ABSTRACT
In this article I explore aspects related to the relatives called osikirip (term translated as especiais [special], in Portuguese) by the Karitiana Indigenous. I try to understand what distinguishes the special ones from other relatives: the specificity of their bodies and their behavior. I then discuss two explanations for the existence of these people: the wife’s anger at her husband during pregnancy and the lack of care by both in using the forest vaccines on the newborn. Such carelessness generates the popopo state (translated, depending on the context, as drunk, crazy, and dead alike) which, in turn, can also make the Karitiana a special one. I still argue about the group’s adherence to the psychotropic medicines, prescribed by doctors to the special ones. I suggest that the use of non-indigenous medicines does not imply the absence of specifics in the group’s thinking and practices regarding these osikirip relatives.
KEYWORDS
Kinship; care; body; transformation; Karitiana