Papers by Luis Felipe Torres
Anthropologica, 2021
En los años recientes, hemos presenciado un creciente interés de la academia sobre los pueblos in... more En los años recientes, hemos presenciado un creciente interés de la academia sobre los pueblos indígenas en aislamiento y contacto inicial, a través de la producción y discusión etnográfica. Asimismo, varios de los Estados que integran la cuenca amazónica también han venido desarrollando políticas para la defensa de sus derechos. El contexto de la pandemia por el COVID-19, además, ha permitido que las sociedades nacionales de estos países vivan, por primera vez, la experiencia de muerte y desestructuración social que han enfrentado los pueblos indígenas de la Amazonía durante siglos y que llevaron a muchos de estos a tomar distancia y decidir aislarse.
Revista De Antropologia, 2021
El presente artículo revisa comparativamente el papel de las políticas públicas en la situación d... more El presente artículo revisa comparativamente el papel de las políticas públicas en la situación de los pueblos indígenas en aislamiento en dos países, Brasil y Perú. Presenta los grandes paradigmas que han dominado las políticas nacionales sobre los pueblos indígenas en la Amazonia, la asimilación (o integración) y la autonomía, analizando cómo han afectado la situación de los pueblos en aislamiento en el pasado y cómo lo hacen hoy en día. Como estudio de caso, desarrollamos el de los indígenas mashco piro del río Alto Madre de Dios (Madre de Dios, Perú), que pone de relieve la complejidad de la aplicación de las políticas en el terreno, en un contexto de crecientes amenazas para los territorios amazónicos. Finalmente, exploramos las problemáticas relaciones entre las políticas relativas a los indígenas en aislamiento con aquellas relacionadas a la economía y el uso del territorio, las cuales se encuentran estrechamente ligadas en la región amazónica.
Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America, 2018
Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Family, ... more Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Folklore Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Human Geography Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Linguistic Anthropology Commons, Nature and Society Relations Commons, Public Policy Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, and the Work, Economy and Organizations Commons
Doenças e isolamento nas nascentes da Amazônia
A conquista europeia da América teve como protagonistas várias doenças virais e bacterianas intro... more A conquista europeia da América teve como protagonistas várias doenças virais e bacterianas introduzidas após a chegada dos conquistadores, para as quais os povos nativos não tinham resposta imunológica. Doenças importadas como varíola, sarampo, tuberculose e varicela, entre tantas outras, foram integradas ao cenário biológico e social do nosso continente (Rodrigues, 2014). Com o tempo, adaptamo-nos à presença dessas doenças (em alguns casos, com a ajuda de vacinas), mas ao custo de milhões de vidas.
Na Amazônia, alguns povos indígenas têm permanecido afastados o suficiente de outras populações a ponto de, ainda hoje, carecer de defesas imunológicas contra doenças comuns ao resto do continente (Idem.). São os povos indígenas chamados de “isolados”, os quais sofrem de grave vulnerabilidade de saúde ao contato com forasteiros. Da mesma forma, como essas defesas levam mais de uma geração para se desenvolverem após o “contato”, mesmo as pessoas que estão em um processo chamado de “contato recente” devem esperar várias décadas para obtê-las (MINSA/Peru, 2004: 37).
Enclosures and Resistance: Isolated Indigenous Peoples in Brazilian Amazonia, 2019
The Amazonian border between Brazil and Peru is home to the largest diversity of isolated indigen... more The Amazonian border between Brazil and Peru is home to the largest diversity of isolated indigenous peoples in the world. The isolated and recently contacted indigenous peoples of this region are: the Matsigenka, Nanti and Mashco-Piro of the Arawak language family; the Chitonahua, Isconahua, Korubo, Matsés, Murunahua, Nahua and Txapanawa of the Pano language family (or Xinane peoples), and other groups such as the ‘archers’ [flecheiros] of Javari Valley and the ‘isolados of Humaitá River’, in Acre, of which little is known. They live in remote areas distributed throughout approximately 2,800 linear kilometres of border, spanning territories in the states of Amazonas and Acre on the Brazilian side and the departments of Loreto, Ucayali and Madre de Dios on the Peruvian side. Of the ten territories identified or reserved for isolated peoples in Peru, seven are along this political border.
Tipiti: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America , 2020
Isolated indigenous peoples, also referred to as “uncontacted” or people living in “voluntary iso... more Isolated indigenous peoples, also referred to as “uncontacted” or people living in “voluntary isolation,” evoke a curious mixture of fascination, perplexity, and anxiety on behalf of the different agents and actors that seek to understand, represent, and defend them. For national governments, isolated peoples are unwitting—and often unwilling—citizens who live beyond the reach and control of the state, whose territories often hold precious natural resources, and yet who are particularly vulnerable to the epidemic diseases, social ills, and economic depre- dations that so-called civilization brings. For social scientists, such groups are “people against the state,” government subjects who refuse to be governed, unconquered collectives who re- fused to be colonized, ethnographic subjects who cannot be ethnographized. For the neigh- bouring “contacted” indigenous communities who share territory and sometimes linguistic intelligibility or kinship ties with them, “isolated” peoples are wary and evasive brethren who sometimes prove to be fatal enemies. For the broader public and the sensational news media that exploits the latest sightings, conflict, or “contact,” they are noble savages who invoke romantic notions about an idealized human past or conjure colonial myths about “first con- tact” (Milanez and Shepard 2017).
As Amazonian countries have expanded road networks, extractive economies, and agri- cultural activities to the far reaches of their frontiers in the twenty-first century, conflicts and contacts with such formerly autonomous and elusive peoples have become increasingly com- mon and complex problems for government agencies, local communities, and the various re- searchers and organizations who work in these regions. At the same time, sensational photos and videos of these “contact” situations have spread quickly on the internet, generating wide- spread popular concern and vehement, albeit varied, opinions.
The tense moments of “first contact” between government indigenous agents and a small group of men from an isolated population on the Xinane River in Brazil in 2014 were captured on amateur video and soon went viral. An agent of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (National Indian Foundation—acronym Funai), Brazil’s indigenous protection bureau, attempted to communicate with two young, naked men who made an unexpected appearance in the settled community of Simpatia: “Shara! Shara! Katawe! Katawe!” “Good / Beautiful! Go away!,” the Funai agent repeated, using a few words in the Yaminawa language (see Giancarlo Rolando’s article in this issue). This somewhat incoherent non sequitur, which the Xinane men received with understandable confusion and consternation, encapsulates the contradictions and ambi- guities inherent in current knowledge, attitudes, and policies about and toward these enigmatic yet somehow paradigmatic indigenous peoples, dwelling just beyond the reach of a globalized, interconnected world.
This special issue of Tipití brings together the contributions of a diverse group of indige- nous protection agents, indigenous representatives, anthropologists, lawyers, journalists, and scholars who gathered in Lima, Peru, in July 2017 for a special three-day debate on the rights, evolving threats, and protection policies for isolated indigenous peoples of the Amazon. The event, held during the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA)’s 2017 conference, was funded in part by support from the Kone Foundation of Finland, and led to the drafting, by multiple participants, of Resolutions of the Special Debate on the Rights and Protection of Isolated Indigenous Peoples, which is included as the first contribution to this special issue.
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Papers by Luis Felipe Torres
Na Amazônia, alguns povos indígenas têm permanecido afastados o suficiente de outras populações a ponto de, ainda hoje, carecer de defesas imunológicas contra doenças comuns ao resto do continente (Idem.). São os povos indígenas chamados de “isolados”, os quais sofrem de grave vulnerabilidade de saúde ao contato com forasteiros. Da mesma forma, como essas defesas levam mais de uma geração para se desenvolverem após o “contato”, mesmo as pessoas que estão em um processo chamado de “contato recente” devem esperar várias décadas para obtê-las (MINSA/Peru, 2004: 37).
As Amazonian countries have expanded road networks, extractive economies, and agri- cultural activities to the far reaches of their frontiers in the twenty-first century, conflicts and contacts with such formerly autonomous and elusive peoples have become increasingly com- mon and complex problems for government agencies, local communities, and the various re- searchers and organizations who work in these regions. At the same time, sensational photos and videos of these “contact” situations have spread quickly on the internet, generating wide- spread popular concern and vehement, albeit varied, opinions.
The tense moments of “first contact” between government indigenous agents and a small group of men from an isolated population on the Xinane River in Brazil in 2014 were captured on amateur video and soon went viral. An agent of the Fundação Nacional do Índio (National Indian Foundation—acronym Funai), Brazil’s indigenous protection bureau, attempted to communicate with two young, naked men who made an unexpected appearance in the settled community of Simpatia: “Shara! Shara! Katawe! Katawe!” “Good / Beautiful! Go away!,” the Funai agent repeated, using a few words in the Yaminawa language (see Giancarlo Rolando’s article in this issue). This somewhat incoherent non sequitur, which the Xinane men received with understandable confusion and consternation, encapsulates the contradictions and ambi- guities inherent in current knowledge, attitudes, and policies about and toward these enigmatic yet somehow paradigmatic indigenous peoples, dwelling just beyond the reach of a globalized, interconnected world.
This special issue of Tipití brings together the contributions of a diverse group of indige- nous protection agents, indigenous representatives, anthropologists, lawyers, journalists, and scholars who gathered in Lima, Peru, in July 2017 for a special three-day debate on the rights, evolving threats, and protection policies for isolated indigenous peoples of the Amazon. The event, held during the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA)’s 2017 conference, was funded in part by support from the Kone Foundation of Finland, and led to the drafting, by multiple participants, of Resolutions of the Special Debate on the Rights and Protection of Isolated Indigenous Peoples, which is included as the first contribution to this special issue.