Evan Killick

Godparents and Trading Partners: Social and Economic Relations in Peruvian Amazonia *

Through an ethnographic account of contemporary relations between Asheninka men and mestizos on the Ucayali River in Eastern Peru, this article examines how individuals use specific cultural idioms in their attempts to counteract the exploitative nature of economic relations. Specifically the article considers how the institutions of ayompari trading partners and compadrazgo (godparenthood) are used by Ashninka and mestizo individuals respectively to understand and try to control their relationships within the local economic system of habilitacin. The article concludes by noting the continued importance of these individual relationships in light of recent changes to Perus forestry laws.

Rubber, Terra Preta, and Soy: A Study of Visible and Invisible Amazonian Modernities

Amazonia in contemporary academic as well as public discourse is often placed in opposition to modernity, its peoples and environment represented as offering an alternative to modern ways of seeing and being in the world. Through a contemporary and historical consideration of the Brazilian Amazonian town of Belterra, this paper questions such a perspective by emphasizing the complexity of local social and environmental realities as well as the form that outside, modern interventions have taken in the region. The identities of neo-Amazonian populations are also discussed, both in relation to their relative invisibility in anthropological theory and wider political narratives as well as the manner in which their indigeneity is now emerging in local contexts. Overall it is argued that paying attention to social and environmental complexity as well as the hybrid social and cultural forms of the region may offer hope for a shared social and environmental future.