Hunting paths in the Amazon: technics and ontogenesis among the Panará

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a description of hunting and an analysis of its technical relations among the Panará, an indigenous group which inhabits southern Amazonia. The paper is focused around two genetic processes of hunting: the individuation of the hunter and the constitution of a hunting territory. In this sense, it approaches the constitution of the hunter as person in relation with his weaponry, a technical object that is the mediator between the hunter’s action and the prey; afterwards, it approaches the forms of environment that emerges from the movement across the forest and through the production of hunting paths where the prey is encountered. The analysis of these aspects allows us to get insight of the hunting activity from the point of view of its actions, materials and interactions with the environment, from the analysis of technical elements which are socially relevant and construct important modes of relation between Panará and their territory.