Kuntanawa
Mariana Ciavatta Pantoja, Matthew Meyer
Oxford University Press eBooks June 18, 2014 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199341191.003.0003 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Kuntanawa people in the state of Acre, Brazil |
| Intervention | Ayahuasca |
| Keywords | Ethnic group Ethnography State computer science Ethnology Subjectivity Tribe Subject documents Anthropology Gender studies |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key findings | Ritualized ayahuasca use acts as a Kuntanawa subjectivity operator and ethnic identifier in the process of cultural reinvention and territorial struggle. |
Abstract
Abstract The Kuntanawa are a tribe that belongs to the Pano linguistic branch, who, by the early decades of the twentieth century, were assumed to have been exterminated owing to the expansion of rubber production in the upper reaches of Amazonian tributaries, and in particular in the state of Acre in Brazil. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, descendants of a Kuntanawa woman, who had until then been identified as mestizo rubber tappers, began a process of ethnic auto-recognition as well as a struggle for territorial rights. The ritualized use of ayahuasca plays an important role as part of this process of cultural reinvention, acting as a Kuntanawa subjectivity operator, as well as working as an ethnic identifier in the larger field of interethnic relations. This double movement is the subject of ethnographic and theoretical reflections on the issue of “ethnicity” and “culture.”