The Imbalance of Poer Leadership, Masculinity and Wealth in the Amazon [Hardcover]

Amerindian societies have an iconic status in classical political thought. For Montaigne, Hobbes, Locke, Hume and Rousseau, the native American state of nature operates as a foil for the European polity. Challenging this tradition,The Imbalance of Powerdemonstrates ethnographically that the Carib speaking indigenous societies of the Guiana region of Amazonia do not fit conventional characterizations of simple political units with egalitarian political ideologies and harmonious relationships with nature. Marc Brightman builds a persuasive and original theory of Amerindian politics: far from balanced and egalitarian, Carib societies are rife with tension and difference; but this imbalance conditions social dynamism and a distinctive mode of cohesion.The Imbalance of Poweris based on the authors fieldwork in partnership with Vanessa Grotti, who is working on a companion volume entitledLiving with the Enemy: First Contacts and the Making of Christian Bodies in Amazonia.

Marc Brightmanis Lecturer in Social and Environmental Sustainability at University College London. He has published on a variety of topics including ownership, indigenous movements, animism and forest governance.

This book makes a crucial contribution to Amazonian anthropology, bringing to the forefront a topic that has remained under-thematized in the last decades.? Carlos Fausto, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Preface
Acknowledgements
A note on Trio and Wayana orthography
List of acronyms and abbreviations
Maps

Introduction

• Guianan Leadership
• Guiana
• The Trio, Wayana and Akuriyo
• Fieldwork and its Limitations
• Structure and Scope of the Book

Chapter 1. Making Trio and Other Peoples

• Ethnogenesis