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Abstract
The central objectives of this article are to describe and analyze the Baniwa Art Project, a sustainable development project based on intensive production and commercialization of basketwork, which the Baniwa Indians of the Northwest Amazon (population approximately 12,000), with the assessment of the SocioEnvironmental Institute (ISA), a major NGO in Brazil, launched in the late 1990s. The goals of this project were to enhance the value of the Baniwa basket-making tradition, increase production within the limits of the sustainable use of natural resources, generate income for indigenous producers and their political associations, and train indigenous leadership in the skills of business management. This very successful project was initiated shortly after the creation of the Indigenous Organization of the Içana River Basin (OIBI) and essentially involves 16 of the more than 100 Baniwa communities of the Içana River and its tributaries in Brazil. This article reflects on how young Baniwa evangelical political leaders, with the support of the NGO, promoted the rise of individualism, as well as the introduction of Western values of economic and political success. This generated conflicts with more “traditional” values and practices of egalitarianism producing an increase of witchcraft accusations. The case of a young Baniwa leader who coordinated both the political association and the Art Project illustrates extremely well the sorts of grave conflicts that emerged. This article will also reflect on modifications in human/spirit relations following the introduction of evangelicalism and sustainable development projects. For this, I shall cite extensively from a recent interview I conducted with a Baniwa political leader regarding his perceptions of the relations between evangelicalism, the political movement, and the meanings for the Indians of the notion of “sustainable development.”
I thank Gersem dos Santos for consenting to the interview, Luiza Garnelo for information on the case of Andre, and the ISA for sending reports on the Baniwa Art Project. I have written this article in the spirit of constructive criticism and concern for the future of Baniwa religious praxis. I also thank Jonathan Hill for his interest, comments, and revisions on this article.
Notes
1. For a good analysis of the emerging “middle-ground” between eco-politics and indigenous people in Brazil in the early 1990s, see CitationConklin and Graham 1995.
2. I have written about Baniwa religious and economic history extensively in numerous publications but see especially my two monographs (CitationWright 1998, 2005).
3. Regarding Baniwa “prophets,” about whom I have written a great deal since 1981 Wright 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, I am referring to a continuous tradition that dates to at least the mid-nineteenth century. We may speak of “prophets” because each of them led a movement consisting of Baniwa and other Indians (and mestizos in some cases) of the Northwest Amazon who sought profound changes in morality and social life, through the eradication of undesirable practices especially assault sorcery, who were considered miraculous healers (all were shamans), who foresaw imminent great changes in the world (one prophet spoke of the cataclysmic end-of-the-world through fire and the descent of God to earth; another spoke of the definitive end to witchcraft and sorcery; another spoke of the imminent coming of the whites to Baniwa lands; another spoke of the end of sickness among humans). All of them maintained constant communication with the creator divinity who would advise them of events about to take place in the world of humans, and with the deceased. These are prophets, by any dictionary definition.
4. On the Brazilian side of the border, the people are known as Baniwa and sometimes “Walimani,” or “our descendents”; in Colombia, they are Kuripako and speak a different but mutually intelligible dialect; and in Venezuela, Wakuenai, an ethnonym meaning “Those of Our Speech.” There is no single overriding ethnonym for all three peoples.
5. “Projeto Calha Norte,” or the Northern Channel Project was a large-scale and complex development project introduced into the northern Amazon region by the military sectors of the Brazilian government in the 1980s. It included the building of highways, airstrips, colonization; the redefinition of indigenous lands; and a series of other geopolitical measures intended to integrate the Amazon region more effectively with the rest of the country. The massive upheavals resulting from the military buildup in the region provoked the reaction of the indigenous communities in the sense of an increased political mobilization; in the Northwest Amazon, this resulted in the creation of a region-wide indigenous federation called the Federation of Indigenous Organizations of the Rio Negro (FOIRN), created in 1987 which has lasted until the present day.
6. Gersem is referring to a recent invasion of Baniwa and Tukano lands by thousands of gold prospectors and by large mining companies who disputed amongst themselves and with the Indians control over gold found in the region.
7. Gersem is referring to the fact that the mining companies and the military had promised in exchange for the exploitation of mineral resources on their lands, the Baniwa would receive a series of material benefits and social services, “for the betterment of the communities.”
8. Gersem is referring to the fact that just a few minutes before he stood up to speak, there had been a heated discussion amongst the representatives of several communities over whether “development” was a “good thing” or just another lie.
9. For an excellent interview with Andre in the early years of the OIBI, see CitationBoyer 1999.
10. The Baniwa are organized into four or five large phratries, each consisting of five or more sibs or clans, which are ranked according to the order of ancestral emergence in mythical times. Historically, the middle Içana has been the territory of the Walipere-dakenai phratry and the Dzauinai phratry; the Aiary River has been the territory of the Hohodene phratry.
11. Gersem, who received his master's degree in anthropology from the University of Brasilia in 2006, is from the Walipere-dakenai clan. Gersem himself founded one of the early political associations among the Baniwa. He is well-known in the indigenous movement in Brazil for his role in the national project for support to sustainable development amongst indigenous peoples. He was an important leader in the Baniwa struggles against the Projeto Calha Norte and corporate mining on Baniwa lands in the 1980s and was a key political figure on the local and national levels throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
12. Another ecological factor is worth mentioning: The plants seem to sprout exceptionally well even after cutting. At least the first time. But this is because they have an underground rhizome that stores food and energy, and new sprouts are already developed under the soil. Studies of a related species in the lower Rio Negro, however, suggest that the plants are very slow to recover following subsequent cuttings. In this region of the Amazon, even the “good” soils are actually extremely poor, and aruma does not grow or recover quickly unless it is in a light gap or in a garden site following a burn. (Hoffman, pers. comm., 2006)
13. There is a relation of negative reciprocity between these spirits and humans, which results in various sicknesses and misfortunes to humans. These spirits, it is said, lost their humanity because of their impatience and arrogance, which led them to disobey the rules of shamanic apprenticeship. The sicknesses they may give to humans are often skin infections. Misfortunes include storms, accidents (like the sinking of canoes), and frightening children.
14. Recently a film was made about Andre's story and cure: “Baniwa, Uma História de Plantas e Curas” by Stella Oswaldo Cruz Penido, 2008/9.