Achuar (Pastaza)

Achuar (Pastaza)
Philippe Descola & Anne-Christine Taylor
Notes made by Grégory Deshoullière1
November 2014
Presentation
a) The data-set
b) The Achuar
Data collection
a) Corpus from Philippe Descola
b) Corpus from Anne-Christine Taylor
Abbreviations and Attributes
a) Name
b) Place
c)
Attributes
Remarks on coding
Perspectives on the Achuar population during the 1970s
Author’s bibliography
Presentation
a) The data-set
The data-set “Achuar (Pastaza)” is the product of a collaboration among the authors
Philippe Descola and Anne-Christine Taylor, the encoders Vincent Hirtzel and Grégory
Deshoullière, and the Kinsources project.
Collected during long-term fieldwork by Anne-Christine Taylor and Philippe Descola
and based on their fieldwork notes (October 1976 to March 1979), this data-set is concerned
principally with the Achuar speaking population from the Pastaza area of Ecuador (mainly
Kapawi river, Ishpinku river, Copataza river, Bobonaza River, Sasaïme river and Conambo
river).
1
[email protected] or [email protected]
1
It was published on Kinsources.net for the first time in March 2015 under Creative
Commons licence BY-SA-NC 3.0. The general public can only access the anonymized version.
b) The Achuar
Distributed between north-east Peru and south-east Ecuador, the Achuar2 are part of the
Jivaroan population cluster which includes the Shuar, located in southeast Ecuador, the
Awajun and Wampis (Huambisa) of the Marañon basin, and the Shiwiar of the middle
Pastaza valley, closely connected to the Achuar. During the period in which AnneChristine Taylor and Philippe Descola conducted fieldwork, the Achuar – mainly
hunters and swidden-horticulturalists – lived in dispersed settlements of three or four
closely related households. These local groups were embedded in territorialized
networks of regularly intermarrying households. These units – called “endogamous
nexi” by the ethnographers – comprised an average of 100 to 150 persons, or some ten
scattered households. The residence pattern was prolonged temporary uxorilocality3.
The Achuar terminology of reference corresponds to the "two-line terminologies" that
has been associated with the Amazonian Dravidian systems.
Data collection
We can distinguish two groups of original documents:
a) Corpus from Philippe Descola in hand-written form which includes:
o “Folder Genealogies” (PhD:1): It is a folder of photocopies (first side) including
mainly the reproduction of genealogical diagrams accompanied by some drafts,
and in certain cases by biographic notes (the authors of which are Philippe
Descola and Anne-Christine Taylor). All these forms are preceded by a
document called "Index of the genealogies ", written by Philippe Descola. The
folder includes 43 photocopies numbered in pencil by Vincent Hirtzel.
o “Folder Notebook Ph. Descola” (PhD:2): It is a folder of photocopies (first side)
including 4 sub-files gathered with paper clips, including excerpts from the
notebooks of the author. These are numbered II (2 pages), III (7 pages), IV (17
pages) and V (7 pages).
b) Corpus from Anne-Christine Taylor in hand-written form (ACT): it is composed of
5 folders of photocopies which correspond to 5 different notebooks classified
following the original annotations of Anne-Christine Taylor (1 to 5): “Cahier 1” 28
pages, “Cahier 2” 22 pages, “Cahier 3” 31 pages, “Cahier 4” 33 pages, “Cahier 5”
24 pages. The original numeration of the pages has been always kept. Each folder
includes genealogical diagrams and notes taken during the author’s fieldwork.
2
3
Sometimes referred as Achual, Achuara, Achuale, Jivaro or Maina.
Bride capture excludes uxorilocal residence.
2
Abbreviations and Attributes.
Note that both individual names and associated place names are not shown in the anonymized
version of the data-set. However, residence is still shown as a separate attribute (see below).
a) Name: All the orthographical versions of the names of each individual appear as they
were originally written. This means that the readers can find in parenthesis all the different ways
of writing the name that have been found in the notebooks. However, to allow future
comparative works, the most established orthography of the name has been chosen (in
accordance with the encoder’s knowledge of the current orthographic consensus on the Jivaroan
language in Ecuador). For instance:
287 Chunji (Chuji, Chuhi) or 607 Tsapak (Zapaku, Tsapik, Tsapic)
b) Place: To facilitate coding, and when the information is clear from the notebooks, the
place of residence of the individual appears written in square brackets. This is, at times,
preceded by the place of birth and followed by the name of the larger area of residence. These
are frequently names of rivers. For instance:
536 Kajekai (Kajikue, Kajekui) [Kapawi]
Place of residence
311 Nampich (Nampichka, Nambichka) [Wampuik ; Chiriboga, Pastaza Moy.]
Place of birth
Place of residence
Area of residence
c) Attributes:
-
Fi / Al: Filiation / alliance. Attribute which synthesizes the information of Prim. Ref
[see below] with a binary sorting. Filiation (Fi): the people who are included in the
genealogy by links of descent; and alliance (Al): those who are included in the
genealogy by links of marriage. This attribute has not been applied to all individuals.
-
Prim. Ref: Primary references. Reference to the localization of the individual in the
notebooks (see above). PhD refers to Philippe Descola’s notebooks and ACT refers to
Anne-Christine Taylor’s notebooks. For instance:
“PhD:1:10 ; ACT:5:123”
Read: PhD:1:10 folder “Genealogies of Philippe Descola”, page 10
ACT:5:123 Corpus of Anne-Christine Taylor, notebook 5, page 123.
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-
Note4: When the information is clear from the notebooks of the authors, the encoder has
included in “Note” information regarding the status of being killed, details as “twin of”
or commentaries concerning genealogical or marriage aspects of an individual.
-
Dupli: Indicates a possible duplicate in the corpus (after coding). Most of them have
been checked, but errors can still emerge so the encoder has chosen to leave this
information for future work on the data-set5.
-
RESI: Place of residence. Almost always name of rivers. To allow comparative works
and in order to standardize the data-set, the encoder has applied the actual orthography
of the names as used in Ecuador: Kapawi for Capahuari, Capawi ; Ishpink for Ishpingu,
Ishpinku ; Copataza for Kupatza.
-
BIRT_PLACE: Place of birth.
-
BIRT_DATE: Date of birth. In this corpus, this attribute mostly concerns individuals
under 18. It is based on several approximations: first, age estimates, in years, over the
course of a three-year period of fieldwork, and second, the after the fact translation of
these estimates into years of birth.
-
ETHNI_FIL: Ethnic affiliation. The entries are: Kichwa, Shuar, Shiwiar and
Candoshi. No indication means “Achuar”.
-
OCCU: “occupation”. Mainly “shaman”.
-
DEAD: If an individual is noted as dead or not.
-
Add.: The cross (X) indicates that the person has been added by the encoder. It is not
indicated in the authors’ photocopies.
Remarks on coding
The coding took place in two phases. In 2012, Vincent Hirtzel coded Philippe Descola’s
Folder Genealogies. Then in 2014, Grégory Deshoullière checked and completed this corpus
by coding, with Puck6, Philippe Descola’s Folder Notebook and the photocopies from the
notebooks of Anne-Christine Taylor, and finally by standardizing information included in the
data-set.
Despite our efforts, the data-set at this stage still imperfectly reflects the data contained
in the notebooks. The main difficulty emerges from the fact that the encoders are not the
ethnographers. Without a global understanding of the notebooks and the fieldwork, it was at
times impossible to avoid duplications of individuals or to establish certain connections
between them. A revised version will be made available in the near future.
4
The anonymized version does not include this information.
It is usually noted “Pot. Id. de…”, which means “potentially identical to…”.
6
http://www.kintip.net/
5
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Perspectives on the Achuar population of the 1970s
The data-set Achuar (Pastaza) is part of the “Cluster Achuar” which contains the corpus
of Antonino Colajanni (around 1160 individuals, coded by Grégory Deshoullière) and the
corpus of Richard Gippelhauser / Elke Mader (around 1130 individuals, coded by Grégory
Deshoullière), both corpus based on fieldwork conducted during the 1970s. Both data-sets will
be soon available at kinsources.net.
Authors’ bibliography :
- Anne-Christine Taylor & Philippe Descola, 1981. El conjunto jivaro en los comienzos de la conquista
españo. Bulletin de l’Institut Français d'Etudes Andines, 10(3-4), 7–54.
- Philippe Descola, 1982. Territorial adjustments among the Achuar of Ecuador. Social Science
Information, 21(2), 301–320.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1983. The Marriage Alliance and Its Structural Variations in Jivaroan
Societies. Social Science Information 22 (3), 331-353.
- Anne-Christine Taylor & Ernesto Chau, 1983. Jivaroan magical songs Achuar anent of connubial love.
Amerindia, 8.
- Philippe Descola, 1983. Apropriación de la tierra entre los Achuar. América Indígena, XLIII (2).
- Philippe Descola, 1983. Le Jardin de Colibri. Procès de travail et catégorisations sexuelles chez les
Achuar de l’Équateur. L’Homme, 23(1), 61–89.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1985. L’art de la réduction : la guerre et les mécanismes de la différenciation
tribale dans la culture jivaro. Journal de la Société des Américanistes, 71(1), 159–173.
- Philippe Descola, 1986. La Nature domestique : symbolisme et praxis dans l’écologie des Achuar,
Paris, Fondation Singer-Polignac et Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (English translation
: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994).
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1993. Des Fantômes stupéfiants. Langage et croyance dans la pensée achuar.
L’Homme, 33(126), 429–447.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1993. Remembering to forget: identity, mourning and memory among the
Jivaro. Man, 28(4), 653–678.
- Philippe Descola, 1993. Les Affinités sélectives Alliance, guerre et prédation dans l’ensemble jivaro.
L’Homme, 33(126), 171–190.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1996. The soul’s body and its states: an amazonian perspective on the nature
of being human. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2(2), 201–215.
- Philippe Descola, 1996. The spears of twilight: life and death in the Amazon jungle. Janet Lloyd
(trans.). New York: New Press.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1998. Jivaro Kinship: “Simple” and “Complex” Formulas: A Dravidian
Transformation Group. In Transformations of Kinship, edited by Maurice Godelier, Thomas
R.Trautmann, and Franklin E. Tjon Sie Fat. Pp. 187-213. Washington and London: Smithsonian
Institution Press.
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- Anne-Christine Taylor, 1999. Figures du sujet : le malade, le thérapeute et le sujet sain chez les Jivaro
d’Amazonie. In R. Asséo, J.-L. Baldacci, B. Chervet, S. Dreyfus, M. Emmanuelli, C. Janin, … A. Taylor
(Eds.), L’animisme parmi nous. Pp.133-138. Paris : Presses Universitaires de France.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 2000. Le sexe de la proie. Représentations jivaro du lien de parenté. L’Homme
154-155, 309-334. (Special issue: Question de parenté)
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 2001. Wives pets and affines. Marriage among the Jivaro. In L. Rival & N. L.
Whitehead (Eds.), Beyond the visible and the material: the amerindianization of society in the work of
Peter Rivière. Pp. 45–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 2006. Devenir jivaro. Le statut de l’homicide guerrier en Amazonie. Cahiers
d’anthropologie Sociale, Paris, Pp. 67–84. Éditions de l'Herne.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 2009. Métagermanité et affinité potentielle : la relation de mariage en Inde et
en Amazonie. Ateliers du LESC, 33.
- Anne-Christine Taylor, 2014. Healing translations. Moving between worlds in Achuar shamanism.
HAU: Journal of ethnographic theory 4(2), 95-118.
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