ABSTRACT
This article aims to articulate two ethnographic investigations, among the Tukano and Baniwa, that address the relations between kinship and myth. The aim is to understand the production of sociocosmological differences in the Northwest Amazonia from the mythical narratives of the origin of humanity. The analysis will follow the events that unfold from Jurupari, an extraordinary child and ceremonial artifact possessing reproductive capacities; from the snake-canoe, an animal-object-uter that manages humanity; from births in the waterfalls of Hipana and Ipanoré; from adultery with a snake-white man; and from the war between men and women. All these events, characters and relationships, articulate in a complex way transespecificity and cross-sex relationships. At the end, we hope to highlight these two distinct ways in which today's humanity is stabilized from a virtual background of alterity, noting the important tukano and baniwa transformations in the Upper rio Negro.
KEYWORDS
Northwest Amazonia; myth; kinship