Book Review of From the Milk River: Spatial and Temporal Processes in Northwest Amazonia

The author puts into perspective the social construct of the Pira-Parana Indians. She explains that the current experiences of the Indians are products of the myths. According to the community the myths and their beliefs are part of their culture and hence determine the framework regarding their lives. The author explains that instead of first putting focus on the cosmology of the community, she will first analyze the basic structures of the social construct of the community regarding patrilineal groups, and families while looking at the aspects of marriage and proliferation. The author analyzes the various phases regarding the relationship between temporal processes and different phases that are present in the longhouse in addition to illustrating that the same relation makes up the framework of the cosmos. She explains that she bases her argument on the perspective that the framework that builds the social structure tends to be basic and that the cosmos tends to be a depiction of the social context. However, she puts emphasis that there exists no cause and effect relation between the two constructs. From her viewpoint, the anthropologist should perceive the ancestral construct as an assumed depiction of the experience taking place currently while taking into consideration that its a depiction that defines the activities that are currently taking place such that it becomes an important part of the modern day social construct. In other words, the ancestral realm tends to have a significant influence in the modern world or rather there seems to be integration between the past world and the current world. Therefore, the author centralizes with the theory that there exists an integration of the ancestral worlds to the current world on the Indians social structure. The authors thesis is that social structure kinship and marriage the life cycle politics economics and religion are ideologically integrated just as they are also inextricably bound together in concrete behavior with the context being that the social structure of the Pira-Pirana Indians.

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In regards to the social structure, the author explains that there tends to be uncertainty when explaining facts regarding the Vaupes social structure. She explains that the anthropologist has the heavy task of putting information obtained from several people in regards to family ancestry, family connections, language associations, names of clans, ancestral origin, and other aspects. She explains that the obtained assertions tend to differ in context and hence causing uncertainty. She also explains that the presence of conflicting information makes it difficult to tell the actual ethnic or traditional background of the Pira-Pirana Indians. The author explains that the conflicting information brings the assumption that there is the inadequate stability of culture in the Vaupes location of the Pira-Pirana when compared to the ones living along River Vaupes.

However, she sticks to the view that there are fixed units in the social structure and hence significant aspects of the study. In regards to the unit, the author explains that the Vaupes Indians are grouped into two categories that include; the Tukanoan and Maku. She describes the Tukanoan as a group based on a linguistic perspective who speaks the language affiliated to the Eastern Tukanoan. She explains that their culture is based on farming of manioc which is relatively bitter in addition to living along rivers in communal groups. She puts into perspective another group, the Arawakan, that tends to have a similar culture with the Tukanoan when compared to the Maku. For the Maku, they tend to differ from the Tukanoan in regards to their way of life and language. She explains that the Maku are grouped into two languages and that they are semi-nomads. She uses technical terms to describe the units of the groups; terms such as exogamy, and patrilineal for the Tukanoans. Other terms include phratry, Sib, tribe, and language aggregate which have been used by other scholars. However, she asserts that he prefers using the terms, compound exogamous groups, and simple exogamous groups.

She puts into perspective the functions of the social structures that include; exogamy, conducting rights regarding on ceremonious property for the purpose of the compound exogamous groups to take possession of the ritual property, combining forces when faced with challenging situations , economic development, bringing children up, consumption, arranging marriages, and also determining the geographical boundaries. She puts emphasis that each specialist role is distinguished with various functions. The author also puts into perspective the structure of specialist roles in regards to the inside framework that is found within the role-set in addition to its correspondence to other developments. The involved specialist roles include; the sibs, the phratry, the local descent group, tribe, and the exogamous groups. The author explains that each role is characterized with ideal conduct. She identifies three specialist roles that include; dancer, chanter, and shaman. She explains that the three constructs are part of the metaphysical sphere and that they are associated with the name of the experts. Some of the names include Y-yoamu, X-kumu, and Z-baya in the chanter, shaman and dancer roles respectively. She further explains that the role only applies to two of the specialist roles. The reason is that the chanter and dancer are affiliated to one group.

She explains that the other roles obtain their definition from ancillary sources on past knowledge. The author puts into perspective the absence of the roles of the warrior, chief, and servant in the current world such that the two remaining roles have undergone transformations.

She further explains that the absence of the roles has brought about the relevance of the utilization of force in the social construct in addition to having a hierarchy. One significant aspect that the author mentions regarding the specialist's role is that when compared to the chanters and the dancers, the shamans tend to be highly regarded. However, she puts into perspective that Shamans tend to be feared by people from other tribes because of their dangerous abilities despite being respected by those that seek their services. She gives the example of a Shaman killing an individual despite being in a different location. The people in the current world believe in them such that they associate events with them. Some of them still seek consultations from them as they believe that they have high power.

Also, when it comes to the role of leadership, Shamans are perceived to be the best candidates such that the functions of the servants, chiefs and warriors are considered irrelevant. The author explains that the Shamans were controlled because of their powers such that at times they were executed with the view that they had misused their powers. The author explains that in the modern world, Shamans have lost some of their roles because of some of their functions being similar to those of leaders. She makes the assumption that Shamans, especially women, should stay away from activities regarding procreation while leaders should engage in polygamy as a strategy of maintaining the roles of the shaman.

She also makes a distinction of shamans in regards to leadership. She explains that there are shamans that are leaders and others who are not leaders. Shamans that lead are found in the tribe while those who are not leaders tend to lead isolated lives; away from the tribe. Also, the leaders tend to be the firstborns of their families while those that are not leaders tend to be young brothers. The author also mentions the role of the specialists whereby they have been divided into three domains. They include; the externally oriented domain that consists of the warrior; the metaphysical domain that consists of the shaman, dancer and chanter, and the politico-economic domain that consists of the servant and the chief.

Some of the highlighted functions of the servants include building houses, cultivation, rearing children and acting as messengers. With such a structure, it is quite evident that there is divisions of roles within the groups but some more distinct than the others. Furthermore, the use of the supernatural is also involved and hence illustrating an association between the ancestral construct and the current world. Other aspects that the author puts into analysis include marriage and kinship, production and consumption, the human life cycle and also concepts regarding space and time. When it comes to space and time, the author explains that the origin of things is associated with ancestors in addition to the life of mankind. She explains that the aspects of life and the consequences that take place as a result of human actions are associated with myths. Furthermore, the myths are used as lessons that guide the morality of individuals.

From the analysis, it is quite evident that the author makes a point when it comes to the construct that exists between ancestral beliefs and the current social construct of the Indian community. It is common for people from various cultures to associate some elements or things that happen in their lives with myths. A good example is the concept of Santa Claus during Christmas whereby children are told that they will receive gifts if they behaved well. The author goes into an in-depth analysis of the association whereby she looks at the various units of the Pira-Pirana culture in regards to the social organization and the functions of various units. She bases her argument on the aspect that the anthropologist should perceive the ancestral construct as an assumed depiction of the experience taking place currently. Also, there is a need to take into consideration that its a depiction that defines the activities that are currently taking place such that it becomes an important part of the modern day social construct. The Indian culture still highly associates events and experiences with myths. Events such as fertility in both humans, land, and animals are associated with the spirit world.

From a general perspective, the author includes the view that there is an association between the cosmos and the social framework. She makes a critical analysis of the association such that she makes the hypothesis that the ancestral realm tends to have a significant influence in the modern world or rather there seem to be integration between the past world and the current world. It, therefore, becomes important to analyze the correlation between the past and the present.

Bibliography

Hugh Jones, Christine. Book Review of From the Milk River: Spatial and temporal processes in Northwest Amazonia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Porter, Joy. Land and Spirit. California: Praeger, 2012.