Fractal Exchange in a Cannibal Cosmology: Dynamics of Opposition and Amity in Amazonian Festivals

Abstract

This article examines a pattern of inter-community parties in a contemporary indigenous group, the Wari’ of Rondônia, Brazil. In rituals structured around acts and symbols of transgression, punishment, predation and death, Wari’ negotiate their relations with allies and potential allies. In a "fractal" pattern of sociality, this ritual encounter is replicated at other levels, in human relations with the spirit world, the world of ancestors and animals. These rituals are a key mediator of social reproduction (in relations among Wari’ communities) and biological reproduction (in relations with the spiritual forces that control aspects of subsistence and human death). Holding in tension simultaneous possibilities for cooperation and opposition, this framework for inter-group relations conceived as symbolic rivalry and voluntary reciprocal predation allows communities to cultivate and terminate political affiliations and commitments in response to changing circumstances. These ritual encounters play an important role in exchanges of information, and in defining and maintaining networks of flexible alliances and the possibility of mobility, which in the past helped Wari’ cope with historical pressures of inter-ethnic violence and epidemics.