Kin on the Wing: patterns in residence, mobility, and alliance for Ache hunter-gatherers

Abstract

This paper provides a structural and historical overview of the kinship of a group of Tupi-Guarani-speaking hunter-gatherers, the Ache (Guayaki) of eastern Paraguay. I begin by considering the distinguishing features of Ache kin terminology, describing its characteristic tension between the dimensions of generation and crossness, before considering arguments for historical transformations offered for similar cases in lowland South America. The Ache case shows that the “Hawaiianization” of terms in ego’s generation does not necessarily entail an inward-looking endogamy, as some anthropologists (Dole, 1969; Wagley, 1977) have argued. By describing the network of Ache foraging bands as a residence-based form of kin organization, I show that “Hawaiianization” is not only perfectly compatible with the creation of alliances over considerable distances (Asch, 1998; Ives, 1998; Hornborg, 1998), but that “Hawaiianization” and distant marriage actually work together in the production of band alliances. At various points I highlight semantic, ethnographic, and historical data which, despite lying outside the scope of the phylogenetic analysis undertaken in other contributions to this issue, may nonetheless bear on some of its claims.

Nota sobre o sistema de parentesco em Proto-Tupí-Guaraní

“…Glottocode Fonte Aché ache1246 Thompson (2019) Anambé anam1249 investigação, geralmente na forma de uma filogenia; (2) uma série de caracteres codificados para cada taxa da árvore -neste caso, traços tipológicos sobre a equação ou diferenciação de certas posições terminológicas de parentesco no seu repertório linguístico -; e (3) um modelo para demonstrar como esses traços podem mudar ao longo do tempo e que seleciona uma hipótese evolutiva entre as possíveis.…”