Chapter 4 Too Many Onças: Taxonomical Dilemmas among the Karitiana in Southwestern Brazilian Amazon

In: Sentient Entanglements and Ruptures in the Americas: Human-Animal Relations in the Amazon, Andes, and Arctic
Author:
Felipe Vander Velden
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Abstract

The Karitiana, an Amerindian people in the southwestern Brazilian Amazon, mention the existence of many types of onças (jaguars) with whom they inhabit the world. While many are not recognized by scientific or popular/regional zoology, they are part of the world experienced by the Karitiana (and other Amazonian peoples). This article suggests that these Karitiana onças should be understood through the intersection between the experience and detailed knowledge these Indigenous people have of the territory in which they live, and the enormous richness and complexity of the world and the forms of life that exist. Rather than simply arguing that the Karitiana know a world that science cannot know (because of ontological and/or epistemological differences), the suggestion is that the world is so rich and has so many facets that there are countless ways of observing and understanding it.

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