Abstract
Starting from an analysis of the socio-spatial dynamics of the Waikhana, one of the Tukano family groups from the upper Negro River, and from an ethnographic contextualization of the involvement of some Waikhana subgroups with what came to be called in the region the ‘culture revitalization movement’, this article seeks to discuss important issues that permeate the classic theme of hierarchy in contemporary Uaupés. Based on ethnographic data collected among the Waikhana of the Papuri river, the aim is to point out and discuss some ways in which the problem of hierarchy and the system of prestige in the Uaupés seems open to reinterpretations and redirections that the various clans and individuals manage to from a heterogeneous set of variables. As we will see, differences of perspective within the very structure of clans, territoriality, cohesion and fragmentation, population growth and decrease, competences in the political-ritual field and even the accidents of history are among the factors that seem to operate a dynamism in the relationships that underlie the language of hierarchy and the Uaupesian prestige system.
Keywords
Waikhana; Upper Rio Negro; Papuri; Hierarchy; Territoriality
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