4: Chronically Unstable Bodies

The Wari’ people are a indigenous Amazonian group with a complex understanding of our concepts of body, soul, and humanity. The Wari’ see these concepts as fluid, rather than stagnant. Additionally, these concepts are applied more broadly to living and non-living things rather than being restricted to humans or even living things. Aparecida Vilaça’s study of this rich culture makes an attempt to translate the Wari’ ideology in terms of our own understood constructs of body, soul, and humanity. These Chronically Unstable Bodies possess a possessive kwere which is used to describe the Wari’ concept of body. Much of the Wari’ understanding relates back to this concept of kwere. In fact, even reproduction is understood as reconstruction of the body rather than creation. Other concepts like humanity are seen as a condition, rather than an identity. Such a condition (wari’) is applied to a diversity of beings. This condition is based on geographic proximity, so all beings within proximity to the Wari’ are considered to be a member of the wari’ identityIn their understanding of what we would refer to as the soul, the jam is a source of instability within a being. Jam can be lost by being, such as spider monkeys, and beings seen as healthy and active are without jam. Vilaça recognizes that there is a rich culture in the Wari’ understanding of life and one’s self. This community is an example of a nature-dominated culture in which the Wari’ believe their central livelihood is dominated by these chronically unstable bodies.