Parentesco e Organização Social na Amazônia: um rápido esboço

Abstract

During the period of their formulation, classical theories of kinship took for granted that their subject matter described the essential features of so-called “primitive societies.” In short, kinship was assumed to be the starting point for deciphering, describing, comparing, and grasping the overall principles of the social organization of such societies. Until recently, such analyses have sidelined Amazonian peoples. This paper focuses on Amazonian cultures in order to take up once again two traditional topics within classical kinship studies. The first consists of an overview of the terminologies found most frequently in the region, their structure, variation and ideological and institutional correlates. The second concerns the relation between kinship vocabulary and patterns of attitudes. Each one of these topics is prefaced with a short theoretical introduction.