Engaging with friends and enemies: Sociolinguistic implications of contact between the Awá-Guajá and their Tupí-Guaraní neighbors

Abstract

Abstract Post-colonial interactions between indigenous groups in Amazonia have intrigued observers since contact was established between non-indigenous Brazilians and first-nation peoples. Exchanges between different ethnic groups were largely referred to en passant or in an anecdotal manner. Yet an expanding literature dealing with the dynamics of interethnic contact can now help assess the historical precedents and sociolinguistic features between different indigenous communities. In this article we explore the contact history of the Awá-Guajá of eastern Amazonia, and the sociolinguistic variation that developed between their different communities and neighboring indigenous groups. The Awá-Guajá came into permanent contact with Brazilian mainstream society in 1973 and were settled into four communities by Brazil’s Indian Service. They are Tupí-Guaraní speakers and can converse with other members of this language family, namely, the Ka’apor and Tenetehara. This interaction reveals linguistic affinities and a distinct historical engagement between these groups. Loan words and dialects developed from these relationships, and each group was also influenced by the enveloping machinations of mainstream society. The Awá-Guajá defer to the Ka’apor and Tenetehara yet keep a guarded distance from them, exposing an interesting dynamic that remits us to power relations, historical ecology, and the looming influence of the Brazilian state.