Language, kinship and politics in Amazonia

Cashinahua social and political organisation depend upon the process of the construction of kinship, which is daily constituted through the practical interaction of male and female agencies. Complementarity between male and female in political organisation recapitulates complementarity between spouses, and the relationship between leaders and followers is modelled upon asymmetrical relations between parents and children. Just as parents enable their children to grow into adults capable of producing sociality, so leaders try to enable their followers to produce it on a larger scale in communities. Political discourse and oratory are important aspects of this process. The use of borrowed Portuguese idioms in political discourse reflects and regenerates certain common ideas embedded in, and constantly constructed by, social practice. The analysis refutes "acculturation' models for understanding contemporary indigenous societies in Amazonia and draws attention to the Cashinahua's active engagement in history. It suggests a novel paradigm for understanding social organisation in lowland South America. -Author