ADIWA! PIAROA PHILOSOPHIES OF POWER, VIOLENCE, INGESTION, EXCRETION, BLOOD AND BEAUTY

For Amazonian peoples we have the question of just what is the relation of Power to Polity and Society? – How do these ideas of Polity and Power compare with Western paradigms and expectations? Unfortunately we find that there can be no relationship. Anthropology has decided that there is no comparison possible: looking at such concepts through Western paradigms, anthropologists have found, it seems, that peoples like those in the Amazon just don’t have them—no Power, no Society, and no accomplishment of something that could be called a Polity. Piaroa ideas on these topics are in fact certainly much more interesting and sophisticated than those we find embedded in Western institutions