; economy; transaction; Amazon; Pano; Matis

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: International Review of Social Research
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 173-190

Dates

published

2012-02-01

online

2015-05-04

Contributors

author

Bárbara Maisonnave Arisi

• Federal University of Santa Catarina, ISCA - Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/irsr-2012-0012