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.
Keywords
Amazon, Tukanoan, Kotiria, Myth, Economy of Alterity
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, 1-15.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70845/2572-3626.1327
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/tipiti/vol17/iss1/1
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