VERSIONS VERSUS BODIES: TRANSLATIONS IN THE MISSIONARY ENCOUNTER IN AMAZONIA
Open Access
- 1 December 2016
- journal article
- Published by FapUNIFESP (SciELO) in Vibrant: Virtual Brazilian Anthropology
- Vol. 13 (2), 1-14
- https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-43412016v13n2p001
Abstract
This paper analyzes the two distinct concepts of translation at work in the encounter between the Amazonian Wari' and the New Tribes Mission evangelical missionaries, and the equivocations stemming from this difference. While the missionaries conceive translation as a process of converting meanings between languages, conceived as linguistic codes that exist independently of culture, for the Wari', in consonance with their perspectivist ontology, it is not language that differentiates beings but their bodies, given that those with similar bodies can, as a matter of principle, communicate with each other verbally. Translation is realized through the bodily metamorphosis objectified by mimetism and making kin, shamans being the translators par excellence, capable of circulating between distinct universes and providing the Wari' with a dictionary-like lexicon that allows them to act in the context of dangerous encounters between humans and animals.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- The space of translationHAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2014
- Acting translationHAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2014
- Hybrid BodyscapesCurrent Anthropology, 2009
- CHRONICALLY UNSTABLE BODIES: REFLECTIONS ON AMAZONIAN CORPORALITIESJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2005
- NOT ANIMAL, NOTNOT‐ANIMAL: HUNTING, IMITATION AND EMPATHETIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE SIBERIAN YUKAGHIRSJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2004
- « Ni vainqueurs, ni vaincus ». Les premières rencontres entre les chamanes inuit (angakkuit) et les missionnaires dans trois régions de l'Arctique canadienAnthropologie et Sociétés, 2003
- Making Kin Out Of Others In AmazoniaJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2002
- Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian PerspectivismJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 1998
- The Sadness of Sweetness: The Native Anthropology of Western Cosmology [and Comments and Reply]Current Anthropology, 1996
- Song Paths The Ways and Means of Yaminahua Shamanic KnowledgeL'Homme, 1993