Desire and the Work it Does: Alterity and Exogamy in a Kotiria Origin Myth from the Northwest Amazon of Brazil

Authors

Janet M. Chernela, University of Maryland, College ParkFollow

Keywords

Amazon, Tukanoan, Kotiria, Myth, Economy of Alterity

Abstract

In terms of the pan-Amazonian social paradigm that transforms affines into kin and assimilates them into the consanguineal unit, Eastern Tukanoans must be regarded as exceptional. This paper explores a foundation myth that allows us to better understand relations of self and Other, incest and exogamy, and violence and amity among the Eastern Tukanoan-speaking Kotiria. The narrative provides a heretofore-absent foundation for Tukanoan affinity, revealing complications and nuance in Kotiria notions of alterity and the generative role of Desire in its transformation. It is a synthesis not from nature, but from poesis; not from trust, but from theft; not from consensual amity, but from violence.

Recommended Citation

Chernela, Janet M. (2021). "Desire and the Work it Does: Alterity and Exogamy in a Kotiria Origin Myth from the Northwest Amazon of Brazil", Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America: Vol. 17: Iss. 1, Article 1, 1-15.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol17/iss1/1