Abstract:This article discusses how for the Apurinã community in Brazil, the relationships with certain places and nonhuman entities actually co-produce biocultural heritage. This involves not only storytelling, care, and respect, but also avoidance, and thus shows specific intergenerational ways of managing and relating to the land. Here I will especially address Apurinã ancestral forest and historical places, and the experiences and knowledge that they trigger, including stories of Apurinã ancestors, core values, way… Show more
“…In the Huni Kuin and Apurinã communities that inform our case, community members are taught since childhood how to encounter and experience invisible and other life forms, as well as to respect their presences. Even if the active experience of, and interaction with, ungraspable presences in European contexts are different at the personal and collective levels from those of the animal, plant, and other spirit presences in Amazonia, in both places experiences of invisible actors play an important role in the narratives told about the self, about others, and about the world (see also Bergroth et al ; Virtanen ). How these experiences are made evident and true among local people and for authorities is the core question in both of our studies, as in both places they are socially excluded from the dominant society's power regimes.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Apurinã have a word for “spirit” ( kamury ) , but spirits are known by their proper names or as a generic term for owner‐master or chief spirits, such as awite . The Apurinã direct their movements in the forest based on the presence of master spirits, as they are highly respected agencies (see Virtanen , ) and can drastically affect human life. A mother of several children commented in a village along the Tumiã River:Among other things, the children cannot pass close by stones or moriche [buriti, buritiana] palm trees.…”
Section: Comparing Local Criteria Of Evidence In Differing Onto‐epistmentioning
This article looks at negotiations with state authorities and the evidentiary criteria they create in culturally contrasting contexts when phenomena deal with elements that for the dominant society are conceptualized as “supernatural.” We draw from the level of experiences of other‐than‐human beings, especially spirits and “ungraspable” presences, as social practices in and of themselves as well as acts of mobilizing those which are meaningful for knowledge production in Indigenous Amazonia and North European contexts. Our two cases show how in state territorial protection debates and health services, visibility, quantification, measurability, Euro‐American dominant, mainly binary, and bounded concepts are employed to create the grounds of validity. Yet, for actual individual or collective experiences, new types of evidence work can emerge in collaborations. Thus, this article sheds light on the needs for contextual and communicative actions to overcome contrasting onto‐epistemologies in the context of the state.
“…In the Huni Kuin and Apurinã communities that inform our case, community members are taught since childhood how to encounter and experience invisible and other life forms, as well as to respect their presences. Even if the active experience of, and interaction with, ungraspable presences in European contexts are different at the personal and collective levels from those of the animal, plant, and other spirit presences in Amazonia, in both places experiences of invisible actors play an important role in the narratives told about the self, about others, and about the world (see also Bergroth et al ; Virtanen ). How these experiences are made evident and true among local people and for authorities is the core question in both of our studies, as in both places they are socially excluded from the dominant society's power regimes.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Apurinã have a word for “spirit” ( kamury ) , but spirits are known by their proper names or as a generic term for owner‐master or chief spirits, such as awite . The Apurinã direct their movements in the forest based on the presence of master spirits, as they are highly respected agencies (see Virtanen , ) and can drastically affect human life. A mother of several children commented in a village along the Tumiã River:Among other things, the children cannot pass close by stones or moriche [buriti, buritiana] palm trees.…”
Section: Comparing Local Criteria Of Evidence In Differing Onto‐epistmentioning
This article looks at negotiations with state authorities and the evidentiary criteria they create in culturally contrasting contexts when phenomena deal with elements that for the dominant society are conceptualized as “supernatural.” We draw from the level of experiences of other‐than‐human beings, especially spirits and “ungraspable” presences, as social practices in and of themselves as well as acts of mobilizing those which are meaningful for knowledge production in Indigenous Amazonia and North European contexts. Our two cases show how in state territorial protection debates and health services, visibility, quantification, measurability, Euro‐American dominant, mainly binary, and bounded concepts are employed to create the grounds of validity. Yet, for actual individual or collective experiences, new types of evidence work can emerge in collaborations. Thus, this article sheds light on the needs for contextual and communicative actions to overcome contrasting onto‐epistemologies in the context of the state.
“…Respect among the Manchineri and Apurinã also goes beyond humans, and includes several other-than-human actors. In my research, this has meant recognition of the master spirits of the game and trees, among other things (Virtanen 2019). Respectful approaches to the local other-than-human actors are a crucial tool to keep beings healthy, and disrespecting these norms can cause illnesses, accidents, and unsustainability in the community.…”
Section: Reciprocal Relations In Amazonian Lifeworldsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Therefore, the existing written historical records are limited in narrating their past, because research has shown that Manchineri and Apurinã history is entangled with other-than-human actors (Apurinã 2019;Virtanen 2019). As I became a collaborator in the projects addressing the precolonial past, I soon aimed at shedding light on the local Indigenous perspectives and concerns of the research.…”
Section: Reciprocal Relations In Amazonian Lifeworldsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Among the Apurinã and Manchineri, there are deep aspirations to make better connections with their ancestors, because colonization caused a rupture in these relations (see also Machado 2017), and ancestral relations offer power and knowledge. As I have discussed elsewhere, the elders hoped that the ancient sites would be orally discussed among the community to educate the younger generations about the history of the territory and the entanglements of humans and other-than-human actors (Virtanen 2019, cf. McGregor 2004.…”
Section: Reciprocal Relations In Amazonian Lifeworldsmentioning
This chapter addresses the genealogy of Indigenous studies, and how it is conceptualized and practised in the Sámi context. It discusses the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous ways of doing research in academia, as well as the role of Indigenous research methodologies in this effort. We link our chapter to larger academic Indigenous discussions on the concepts of 'knowledge' , 'decolonization' , 'research' and 'indigenization' . At the theoretical and practical levels these processes and initiatives have enabled researchers to shed light on Indigenous views on the past, the present, and the future, first of all in Indigenous societies, but also in academia. This chapter also addresses the challenges of moving between local and global levels. Indigenous research contexts are diverse and dynamic, and the key to creating dialogues, bridges, and collaboration, lies in this very diversity, complexity, and multivocality of Indigenous societies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
