THE PEOPLE OF THE CENTER OF THE WORLD A Study in Culture, History, and Orality in the Colombian Amazon by Juan Alvaro Echeverri February 1997 Submitted to The Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science of the New School for Social Re- search in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dissertation Committee: Deborah Poole Rayna Rapp William Roseberry ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the September/95 issue of Anthropology Newsletter I read that “the modal 1994-95 [an- thropology] PhD recipient (based on arithmetic means, medians and modes) is ‘Christine,’ a white, 40 year-old female who . took 8.4 years to complete her doctorate” (p. 11). Except for the fact that she is female and white (I am a “Hispanic” male), my numbers coincide remarkably with the modes, medi- ans and means of anthropology PhDs. As I write this I am 39.58 years old and I have spent 8.17 years towards my doctorate. If things go well, it seems that I will be graduating with statistics quite similar to “Christine’s.” I never thought it would take so much time and that there would be so many people to whom I owe real gratitude; because I could not have carried out the work involved in this dissertation by myself. As I concluded the main task of writing, my heart started to remember all those who offered me their help, advice, ideas, support, friendship and love. Here are my thanks. For the transcription and translation of the Uitoto texts I counted on the help of several people. All translations are mine, except for the translation of text number 6, for which I relied on a preliminary version made with Blas Candre, son of Kinerai; and for the translation of text number 2, for which I relied on a version prepared by Olga Lucía Montenegro. A previous Spanish version of texts 1, 2, 4 and 8 was revised by Argemiro Candre, another son of Kinerai. The English version of text 6 was done jointly with Elizabeth C. Busbee, an American poet, who undertook the task with utmost care and inspi- ii ration, for which I am thankful. The English version of texts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 through 16 was revised by James Weiskopf, a British-American journalist (now a Colombian citizen). The identification of botanical and zoological species, presented in the appendix 5, is as good as it is thanks to the dedicated and expert labor of the biologist Olga Lucía Montenegro. She collected all those specimens in the field and carried out the painstaking work of their preservation, documentation and identification in collections and herbaria–a labor well beyond my capacity and training. The bota- nist Liliana Rosero, of Fundación Puerto Rastrojo in Colombia, kindly helped with the identification of several of the plant species. The Instituto de Ciencias Naturales of the Universidad Nacional de Colom- bia and the Herbario Amazónico of the Corporación Araracuara allowed us to consult their herbaria and zoological collections. Map 1 (Colombia) was downloaded through Internet from the map collection of the University of Texas. Map 2 is a modified version of one made by the Microprojects Coordination of the COAMA program of Fundación Gaia (Colombia). Earlier versions of portions of this dissertation have been published or have been submitted for publication. The appendix 2 is a summary of an article published in the French journal Amerindia (Echeverri, 1992). Section II of chapter 6 is a modified version of a paper presented at the 11th Interna- tional Symposium on Latin American Indian Literatures (McKeesport, PA, June 1994) and was pub- lished in the volume Beyond Indigenous Voices (Echeverri, 1996). Spanish versions of texts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8 through 16 appeared in the book Tabaco frío, coca dulce (Echeverri and Candre, 1993). The English version of those texts as presented here has been thoroughly revised and edited. An English edition of that book was published in England, with the title Cool Tobacco, Sweet Coca (Candre, 1996). My graduate study in the U.S. and my work toward this dissertation have been funded by sev- eral organizations. I came to study in the U.S. with a Fulbright Fellowship granted to me by the USIS. I also had an OAS-PRA Fellowship of the Organization of American States. The Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research awarded me partial tuition scholarships during several semesters, and research and teaching assistanships from 1989 through 1991. Also, from 1990 through 1992 I was iii awarded an Alvin Johnson Dissertation Fellowship by the Graduate Faculty. The Institute of Amazon Studies of the University of Florida (Gainesville) awarded me a Library Travel Grant during the Sum- mer of 1990 to carry out research in their fine Latin American Documentation Center. The Department of Anthropology of the New School granted me an aid for fieldwork in 1991. Finally, the Janey Pro- gram for Latin American Studies granted me a Janeth Rothemberg Pre-Dissertation Summer Grant in 1993 which allowed me to continue my work when I had no other resources. It would have been impossible for me to live in New York City during those years without the help of friends who offered me jobs that allowed me to balance my budget without taking too much of my time. I particularly remember Dr. Thomas McEvilley, art critic and professor of classical studies, who steadily had something interesting for me to do, and his wife Maura–who also became friends. Enrique Fernández, a full-time rumbero and writer of the Latin music and spirit, connected me with the Hispanic establishment of New York, which allowed me to share a little of their wealth (I could pay a full year of tuition and expenses with the translation jobs I got from several publicity agencies). My wife Marta was my companion and friend during the years I was studying. Although we no longer share our lives as we did before, she is still my friend and a great conversation partner. It would have been much more difficult for me to carry on without her support and encouragement. I am thankful to all those who were my teachers and advisors at the New School. I particu- larly remember the late Stanley Diamond, Nancy Bonvillain, Diane Davis, Talal Asad, William Rose- berry, Agnes Heller, Rayna Rapp and especially Deborah Poole, my dissertation supervisor. In Colombia, my heartfelt thanks to Jon Landaburu, director of the Centro Colombiano para el Estudio de las Lenguas Aborígenes of the Universidad de Los Andes, for his intellectual generosity and friendship. He is not only a great linguist but also a scholar with a fine understanding of things anthro- pological. I remember here the late Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and his wife Alicia, pioneers of anthro- pology in Colombia. I met them one afternoon in their home to show them the very first version of the translation of some of the Uitoto texts presented here. iv I am also thankful to Augusto Gómez, historian and anthropologist and an expert in the Caquetá-Putumayo region; to Gabriele Peterson de Piñeros and Eudocio Becerra (Bigidima), for their translation of the work of Preuss; to Fernando Urbina, a dedicated researcher of petroglyphs and Indian philosophy, and a great photographer; and to my brother Rodrigo, my other brothers and sisters and my mother. The anthropologist Carlos David Londoño-Sulkin undertook the task of reading the whole manuscript and made many useful suggestions of style and language, for which I am grateful. Fundación Puerto Rastrojo, Fundación Gaia and the Program COAMA for the Consolidation of Amazonia have given me not only a job during these years but also ample time and freedom to carry out my project. Thanks to them I have been able to bring this dissertation to conclusion. I thank espe- cially Martín von Hildebrand, director of Fundación Gaia and of the COAMA program, and a long time advocate of the Indian cause; Liz Hosken, director of Gaia Foundation in London; Patricio von Hildebrand and Thomas Walschburger, founders of Fundación Puerto Rastrojo; Nicolás Bermúdez, Maria Victoria Rivera and Maria Cecilia López, who have invested their lives in the Amazon and en- riched me with their friendship; and all those others who, like myself, devote our time to a work which is simultaneously rewarding, absorbing, disheartening, challenging, bewildering, quixotic and crazy–but somehow we keep going. There are many people in the Amazon I have to thank for their hospitality, friendship and help. Here, I only mention a few. In Araracuara, I thank Oscar Román and Alicia (my “uncle” and “aunt”) for their unfailing hospitality. My respects and recognition to Eduardo Paki and Aniceto Nejedeka, elders of the Coconut clan of the Muinane tribe; to José Moreno, Elías Moreno and Sebastián Rodríguez, Nonuya elders; to Fisi Andoque, Rodolfo Andoque, Tañe Andoque, Delio Andoque and Mario Andoque, elders of the Andoque tribe; to Jorge Ortiz, Chucho Ortiz, Rafael Mukutuy, Honorio Mukutuy and Mariano Suarez, elders of the confederated Muinane clans of Chukiki; and to Vicente Makuritofe and Marceliano Guerrero, Uitoto nipode elders. Their testimonies are contained in this dis- sertation, although not identified with their names, as is their wish. v In La Chorrera, I remember specially José Ramon Teteye, cacique of the Bora tribe, a very fine person; and José Segundo and his wife Victoria in whose maloca I sang publicly for the first time. My greatest debt of gratitude, however, is to Kinerai (whose Christian name is Hipólito Can- dre), to his wife Beni and to his family. Together, my friend Olga and I lived intense hours with this man who has gained his wisdom through work, suffering and perseverance.